Elma Jesup

Elma is 18-years-old at the start of the novel. She lives with her father, Juke, a sharecropper, and Nan, the black daughter of a field hand and house servant, whom Elma considers like a sister. Elma's mother died in childbirth, and she considered Nan’s mother, Ketty, like a mother before Ketty died. Elma looks like her father, with red hair, a high forehead and freckles. Elma loves to learn, and, if she had the funds -- and had not become pregnant -- she would have gone to college, to be a teacher. She lusted after Genus the fall when she was seventeen years old, but had a boyfriend, Freddie Wilson — the grandson of the landlord — who she becomes pregnant by. Her twins, Winnafred (“Winna”) and Wilson, appear to be different races, attracting widespread media attention. Genus once commented on her inquisitive nature, and she is an...