The protagonist of the play, Memphis is in his fifties or sixties. He owns the restaurant and believes strongly that Black men can get ahead with hard work and self-sacrifice. He is extraordinarily hard working but, when the play begins, also somewhat close-minded due to restricted empathy. Although certain qualities—industriousness and self-denial—have brought him to his current position of relative success, he doesn’t want to acknowledge that racial oppression still plays a huge role in the way Sterling and others around him are struggling. This psychologically closed-off quality expresses itself in a generalized difficulty with interpersonal connections.

Memphis resents West because West’s hard work has been far more financially successful, just as he resents West’s attempts to buy his building. For Memphis, the building is symbolic and takes on the weight of all his characteristic industriousness and self-sacrifice: It represents his personal achievements, so he is stubborn and refuses to let it go for less than what seems to others like an outrageous amount. Memphis’s purchase of the building was a gamble for many reasons, not the least of which is that it isn’t insured. It also represents his climb back up from having everything taken from him in Jackson, and losing the diner would mean losing the purpose and dignity that he fought hard to reclaim.