A Calamity of Souls

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racism and racist violence.

David Baldacci explores different biases and the strength required to overcome them in the interest of what is fair and just. At the center of these biases is the conflict between what has traditionally been done—the lives the characters have lived up to this point and their personal experiences—and the way that things are changing in the 1960s as racist legislation is overturned.

At the start of the novel, Jack has his own biases and hesitates to take on Jerome’s case. He acknowledges that he knows racism and segregation are wrong, yet he repeatedly tells himself that he is not a “risk-taker.” However, a threatening phone call compels him to recognize the violence and danger that Jerome and other Black people have faced their entire lives. He notes that “James Washington needed a legal advocate more than anyone he knew” (59), ultimately convincing himself to put aside his bias and take the case.

Even characters in the story who become sympathetic exhibit racism. Jack’s parents grew up in the age of Jim Crow and legislation. Although they interact with Black people, such as Miss Jessup, they keep largely separate. When the reader first meets Hilly, she is angry at Miss Jessup for coming into her home without an invitation, revealing her racism and her belief in the inferiority of Black people and the need for segregation.