midnight
I never fly in the face of Providence . I shall smoke that cigar intact . '' And they walked on . The Reverend Jordan White , of Cold Spring Baptist Church , was so utterly destitute of color in his midnight blackness of hue as to be considered the most thoroughly `` colored '' person on Claybank plantation , Arkansas . That so black a man should have borne the name of White was one of the few of such familiar misfits to which the world never becomes insensible from familiarity . From the time when Jordan , a half-naked urchin of six , tremblingly pronounced his name before the principal 's desk in the summer free Claybank school to the memorable occasion of his registration as an Afro-American voter , the announcement had never failed to evoke a smile , accompanied many times by good-humored pleasantry . `` Well , sir , '' so he had often laughed , `` I reck 'n dey must o ' gim me de name o ' White fur a joke .