In the Heat of the Night

A detective from Pasadena, California, Virgil Tibbs passes through Wells, South Carolina, on his way to visit his mother, but his plans are interrupted by Enrico’s murder. He becomes the first suspect in the murder case, his arrest serving as an early inciting incident in the opening chapters. Quickly, Virgil experiences a stark difference in how he’s treated as a Black man in the South compared to the West Coast. Wells cops question Virgil’s police credentials, don’t offer him food, and disrespect his professional experience. Later, he has difficulty finding a place to stay, renting a car, and ordering food, because white-owned establishments refuse to serve him. Virgil handles the city’s discrimination with poise. However, despite his outward calm, Wells grows angrier the longer he stays—the color of his skin and the affront the white authority figures in town feel at seeing a Black detective matter more than his personal behavior. Virgil’s perspective gives the reader a glimpse at the pervasive racism of the South.

Virgil’s urbane worldliness contrasts the narrow-minded provincialism of Wells. Unlike the police officers in Wells, Virgil is not only good at his job, but he has trained in investigative and interrogation techniques. When physically attacked, he subdues his assailants using jiu-jitsu and credits an Asian man for teaching him: “‘The credit goes to the man who taught me,’ Tibbs said. ‘His name is Takahashi and he isn’t Caucasian, either’” (116). Because Virgil approaches other cultures with interest, not fear, he learns more and benefits from his newfound knowledge. Wells responds with fear, making them closed-off and ill-trained, whereas Virgil is adaptable and prepared because of his worldliness.

Virgil faces significant mistreatment in Wells because he’s a Black man. During his investigation, the citizens of Wells berate him, unaccustomed to seeing Black police detectives, and indignant that Virgil is educated and dresses well. Despite the abuse, Virgil remains proud of who he is. He helps catch Enrico’s killer, clears Sam’s name, and befriends Sam and Bill despite their initial hatred of him. Virgil is so patient and skilled that he is almost otherworldly. At the time the novel was written, readers could be counted on to admire Virgil’s sanguine ability to combat racism nonviolently and be so excellent that racists couldn’t help opening up to the possibility of treating him as an equal. However, a modern audience sees the novel’s portrayal of Virgil as an idealized outlier who gently guides racists into being very slightly less bigoted as an oppressive and limiting role for this main character.