Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred Taylor

The Logan Family

• Cassie Logan: The narrator of the story, which takes place from her point of view, she is a strong-willed, precocious nine-year-old girl willing to fight for anything she believes in. Cassie is a fourth grader, and she is a tomboy who learns valuable life lessons from her parents, grandmother, and elder brother Stacey.
• Stacey Logan: The eldest son of Mary and David Logan, a 13-year-old boy who feels that it is his responsibility to take care of the family while his father is away working on the railroad. He is a seventh grader who attends the same class his mother teaches. He is portrayed as a strong-minded young man who is loving towards his family.
• Christopher-John Logan: Stacey and Cassie's second younger brother, a seven-year-old boy. He is notorious for being a rule-follower and doesn't like going against the family's decisions or getting himself in trouble.
• Clayton Chester "Little Man" Logan: Stacey and Cassie's youngest brother, a six-year-old first grader. He is very neat and tidy and does not like to be discriminated against, even though he does not understand what that means at his young age.
• David Logan: The father of the Logan children, who call him Papa. He works on the railroad and tries to teach his children life lessons in hopes of keeping them out of trouble.
• Mary Logan: The mother of the Logan children, a schoolteacher who believes that the status quo of racism shouldn’t be accepted. She teaches her students radical material about slavery that isn’t included in their textbooks and also works to support the boycott of the Wallaces' store. She tries to fight against anti-black racism while also protecting her family from harm.
• Caroline "Big Ma" Logan: The mother of David and Hammer Logan and the paternal grandmother of the Logan children. She is portrayed as a strong and good-natured 60-year-old woman who still works in the fields. Big Ma influenced Cassie by passing on family stories and oral history to her growing up. She helps many people who are sick and those who have been treated badly by white people. She is very religious and has passed her views to Cassie.
• Hammer Logan: David Logan's older brother and Cassie's uncle. Hammer is a black veteran of World War I, during which he nearly lost his left leg. He moved to Chicago before the events of the novel to escape Mississippi's virulent racism. He is portrayed as having a hair-trigger temper, which is something a black man "isn't allowed to have" in the Jim Crow South. He provides financial assistance to the rest of the family several times, which they secretly appreciate.

Other characters

• T.J. Avery: A manipulative, foolish 14-year-old who somehow became Stacey's friend, he is disliked by the other Logan children. T.J. is a troublemaker who is responsible for getting Mama fired from her job. At the end of the novel, T.J. is severely beaten by R.W. and Melvin Simms, who break his ribs and later his jaw, and nearly gets lynched for a crime he did not commit. Papa saves him for the time being by setting fire to his own land.
• Claude Avery: T.J.’s younger brother, who is good friends with his classmate Christopher-John Logan. He is quieter than T.J. but often gets blamed for T.J.’s troublemaking.
• The Averys: T.J.'s family, including his father, his mother, and his seven younger siblings, four of whom are preschoolers. They are friends with the Logans.
• Joe Avery: The father of the Avery children, a sharecropper who works on Harlan Granger's land.
• Fannie Avery: The mother of the Avery children, a maid who works in Harlan Granger's house.
• The Berrys: A black family that lives in Smellings Creek. They don't often appear in the area, but they do occasionally attend the local black church.
• John Henry Berry: A black veteran of World War I and lynching victim.
• Beacon Berry: John Henry's brother.
• Samuel Berry: The uncle of John Henry and Beacon. All three men are dragged out of their house and burned alive. Samuel and Beacon survive the attack, but are badly burned.
• Charlie Simms: The father of the Simms children. Though his family is as poor as the Logans, he believes they are racially superior.
• Jeremy Simms: A white boy who is friends with the Logan children. He doesn't abuse black people, unlike the rest of his family, even though he’s harassed both at home and school for associating with the Logan children.
• R.W. and Melvin Simms: Jeremy's elder brothers, who both dropped out of school years ago. They are white supremacists who are part of the lynch mob that nearly kills T.J., but they do help their father and brother fight the fire set by Cassie's father soon afterwards.
• Lillian Jean Simms: Jeremy’s elder sister. She sees herself as racially superior to the Logans, although they are no wealthier. She treats Cassie rudely but is later outsmarted and humiliated by the younger girl, who pretends to befriend her.
• Wade Jamison: A white lawyer sympathetic to the plight of black families in the South. He supports the Logans and other black families in their town, helping the black sharecroppers boycott the Wallaces’ store by backing their credit.
• L.T. Morrison: A gigantic, extremely strong railroad worker who becomes an honorary member of the Logan family after he is fired from his job. His entire family was killed by "night men" when he was six years old.
• Harlan Granger: A white landowner who owns a lot of the land in the area, e.g. Granger Plantation. He wants to take all the land and money away from black people, most of whom are sharecroppers.
• The Barnetts: A racist white couple who own a general store in Strawberry. Jim Lee, the husband, treats his black customers like second-class citizens, only serving them after he is done serving all of his white customers. After Cassie calls out his discriminatory behavior, Mr. Barnett angrily kicks her out of his store. Mr. Barnett is killed by the Simms brothers during a robbery, but Mrs. Barnett accuses T.J. of the murder because he was the only unmasked criminal.
• Sam Tatum: A black man who accuses Jim Lee Barnett of charging him for items he hadn't ordered. After he admits to calling Mr. Barnett a liar, he is tarred and feathered by a group of "night men".
• The Wallaces: The Wallace brothers (Kaleb, Thurston, and Dewberry) are violent, racist white men. Papa warns the Logan children to avoid the Wallaces' general store, and Mama even organizes an informal boycott after revealing to the Logan children that the Wallaces were responsible for the Berrys' burnings. The Wallaces are partly responsible for Mama getting fired, and Kaleb threatens to kill Mr. Morrison after his two brothers are injured in a fight with him and Papa.
• Ted Grimes: A bus driver for the all-white Jefferson Davis County School, he enjoys splashing black children with mud and dust every day by barreling his school bus carrying white children down the dirt road. The Logan children lay a trap by digging a large hole in the road and filling it with water, putting Grimes' bus out of commission for at least two weeks.
• Little Willie Wiggins: One of Stacey’s seventh-grade classmates.
• Moe Turner: Another one of Stacey’s seventh-grade classmates.
• Mr. Montier: A white landowner who owns a lot of former plantation land in the area, he and Mr. Granger are quite ruthless with the sharecroppers who work on their land. After Mr. Montier finds out about the black families' boycott of the Wallace store, he forces his sharecroppers to pay him a larger percentage of the proceeds from their cotton sales than before.
• Mr. Turner: Moe's father, a black sharecropper who works on land owned by Mr. Montier. His family has no choice but to shop at the Wallace store since Mr. Montier backs their credit there. Mr. Turner reluctantly boycotts the store.
• Silas Lanier: A black sharecropper who works on Harlan Granger's land.
• Miss Crocker: Cassie’s schoolteacher who believes that the black students should be happy with the books they get, regardless of their inferior or used quality.