Macon "Milkman" Dead - the protagonist of the novel. He is a young African-American man who begins trying to escape from family ties and ends by embracing them. .
Macon Dead - Milkman's father. He is a landlord of poor housing. .
Pilate Dead - Macon's sister. She sells wine. .
Guitar Baines - Milkman's best friend. He is one of seven men-- called the Seven Days--who kill random European Americans in retaliation for murders of African Americans. In the end he tries to kill Milkman.
Robert Smith - the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent .
who tries to fly from the top of Mercy hospital to the other side of .
Lake Superior. One of the Seven Days. .
Ruth Foster Dead - Milkman's mother. .
First Corinthians - Milkman's sister.x .
Magdelena Dead - Milkman's sister, who is called Lena. .
Freddie, the janitor - a man who works for the Deads. He is the one who names Ruth's son Milkman. He is the unofficial town crier. .
Mrs. Bains - Guitar's grandmother who asks Macon Dead for an extension on her rent. .
Porter - one of Macon Dead's tenants. He goes crazy and cries out his window for a woman to have sex with. He becomes Corinthian Dead's lover years later and is one of the Seven Days.
Robert Smith, the North Carolina Mutual Life agent, stands on top of Mercy hospital dressed in powder blue suit getting ready to jump off and fly across Lake Superior to the other side. He has written a note and sent it around to all the people in the community, but most of them didn't get it. The only ones in front of Mercy hospital that morning are those who happened to be there anyway and those few who got his notice in time. Most people are busy with their usual morning things. The hospital is located on Not Doctor street, a name not recognized by the post office. In 1896, the first African-American doctor moved on that street and people began to call it Doctor street. After years of this informal name, the authorities decided to name the street Mains avenue.