Peanut
One of the four boys in the Trumpets of Zion. He is murdered in the South.
To be able to say out loud what happened to Red, the friend he grew up with. He tells Arthur and Hall that if you do not find a way to let it out, you will explode.
The book
At a glance
- Pianist in The Trumpets of Zion; later Arthur Montana's road manager
- Alexander Theophilus Brown
- Albany, New York
- His grandmother, a hairdresser
- A year or fifteen months older than Arthur
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freePeanut is an invented character in James Baldwin's Just Above My Head, one of the four boys in the gospel quartet The Trumpets of Zion. His real name is Alexander Theophilus Brown. He is about a year older than Arthur Montana and he plays the piano.
He was born in Albany, New York. His mother died giving birth to him and his father disappeared shortly afterwards, so he was raised by his grandmother, a hairdresser who lost her shop to a property manoeuvre she blamed on other Black people. Hall Montana, who narrates, admits he knew Peanut only through Arthur and could never work out how he got his nickname, on the grounds that he was not one of the people who gave it to him.
Years after the quartet breaks up he comes back into the story as Arthur's road manager on the Civil Rights circuit, and it is Peanut who first sees how large — and how dangerous — Arthur's popularity is becoming.
How the book draws them
- The nameAlexander Theophilus Brown, christened by his grandmother. Hall says he never learned the full name until the search began for Peanut's body. When a Southern church introduces him from the pulpit, it is as Mr. Alexander T. Brown, accompanying Arthur Montana.
- Where he came fromAlbany, New York, where his grandmother was a hairdresser. His mother died bringing him into the world. His father disappeared soon after and Peanut never met him. The grandmother's shop was forced into a sale at a loss, which brought them to the city — no hardship to Peanut, who says he was bored to death in Albany.
- His colourLight. Hall says he was as fair as the morning standing beside a grandmother as black as a shoe, and describes his colouring elsewhere as peanut butter and honey. On tour his cousins in Charlotte make it plain they do not care for darker skin, which hurts Crunch and reminds Peanut of his grandmother.
- At the pianoArthur's father, Paul Montana, played for the quartet until their Christmas debut and then handed it over, telling them Peanut was their piano player now and that he had not been wasting his time on him. Peanut was more terrified of performing in public than any of the others, and Paul respected that rather than argue with it.
- The notebookOn the road with Arthur he is standby, fixer and gatekeeper, holding off the crowd after meetings with a green leather notebook with a clasp, taking bookings and synchronising watches.
- RedHis best friend and distant cousin, and the reason he had a friend at all after Albany. Red taught him to swim at Coney Island, made him a sparring partner when he was going to be a boxer, and sent him out to steal records when he was going to be a tap dancer. Peanut did not see the addiction coming, and says so; when people later asked whether he had known, he told them no.