In Chapter 12, the perspective shifts back to Enoch Washington as a young man. By eleven years old, Enoch is bigger than most other children and an excellent athlete. When Enoch gets into a fight with another student, his father talks to him about why it happened, and Enoch explains that the boy said he “was named after a slave” (62). Enoch’s father responds that he named Enoch “after [his] granddaddy. The last slave in this family… the first free man in this family” (63). Enoch’s father explains that rather than having Enoch grow up to pick cotton like his siblings, he wants Enoch to go to college.

By the time Enoch is in school at the Tuskegee Institute, he has acquired his nickname of Big Dub. Later, he graduates with a degree in mathematics and becomes a teacher, marrying another teacher named Leanne, whom he partially courts because of “her smooth, light brown skin” (65). By marrying a woman of a lighter complexion, Enoch knows that his children will be seen more favorably by society. Lil’ Dub, or Siobhan, was “perfect” (65) to Enoch when she was born.