Coming of Age in Mississippi Characters

Mr. Carter is the owner of the plantation that Anne and her family live on in the beginning of the memoir.

At the beginning of the story, George Lee is Anne’s nine-year-old uncle who is tasked with watching Anne and her siblings during the day. He is cruel and puts the children in danger. However, as an adult later in the memoir, he is a caring figure in Anne’s life.

Old Lady Carter is Mr. Carter's mother.

Bush is Daddy’s best friend who dies, sending Daddy into a depression.

Florence is the woman Daddy leaves Mama for. She has lighter skin than Mama and the children and is the first representation in the novel of a colorist dynamic within the Black community.

Junior is Anne’s younger brother and the third-oldest sibling in the family. As Anne gets more involved with civil rights activism, Junior faces more danger from the whites in Centreville.

Great Aunt Cindy takes in Mama and the children after they leave Daddy. She has six children herself.

Mrs. Cook is the white woman that Mama works for after she and the children leave Daddy. She sometimes gives Mama her family’s leftovers—she once let them eat in her dining room.

Reverend Cason is the minister of Mount Pleasant Church and Anne’s short-tempered teacher at Mount Pleasant school.

Grandfather Moody is Daddy’s father. He feels guilty about his son abandoning his family and helps Mama and the children with what little money he has. He is sickly and dies while Anne is a child.

Uncle Ed is Mama’s younger brother. He watches Anne and the children while Mama is at work and takes them on walks through the woods.

Alberta is Mama’s sister and closest sibling. When Anne runs away during her senior year of high school, she briefly lives with Alberta.

Sam and Walter are Mama’s younger brothers. When she sees them for the first time, Anne is shocked to see that they are very light-skinned.

James is Anne’s younger brother and the son of Mama and Raymond.

Miss Pearl is Raymond’s mother. She is rude to Mama because of Mama’s darker skin.

Principal Willis is the Principal of Anne’s high school. He is considered to be an Uncle Tom figure and is suspected of being a conspirator in the murder of Samuel O’Quinn.

Samuel O’Quinn is a Black man in Centreville who is murdered by white people with the suspected help of Principal Willis. His death causes Anne to become depressed and feel the need to leave Centreville.

Reverend Polk is the preacher at Centreville Baptist whose sermons make the congregation visibly emotional. He went to prison for killing a man and realized his calling to preach while he was incarcerated .

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most prominent civil rights leaders in the United States. He advocated for nonviolence and led civil disobedience efforts. Anne sees him speak at the March on Washington and expresses skepticism at his nonviolent approach.

Mama works as a housekeeper for Mrs. Johnson.

Mr. Johnson is Mrs. Johnson’s husband.

Miss Ola is Mr. Johnson’s elderly mother who lives with the Johnson family. She takes Anne under her wing and encourages her education.

Katie is the child of Anne’s family’s white neighbors. Anne plays with Katie, and her brother Bill and envies their toys.

Bill is Katie’s brother.

Mrs. Claiborne is the white woman Anne works for. She invites Anne to eat dinner with her and her husband and takes an interest in her education.

Mrs. Willis is Anne’s teacher and Principal Willis’s wife.

Cherie is Raymond’s younger sister and is the same age as Adline.

Darlene is Raymond’s younger sister and is the same age as Anne.

Reverend Tyson is the minister at Mount Pleasant church.

Sister Jones is a member of Mount Pleasant church. She is the top recruiter of candidates for baptism, and she helps Mama get Anne baptized.

Reverend Bridge is a famous preacher. Mama gets Anne to come to Mount Pleasant by falsely telling her that Reverend Bridge will preach there.

Mr. Wheeler is a white man who lets Mama and her children pick up the pecans on his property to sell them.

Jennie Ann is Anne’s younger sister. When Anne reconnects with her after five years of being away from home towards the end of the memoir, she is disappointed that Jennie Ann only wants to talk about boys.

Linda Jean is a white woman whom Anne works for. She is kind to Anne and pays her more than other white bosses until her mother, Mrs. Burke, tells her not to.

Donna is the Jenkins’ toddler.

Linda Jean’s mother and, later, Anne’s boss. Witnessing her racism is a turning point in Anne’s relationship to racism in the United States.

Wayne is Mrs. Burke’s son who is the same age as Anne and treats her more equally than his mother does. Anne tutors him and his friends in algebra and has a crush on him.

Jerry is Anne’s younger brother, the child of Mama and Raymond.

Amanda is Anne’s classmate and competitor for Homecoming Queen.

Dorothy is Anne’s classmate and competitor for Homecoming Queen.

Clara is Daddy’s sister. She brings Anne to him and Emma when she runs away from home.

Ralph is Anne’s younger brother. He is Mama and Raymond’s child.

Mrs. Rice is Anne’s homeroom teacher. She privately educates her about the NAACP and civil rights.

Mr. Fox is a white man who is deputy sheriff of Centreville. He is having an affair with his Black housekeeper, Bess.

Bess is the housekeeper of Mr. Fox who is having an affair with him.

Jerry is Anne’s classmate who is falsely accused by Sheriff Ed Cassidy of harassing a white woman. He is subsequently beaten by a group of white men.

Ed Cassidy is the sheriff of Centreville. Though he helps Anne leave Raymond’s house, he is known to be a racist and is involved in racist attacks around Centreville.

The Taplin family are a Black family in Centreville who were burned alive in their home. The attack is the worst racist attack that Anne witnesses in Centreville.

Mr. Banks is the neighbor of the Taplin family. He is a light-skinned Black man who is having an affair with a white woman, and it is believed that the Taplin attack is tied to this affair. He flees town.

Bertha is Uncle Ed’s wife. She sets Anne up with a job working for Mrs. Jetson.

Mrs. Jetson is a white woman who employs Anne in Baton Rouge.

Benty is a distant cousin of Anne’s who was run out of Centreville for allegedly having an affair with a white woman.

Mr. Hicks is Anne’s basketball and gymnastics coach who takes an interest in her. Mama hopes that Anne will marry Mr. Hicks.

Billy, Ray, Sue, and Judy are Wayne’s friends whom Anne tutors in algebra.

Celia is Mama’s sister. Anne stays with her in New Orleans over the summer.

Sis is Mama and Celia’s other sister, with whom Anne shares a bed and works with at the chicken factory in New Orleans.

Eddie is Sis’s classmate who gets jobs for Sis and Anne at the chicken factory.

Buck is Eddie’s friend who drives Sis, Anne, and the other Black workers to the chicken factory.

Johnny is Celia’s husband who warns Sis and Anne against working at the chicken factory.

Mr. Steve is the owner of Maple Hill Restaurant. He is a Greek immigrant and is sympathetic to the civil rights movement. Anne wonders if he would be as sympathetic if he were a white American man.

Lily White is Anne’s coworker and friend at Maple Hill restaurant. She and Lola are the first queer people Anne encounters in her life.

Lola is Anne’s coworker and friend at Maple Hill restaurant and, along with Lily White, is the first queer person Anne meets in her life. Lola helps Anne spruce up her appearance.

Robert is a busboy at Maple Hill restaurant who attends Lily White’s performance with Anne.

Mr. Leon is Clara’s husband.

Emma is Daddy’s second wife. She is light-skinned but, unlike Raymond’s family, treats Anne as an equal.

Janie is Emma’s sister who lives next door.

Wilbert is Janie’s husband who accidentally shoots Emma in the foot.

Clift is Emma’s brother who is murdered by white men.

Leon is Janie and Wilbert’s son.

Coach Dunbar is Anne’s basketball coach at her new high school.

Mrs. Evans is the matron in Anne’s dorm at Natchez College.

Miss Harris is the cook at Natchez College. Anne clashes with her, and she eventually leads her first collective action over Miss Harris’s lack of health awareness in the kitchen.

Miss Adams is Anne’s basketball coach at Natchez College. Anne clashes with her over her excessively strict rules.

The Dean of Natchez College makes Anne uncomfortable with lecherous looks and is rumored to be sleeping with multiple students.

Keemp is Anne’s first boyfriend.

Trotter is Anne’s roommate at Tougaloo College who introduces her to the campus NAACP chapter.

Dave Jones is Anne’s boyfriend at Tougaloo College. Anne breaks up with him after he attempts to force himself on her. He is active in civil rights activism on campus.

Medgar Evers is a famous civil rights activist. His assassination shakes the movement.

Joan Trumpauer is a white civil rights activist and a friend of Anne’s.

Bettye Poole is Anne’s friend and fellow civil rights activist.

Bob Moses is the director of the SNCC in Mississippi and a role model for Anne and her fellow young activists.

Rose is Anne’s friend who is with her at the impromptu bus-stop sit-in in Jackson.

John Salter is a social sciences professor at Tougaloo College who runs the NAACP chapter on campus. He is a participant and organizer of the famous Woolworth’s sit-in.

Memphis is a student who is part of the Woolworth’s sit-in with Anne.

Pearlena is a student who is part of the Woolworth’s sit-in with Anne.

Ed King is a white chaplain at Tougaloo College and a dedicated civil rights activist.

Mayor Thompson is the mayor of Jackson.

Doris Erskine is a student at Jackson State, friend of Anne’s, and student activist.

Roy Wilkins is the National Director of the NAACP who is arrested in Jackson with Medgar Evers.

Theldon Henderson is a Black lawyer for the Justice department who is arrested protesting.

Dave Dennis is the CORE field secretary in Mississippi who Anne works with in Canton.

Dorie Ladner works with the SNCC and is Anne’s fellow activist.

C. O. Chinn is the most powerful Black man in Canton. His involvement in civil rights activism causes him to lose much of his money and power.

George Raymond is a CORE field worker who Anne works with in Canton.