The Negroes who live along the railroad tracks in Jefferson are identified only by their "alien yet inviolably durable" homes, the "Negro cabins" Charles sees out the window of the train bringing him home (252-53).
The "white people" who live by the railroad tracks in Jefferson's "purlieus" don't live in "cabins," a word they associate with the Negroes in a nearby neighborhood - a distinction, the narrative says, they will "fight" to maintain (252-53). Their sense of insecurity suggests that their own social and economic status is not much above that of the blacks who are almost their neighbors.
