Minor Characters
Little Man
Little Man is the youngest of the Logan children. His real name is Clayton Chester Logan. He is meticulously neat and clean, and he’s attending his first year of school.
Christopher-John Logan
Christopher-John, at seven years old, is probably the least daring of the Logan children. He’s usually cheerful and doesn’t quarrel as much as the others, though he often gets swept into their plans.
Big Ma
Big Ma, whose name is Caroline Logan, is the Logan children’s grandmother. At sixty years old, she still works in the fields like a young woman.
Harlan Granger
Harlan Granger is a rich plantation owner who’s eager to get back land from the Logan household, which his ancestors had sold years ago to Big Ma and her husband. He’s greedy and malicious, constantly plotting ways to force the Logans to sell their land.
Jeremy Simms
Jeremy is a white boy who likes the Logan children and often walks with them to school, even though he’s beaten at home for associating with them.
Claude Avery
Claude is T.J.’s brother. He’s quieter than T.J. and often gets blamed for T.J.’s antics.
Mr. Avery
Claude and T.J.’s father, a sharecropper on Harlan Granger's land.
Lillian Jean Simms
Lillian Jean is Jeremy’s older sister. Though no wealthier than the Logans, she (like the rest of the Simms other than Jeremy) sees herself as superior to them. She treats Cassie rudely.
Melvin and R.W. Simms
The older Simms brothers pretend to make friends with T.J. but use him to cause trouble and take the blame. They are responsible for the killing for which T.J. is almost lynched.
Mr. Jamison
Mr. Jamison is a white lawyer who’s sympathetic to the plight of African American families in the South, and who backs the credit of the black sharecroppers to allow them to boycott the Wallaces’ store.
Little Willie Wiggins
Little Willie Wiggins is one of Stacey’s classmates in his seventh grade class. He’s the one who informs the Logan children that T.J. is responsible for getting their mother fired from her teaching job.
Miss Crocker
Cassie’s teacher at school, who believes that the black school children should be happy with what they get, regardless of its inferior or used quality.
Mr. Turner
A black sharecropper who takes part in the boycott until forced to give it up.
Mr. Lanier
A black sharecropper on Harlan Granger's land.