Let The Circle Be Unbroken

Cassie’s mother is well-educated and was formerly a schoolteacher. After losing her job because of her political activism, Mary Logan continues to tutor local school children. She sees the value of education as a way forward from the poverty and ignorance experienced by many rural, Southern Black families. While Mary demonstrates a high degree of self-respect, she is also astute enough to avoid antagonizing the planter class. Even though she helps Lee Annie read the state constitution, she actively discourages the old woman from seeking to vote. Like Cassie, Mary is devoted to the well-being of her family. When Stacey goes missing, she is prepared to move heaven and earth to get him back. Her efforts are rewarded at the novel’s end when her eldest son is brought back home.

David Logan is Mary’s husband and Cassie’s father. He can be a stern disciplinarian when he feels his children need to be corrected. However, he is also dedicated to their welfare and wants to give them a strong start in life. Like his wife, David is careful in his dealings with the white people in the area and does nothing to antagonize them. However, he is interested in seeing a farmworkers’ union established in the South. David is particularly concerned about maintaining his financial independence. He doesn’t want to owe money to the plantation owners and takes work on the railroad to keep his farm afloat financially during the Great Depression. He achieves a minor victory by the story’s conclusion when he locates his missing son and brings him home.

Stacey Logan is the eldest child of Mary and David. At 13, he is beginning to assert his individuality. Cassie is distressed by his need for personal space at this age. When David must leave the family to seek work, Stacey feels the family’s financial burdens settling on his shoulders. His attempts to find employment lead to disaster because he is still too young to recognize that the lure of easy money is usually too good to be true. By the novel’s end, Stacey learns a hard lesson about curbing his impulsiveness. His family comes to find him in Louisiana after his attempt to make money in the cane fields. His return as the prodigal son reinforces his own sense of the value of home and family.

Suzella Rankin is the attractive 15-year-old cousin of the Logan children. She is gentle and kind by nature but earns Cassie’s disapproval immediately because all the boys fall in love with her. Suzella’s mother is white, and Suzella’s skin color is light enough to allow her to pass as white. Although Cassie fails to sympathize with her plight, Suzella explains how hard it is to live in two worlds. By the novel’s end, the strain on her parents’ marriage becomes too much. Though she loves her cousins, she returns to New York to live with her mother and pass as white.

Bud Rankin is Suzella’s father. He is Mary’s cousin and is as close to her as a brother. Years earlier, Bud relocated to New York, where he married a white woman. Even though he still loves his wife, their ability to lead a “normal” life is tested. Neither the Black nor the white community fully accepts them. Bud is also devoted to his daughter and wants her to appreciate the culture of his Black Southern roots. Sadly, by the story’s end, Bud and his wife can’t find a way to make their marriage work. After an unnerving attack by white boys who are offended by Bud’s relationship with a white woman, he takes his daughter and flees to the safety of New York.

Uncle Hammer is David’s brother. He has made a successful life for himself in Chicago but returns to Mississippi for frequent family visits. Unlike David, Hammer has a short temper. He is intolerant of relationships between Black and white people and condemns Bud’s marriage. He is equally hostile toward Stuart’s attentions to Jacey and is furious to find Cassie’s picture of Jeremy. Despite his quickness to take offense, Hammer also apologizes for his outbursts. At the core, he is only concerned for the well-being of his family members. When Stacey goes missing, he returns to the South to help David find the boy.

Mrs. Lee Annie is a Black sharecropper on the Granger plantation. When she turns 64, she develops an interest in her legal rights and reads the state constitution from start to finish. Knowing the law inspires her to register to vote. At the time, a test proving knowledge of the constitution is required. Even though all her friends and relatives try to talk her out of it, Lee Annie is determined to register to vote. Sadly, her brave effort ends in disaster. When Harlan Granger learns of her intentions, he evicts her from his land.

Harlan Granger is a wealthy plantation owner whose land adjoins the Logan farm. Before the Civil War, the Logans’ 400 acres belonged to his ancestral estate, and he would do anything to get the land back. Granger tempts the Logans with the promise to pay their back taxes but doesn’t succeed in making them financially dependent on him. He has also exploited the sharecroppers on his property by overplanting his land while making his tenants plow under their cotton crops to meet government requirements. Like the other members of the local planter class, he is motivated by greed and the desire to remain in power.

Stuart Walker is the son of another wealthy planter. His father uses the same underhanded tactics as Granger. In addition, Stuart himself likes to seduce and abandon teenage Black girls. He is the father of Jacey’s baby but will face no consequences for his indiscretion. Later, he mistakes Suzella for a white girl and treats her respectfully until he learns the truth about her parentage. The terror tactics he directs at Bud cause Suzella and her father to flee the South.

Jeremy Simms is the youngest son of white sharecropper Carl Simms. His two older brothers are lawbreakers. They escaped punishment by allowing the blame to fall on TJ, who is hanged for their crimes. Unlike his siblings, Jeremy has a kind heart and befriends the Logan children. They are mystified by his kindness toward them but accept him as their friend.