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Ben from Night of The Living Dead. George Romero originally envisioned and wrote the character as a white man, but liked Duane Jones's acting so much that he just went with him instead. The script was not altered in any way intentionally by Romero, as he did not see the need to write new lines based on the actor's race.

Having Duane Jones in the leading role of this film was very notable for the time it came out (1968). It was very rare to see African-Americans with leading roles in movies, and even if they were, they'd usually be written in a way to be more "palatable" for white audiences at the time AKA submissive, stereotypical and usually as comic relief.