Promise Boys

J.B. is a protagonist and point-of-view character in Promise Boys. He is a Black student who lives in Washington, DC, and is a junior at Promise school. He lives with his mother, while his father is in prison for an unnamed crime. After struggling for years at a public school, his mother decided to enroll him at Promise in the hopes that he would get a better education. In J.B.’s words, he “struggled all through elementary school” because “nobody cared enough to teach [him] in a way [he] could learn” (30). While he struggles with Promise’s restrictive policies, he does not deny that the school has helped him improve his grades and given him a chance to go to college.

J.B. is described by several characters as tall and quiet, as he mostly keeps to himself. He sweats uncontrollably, gets nervous, and struggles with what to say in social situations. At the start of the novel, he asks Keyana, a girl he has liked for years, to be his girlfriend, and she accepts. This change continues throughout the novel as J.B. learns how to lessen his anxiety. Ultimately, his relationship with the other “Promise Boys” exemplifies his change.