Unnamed Negro Leaders

According to the narrator of Requiem for a Nun, "Negro leaders developed by" the several Negro colleges that were established in Jackson after Emancipation "intervened" in some way when Federal troops drove Governor Humphreys out of office "in 1868" (87). Negro colleges were a major source of leaders for the African American community during the 19th century; however, the event described by the narrator is historically impossible, since none of the Negro colleges he mentions - Tougaloo, Jackson and Campbell - were in existence before 1869, as the dates provided in the novel itself make clear.