Different Drummer, A
William Melvin Kelley (1959)
The unconventional approach of WILLIAM MEL-
VIN KELLEY’s first novel, A Different Drummer,
challenges the definition of a “black” story as it
encourages people to consider the ways in which
human relationships are intertwined despite ap-
parent cultural differences. Kelley anchors the
story of a mass exodus of blacks from a mythic
southern state, Sutton. While the plot hinges on
the actions of Tucker Caliban, a black chauffeur
who works for the family that enslaved his pre-
decessors, it unfolds through the voices of sev-
eral white characters, including Harry Leland, a
young boy trying to make sense of the messages
he receives about race as he maintains a friendship
with Tucker. Kelley mixes multiple white narra-
tors with a variety of styles and references—sto-
rytelling, the Bible, letters, dialogue, diary entries,
William Shakespeare, and magazine clippings—to
tell this remarkable story.
Mister Harper, a white retired army officer vol-
untarily confined to a wheelchair, relays the story
that embodies the novel’s central theme: the power
of family history. An African rumored to be a for-
mer chief escapes into the wilderness with a baby
upon the arrival of a slave ship to Sutton. When he
is eventually found, the runaway, known only as
“the African,” is shot and killed by Dewitt Willson,
who enslaves the child, the “First Caliban,” who
begins Tucker’s family history. Many years later
Tucker purchases some of the land on which his
enslaved ancestors worked, determined that his
child will not have to work for the Willsons. He
proceeds to destroy the land, kill the farm animals,
set fire to his home, and leave with his family to an
undisclosed location. His cathartic action mystifies
and angers whites while inspiring all of the state’s
black residents to leave as well. Harper concludes
that it is “something special in [Tucker’s] blood”
that fuels his deeds.
Kelley contrasts Tucker, who refuses to sup-
port the fictional National Society for Colored
Affairs (NSCA), a leading organization interested
in the advancement of black people, with Rever-
end Bennett Bradshaw, an Ivy League–educated
northerner who has a keen interest in such or-
ganizations. Tucker explains to his wife, Bethra,
that the “[NSCA] ain’t working for my rights.
Ain’t nobody working for my rights; I wouldn’t
let them.... Ain’t none of my battles being fought
in no courts. I’m fighting all my battles myself ”
(111). Bradshaw, who works for the civil rights
group Tucker refuses to support, later establishes
the Resurrected Church of the Black Jesus Christ
of America, Inc. Despite his efforts to help liberate
blacks and learn from the influence Tucker has on
them, Bradshaw is convinced Tucker’s leadership
is ultimately obsolete. He remarks, “Did you ever
think that a person like myself, a so-called religious
leader needs the Tuckers to justify his existence?”
Ironically, angry over the loss of all the blacks,
whites scapegoat and lynch Bradshaw, although he
has nothing to do with the black emigration.
Phyllis R. Klotman describes Bradshaw’s lynch-
ing as “an ironic dénouement which reinforces
Kelley’s theme: individual black men of courage
and integrity can be natural leaders who, regard-
less of the moral imperatives of the larger society,
will by their example effect real change in the con-
ditions of black people” (63). Bernard Bell offers
a similar assessment, claiming that the novel “af-
firms self-reliance and moral courage as the im-
peratives for social change” (300). Yet the novel’s
commentary on the source and efficacy of leader-
ship is only one of its themes. Kelley also delves
into the role of friendship, family relationships,
and formal education in the lives of his black and
white characters.
Kelley’s stylistic complexity and unconven-
tional narrative strategies serve as an interesting
answer to the misguided (and oftentimes mali-
cious) claims that African American writers would
only obtain a “universalist” appeal if they were to
write about the lives of nonblack characters. While
A Different Drummer certainly shows an African-
American male writer’s flexibility in portraying
the perspectives of white male, white female, and
black female characters, it also debunks the no-
tion that stories about black characters, regardless
of their narrators, are less capable of dealing with
“universal” themes.Different Drummer, A 141