Minor Characters
Ma Thomas
Bigger’s mother, Ma does her best to keep the family going—to feed her children, and to encourage them, namely Bigger and Vera, to help provide for the family. Ma Thomas is spiritually crushed by Bigger’s murder, and asks him, while in prison, to pray for his soul.
Vera Thomas
Bigger’s only sister, Vera takes classes at the local YWCA in order to become a seamstress. After Bigger’s imprisonment, Vera also tells Bigger he ought to pray for his soul and for redemption in the next life.
Gus
A member of Bigger’s gang, Gus comes up with the idea to rob Blum’s deli, at least initially, but has hesitations about it later on. Bigger takes out his frustration on Gus, choking and attacking him at Doc’s pool hall. Gus later visits Bigger in prison.
G.H.
Another member of Bigger’s gang, G. H. says that he will go along with the robbery of Blum’s deli, but also seems somewhat sympathetic to Gus’s side—feeling, perhaps, afraid that the group will get caught if they rob a white man.
Jack
The third member of Bigger’s gang, Jack goes with Bigger to the movies on the supposed day of the Blum robbery, and watches, with Bigger, the news-reel starring Mary Dalton and Jan.
Blum
Owner of a deli in the South Side, Blum, a white man, is the target of a planned robbery executed by Bigger’s gang. The gang decides against robbing the deli, however, once Bigger attacks Gus and ruins the group’s sense of shared purpose.
Doc
Owner of a pool hall in the South Side, Doc seems, at first, to enjoy the company of the gang, but later kicks them all out of his bar after Bigger cuts up the green felt of the pool table with his knife.
Peggy
The head maid of the Dalton house, Peggy is kind to Bigger, cooks for him, and shows him how to stoke the furnace. Peggy betrays very little suspicion of Bigger, even after Mary’s disappearance.
Britten
A private investigator hired by Mr. Dalton, Britten believes from the start that Bigger might have had something to do with Mary’s disappearance. He is later called by Buckley to appear at Bigger’s trial, and testifies as to his interactions with Bigger immediately after the murders.
Green
A former employee of the Daltons’, and also from the Black Belt, Green, as Mrs. Dalton tells it, used some of his time and money during his employment at the Dalton home to get an education at night school.