Coal House behind Jail (Location Key)

The coal house next to the county jail becomes a makeshift jail itself when Temple and Gavin Stevens visit Nancy Mannigoe in Requiem for a Nun. In a disconcerting reminder of the etiquette of Jim Crow segregation, the jailer shows deference to the couple's white race by moving the five "other nigger prisoners" to "the coal house" behind the jail (208). Ordinarily this shed is where the coal used for heating and cooking is stored.