David McKay, a Character of Harlem Redux

David, 35, is the oldest child and only son of Augustus and Lilian McKay. He has two sisters, identical twins Lilian and Gem.

The McKays are a wealthy family resident in a beautiful townhouse on prominent Strivers' Row. Augustus McKay bought the 12-room house for $9,000, after a collapse in the real estate market and white flight opened Harlem up to black residency. Situated on the north side of West 139th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, the neo-Renaissance structure is part of a row of townhouses designed by celebrated New York architect Stanford White in 1891, when Harlem was still the domicile of affluent whites. The house is of red Roman brick with fronted by delicate Julienne balconies. Today Strivers' Row remains a landmarked district.

Augustus was a self-made man who achieved affluence through a series of canny real estate deals. Lilian was a modest woman of quiet intelligence. The marriage was marred by Augustus' continual indulgence in adultery with light-skinned and displays of contempt toward his dark-skinned wife.

David and his sisters also suffered under his father's domineering personality, David most of all, since he was the sole son. David has painful memories of his mother's face as his father harangued her and her sadness throughout their marriage.

Although physically identical, Lilian and Gem differ greatly in personality. Thus, David's relationship with each differs accordingly. He is close to the quiet, temperate, sensible Lilian, whose personality, at least on the surface, most closely resembles his. He is easily irritated by Gem, who is glamorous, intemperate, irresponsible and utterly self-centered. The beautiful Gem, by the way, was their father's favorite.

David also has a special place in his heart for Annie, the family housekeeper who acted as a surrogate mother to him and his sisters. Her kitchen offered a refuge from Augustus when the family patriarch went on a rampage.

Last but not least in David's affections is Rachel Hamilton. She was his childhood sweetheart, someone who knew him and his sisters before the money came.

David served with distinction during World War I. He shipped out in the summer of 1918, a lieutenant, and earned the French Croix de Guerre for facing down a German raiding party.

Unlike many African American soldiers who decided they preferred a life of relative equality in France to Jim Crow in the United States, David returned home in 1919 and marched up Fifth Avenue as a member of the Harlem Hellfighters. He was there to witness the "Red Summer" of 1919, when African American veterans were lynched and gutted for demanding respect after their wartime service.

David attended Howard University Law school and joined the civil rights movement. Appalled by the fate of fellow veterans, including the violent death of a close friend, David joined an elite group of investigators charged with gathering information about lynchings. As a light-skinned black able to pass for white, David visited towns where lynchings had occurred. He mingled among the whites, gaining confidences. He gathered names and physical evidence, when possible.

On October 17, 1922, David set out on one such mission. A lynching has taken place in a small town in Georgia. The town was still volatile and the mission considered highly dangerous. It was from this mission that David did not return.

When David appears in the opening scenes of Harlem Redux, four years have gone by. For all intents and purposes, as far as the people of Harlem society are concerned, he is a man who has returned from the dead.

David McKay is tall and lean, with dark eyes and a strong profile. He is starting to gray, with silver touching his temples. His hair is described as soft. He is well-poised, elegant, a man who dresses with understatement.

When it comes to a love life, David tends toward solitude. The secret he has been carrying since the mission in Georgia has caused him to withdraw from life. When he returns to Harlem, he rediscovers the sweetness of love through Rachel. It is she who completes the process of bringing him back to life.

However, their initial meeting is rocky. Having loved David all of her life, Rachel was distraught at his disappearance. He is stricken with a new guilt when he realizes how his silence has hurt her.

Page 69 yields a snatch of conversation between David and Nella Harding, a white woman who develops a dangerous interest in him.

Nella's eyes moved over him intensely, as though if she tried hard enough she could see right through him. "You've got a story, dear boy, and I want to know it."

"You're mistaken."

She eyed him shrewdly. "Smart of you to leave tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because if you stayed, Canfield would unearth every detail he could about you. And so would I."

His heart thumped heavily, but his eyes stayed easy. "It would be a waste of your time."