The Blacker The Berry - Characters

Characters

• Emma Lou Morgan: a young African-American woman. Growing up in Boise, Idaho, she encounters discrimination by lighter-skinned blacks among her family and community. She takes after her father in appearance, who abandoned her and her lighter-skinned mother.

• Uncle Joe: Emma Lou is closer to him than others in her mother's family; she follows his advice to go to Los Angeles for college.

• Hazel Mason: The first black student whom Emma Lou meets at USC. Judging her to be the "wrong" kind of Negro, Emma tries to limit their association.

• Alva: one of Emma Lou’s love interests in Harlem. He is a lighter-skinned man who manipulates women to use their money to get by. Married twice already, he has become alcoholic.

• Braxton: Alva’s roommate. He does not approve of Alva's seeing Emma Lou because of her skin color.

• Geraldine: one of Alva’s companions; she bears his son, who is born disfigured. She abandons them both.

• John: Emma Lou’s first love interest in Harlem.

• Arline Strange: an actress. Emma Lou works as her maid, helping with make-up and costumes.

• Gwedolyn Johnson: Emma Lou’s friend from the Y.W.C.A. She eventually marries Benson Brown, whom Emma Lou had dated.

• Benson Brown: a man Emma Lou meets after she moves to the Y.W.C.A. He is lighter-skinned and promising, the "right" sort of African-American man.