![]() Now I wondered if she was really just afraid that if we visited we’d meet family members who were not passably white? On several occasions her mother and her sister visited us in Ohio. ![]() My mother had always told me that she was reluctant to visit her family of origin in New Orleans because she hadn’t been raised by either parent and there were just too many sad memories. But this real-life mystery only intensified as I tried to sort truth from fiction. Using my skills as a seasoned mystery author, I started sifting through the details of her life, looking for clues that would help me understand her. How had she deceived my racist white father? Why was she so fearful and ashamed of her black heritage? Her refusal to talk about her mixed race only fueled my curiosity. But every time I tried, she politely but firmly changed the subject. In the silence of those 17 years, I tried to break through my mother’s wall of silence. Get top headlines in your inbox every afternoon. My mother’s pale, olive skin and European features appeared to belie the government documents defining her as African-American, allowing her to escape that public designation for most of her adult life. It was the longest and most difficult secret I’d ever held. For 17 years I told no one, except my husband, my two children and two close friends that my mother was passing as white. Reluctantly, I agreed to keep my mother’s secret. Four years later, she moved north and married my white father. As did her birth certificate that I obtained from the state of Louisiana, which listed her race as “col” (colored), and a 1940 Louisiana census record, which listed my mother, Alvera Frederic, as Neg/Negro, working in a tea shop in New Orleans. This was not a conversation I wanted to have on the phone.īut my mother’s fearful plea for secrecy only added to my confusion about my racial identity. My mother’s visit to my home in Illinois seemed like the right moment. My sense of white identity had been shattered. The discovery had left me reeling, confused and in need of answers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |