Marguerite "Maya" Johnson
The tall, vibrant, gifted daughter of divorced parents who lives with her paternal grandmother in the racist, unreconstructed milieu of Stamps, Arkansas. Delighting in books, which appeal to her braininess and provide escape from tedium, rigidity, and unfairness that permeate her world, Maya survives rape, but exists under an aura of guilt. Unable to bond with her flamboyant father or to mediate between her willful mother and equally willful brother, Maya copes haphazardly with familial unrest, often at the expense of peace of mind. Her coming of age, marked by doubts about the normalcy of her incipient womanhood, ends with the birth of a son, with whom she finally rediscovers a feeling of wholeness.
Bailey "Ju" Johnson, Junior
Maya's small, intense, well-read older brother, who protects and cheers her during the worst of their Stamps internment. Adept at stealing pickles from the barrel, imitating ludicrous church scenarios, and inveigling young girls into his backyard tent, Bailey remains the focal point of Maya's loyalty, the mooring to which she clings when threatened by an unstable and sometimes hostile environment. On his departure from home, he lovingly offers to care for Maya if she chooses to come along. At sea with the Merchant Marines, he remains in close contact with his sister, particularly during her pregnancy.
Momma Henderson
Former wife of Mr. Johnson, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Murphy, Sister Annie Henderson, for twenty-five years the lone black female entrepreneur of Stamps, Arkansas, tackles daily jobs with biblical ardor and determination and never answers "questions directly put to her on any subject except religion." Eking a Depression Era living by selling fried meat pies and lemonade to local sawmill and cotton mill workers, she accepts government-issue powdered eggs and milk and canned fish in trade for store items, thereby maintaining solvency during hard times. Although poor in worldly goods and bereft of power, Annie is rich in the esteem of local people, both black and white.
Daddy Bailey Johnson
A sanguine, conceited man vain enough to send his exiled children his picture as a Christmas gift. Speaking affected but proper English, Big Bailey, a former doorman at the Breakers Hotel in Santa Monica and later a dietician at a naval hospital in southern California, looms larger than Maya can take in. A definite contrast to his stuttering, crippled brother and to the "peasants of Arkansas," Bailey serves temporarily as hero and rescuer after Dolores knifes Maya in the side. Failing his string of promises to Dolores, he marries Alberta.
Vivian Baxter
Affectionately known as Bibbie, Vivian, who is "Mother Dear" to her children, captivates Maya with her bold red lipstick, white teeth, Lucky Strikes, and "fresh-butter color [that] looked see-through clean." Not too prim to bash in Pat Patterson's head with a police club or shoot a two-timing business partner with her .32, she is the most lighthearted of the grim, vindictive Baxters and covers her criminal acts with a nonchalant charm, fairness, and gaiety that bobs this side of reality, walling her off from guilt at sending her children away during crucial stages of their lives. Trained as a nurse, she earns her living "cutting poker games in gambling parlors," sometimes to the detriment of her children.
Uncle Willie
Anchored to a rubber-tipped cane and shaped like a "giant black Z" from being dropped by a babysitter when he was three years old, Uncle Willie suffers a withered left hand and distortion of muscles that pull down the left side of his face. Even more painful are the gibes of jokesters who ridicule his impairment. To facilitate counter work at the store, he leans on a special shelf. His desire for upright manhood strikes compassion in Maya.
Grandfather Baxter
Speaking his choppy West Indian dialect, Grandfather Baxter, ever in the shadow of his politically astute wife, contrasts her "throaty German accent." An invalid from the mid-1930s, he continues receiving his grandchildren at his bedside and dies a few years after Maya's return to Stamps.
Grandmother Baxter
A quadroon or octoroon, Grandmother Baxter, raised by Germans in Cairo, Illinois, was working as a nurse at Homer G. Phillips Hospital when she met Grandfather Baxter. A doughty, pragmatic precinct leader who conducts shady dealings in a thick German dialect with gracious, ladylike manners, Grandmother operates so smoothly that she glides over the matter of Mr. Freeman's murder and on to her granddaughter's health as if a gangland-style execution were business as usual. When Maya next encounters her, Grandmother Baxter, ramrod straight and adorned with pince-nez glasses, suffers chronic bronchitis and continues to smoke heavily while sharing her granddaughter's bed.
Baxter Uncles
Vivian's three older brothers—Tutti, Tom, and Ira, the oldest—notable young men with jobs in St. Louis, stand out from younger brother, Billy, by their "unrelenting meanness," which compels them to avenge Maya's rape by kicking Mr. Freeman to death. Uncle Tommy, gruff like his father, consoles Maya for not being pretty by reminding her that she is smart.
