The Logan Family
She is the nine-year-old narrator and protagonist of the novel.
Who is Cassie Logan?
The Logan children seek revenge on this vehicle by digging a massive ditch that breaks its axle.
What is the Jefferson Davis school bus?
Passed down from Grandpa Logan, this physical asset symbolizes independence, freedom, and pride for the family.
What is the Logan land?
A powerful white landowner who is determined to buy back the Logan land at any cost.
Who is Harlan Granger?
Cassie cries for this character at the very end of the book, realizing that despite his flaws, his life is forever ruined.
Who is T.J. Avery?
He works on the railroad in another state for part of the year to help pay off the taxes on the family land.
Who is David "Papa" Logan?
Cassie is forced to apologize to Lillian Jean Simms after an accidental confrontation in this town.
What is Strawberry?
This family resource, given to the children on the first day of school, symbolizes the systemic educational disparity between Black and white students.
What are the used textbooks?
A white lawyer who risks his own safety and reputation by backing the financial bonds for the Vicksburg shopping boycott.
Who is Mr. Wade Jamison?
This is the city where the Logans travel to buy groceries in bulk to circumvent the local sharecropping economy.
What is Vicksburg?
This sibling is incredibly neat and gets upset when his schoolbook is dirty and stamped with an offensive chart.
Who is Clayton Chester "Little Man" Logan?
The Logans organize a boycott against this specific local establishment due to the violent actions of its owners.
What is the Wallace store?
This weather phenomenon appears frequently before moments of intense tension or racial violence in the novel.
What is thunder (or rain/storms)?
A large, powerful man brought to live with the Logans to help work the farm and protect them from night riders.
Who is Mr. L.T. Morrison?
"Look out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own." This character says this to Cassie.
Who is Papa (David Logan)?
This family member owns 200 acres of land in Chicago and drives a shiny Packard that looks exactly like Mr. Granger's.
Who is Uncle Hammer?
This character cheats on an exam, allowing Stacey to take the blame, and later transitions to hanging out with the Simms brothers.
Who is T.J. Avery?
The contrast between the Jefferson Davis School and Great Faith Elementary highlights this core historical and legal injustice.
What is segregation (or separate but unequal education)?
This young white boy walks to school with the Logan kids every day despite being beaten by his own family for it.
Who is Jeremy Simms?
This is the specific month and year in which the main events of the story begin.
What is October 1933?
This is Mama's full name, who gets fired from her teaching job after exposing the truth about slavery in her history lessons.
Who is Mary Logan?
Papa stops the lynch mob targeting T.J. by sacrificing this percentage or area of his own property to create a distraction.
What is setting fire to his own cotton field?
This physical feature on the Logan land symbolizes resilience and the family's deep ancestral roots.
What is the Caroline oak tree?
These three brothers are responsible for burning the Berry family and attacking local Black citizens.
Who are Kaleb, Dewberry, and Thurston Wallace?
Besides TJ, the men the night men threaten to kill.
Who are Mr. Jamison, Mr. Morrison, and Mr. Logan.