Antagonist

Miss Atkins, McEachern, racist southern society, Percy Grimm

It is Miss Atkins's paranoia and her racism that get Christmas kicked out of the orphanage and into the repressive arms of McEachern, who beats and hardens him. But Christmas is also victimized by the racist society he lives in, since it doesn't allow him to exist as the racially complex person he may or may not be.