Power

Reverend Barbee delivers sermons and speeches. During Chapter 5 specifically, he talks about The Founder and his life journies and adventures from being an escaped slave to an educated, respected individual. The room of people is mesmerized by his words. He holds a great power in his style of speaking that comes through to the people by his genuine passion and interest. Dr. Bledsoe and Reverend Barbee reminisce on the Founder's death, in which they were both present. The chapel is silent by their engaging story-telling. Only when Dr. Bledsoe is leading Reverend Barbee back to his seat does the narrator realize that something is peculiar about him. As Barbee raised his head the narrator saw "the opaque glitter of his glasses, he saw the blinking of sightless eyes, Homer A. Barbee was blind." (133.) The power of his sermons doesn't require  him to even need to look at the crowd, his words simply spoke to them.