Benjamin Holmes

Benjamin Holmes is a student at Fisk University, a school founded after the Civil War to teach newly freed slaves. He belongs to Odyssey's past rather than its present day. Olivia meets him when a portrait of Frederick Douglass comes to life at Whit's End and carries her back to his time. Holmes studies alongside classmates such as Ella Sheppard while the university struggles with hunger, crumbling buildings, and the threat of closure. His gift is his voice. When Treasurer George White hears students like Holmes and Sheppard singing the spirituals their families passed down through slavery - songs full of sorrow, faith, and hope - he becomes convinced the music could rescue the school. Holmes sings in the touring choir White forms, enduring cold, hunger, and prejudice on the road.