Sweetness
Sweetness is the story's narrator and protagonist. Sweetness is a light-skinned black woman with "good hair" who has grown up with certain privileges because of her ability to pass as white. As a means of putting distance between herself and her dark-skinned daughter Lula Ann, Sweetness asks Lula Ann to call her "Sweetness" rather than any of the various iterations of "mother." Narrating from a point in time in which she lives in a nursing home because of a bone disease, Sweetness is defensive about how she raised her daughter to act deferentially toward others and to avoid making herself a target of racist abuse. Sweetness's defensiveness suggests she is in denial about how her rejection of her daughter was also a form of racist abuse.
Louis
Louis is Sweetness's ex-husband and Lula Ann's father. Louis is a light-skinned black man. He erupts in anger and incredulity when he sees Lula Ann's dark skin, and accuses Sweetness of having had an affair with another man. Louis abandons Sweetness and Lula Ann. Sweetness assumes he must have begun to feel guilty, because Louis later tracks down their new address and sends fifty dollars every month.
Lula Ann
Lula Ann is Sweetness's daughter. Born to light-skinned parents, Lula Ann's skin is unexpectedly dark, described by Sweetness as "Sudanese black" and "blue-black." Sweetness raises Lula Ann to keep her head down because of her dark skin, but Lula Ann rebels as a teenager, talking back to her mother. Lula Ann grows up to pursue a career in California and becomes pregnant. Sweetness comments on how Lula Ann shows off her dark skin to her advantage by wearing beautiful white clothes. She rarely visits Sweetness, but sends money to help pay for the modest but adequate nursing home where Sweetness lives in her old age.
Lula Mae
Lula Mae is Sweetness's mother and Lula Ann's grandmother. Although her skin is light enough for her to pass as white, Lula Mae chooses to live as a black woman. As a result, she is subject to racial discrimination, such as being made to swear on a Bible reserved for black people when she marries her husband at a courthouse.
