In some cases, "passing" did not involve actively claiming to be white, but just not correcting other people when they made that assumption. In addition, Black American families can also generally find it hard to trace their history, due to enslavement, which ended in 1865, and the way census records were kept over time. One reason is of course that the decision was a secret. It tends to be guarded by families rather than officially recorded. The history of racial "passing" in the US – the decision to pass as white, in response to severe discrimination and violent racism – is somewhat patchily documented. It may have been around that time, or perhaps even earlier, that Walter made the decision to navigate the world passing as a white man. When Walter became a teenager, he joined the US military and later served in World War One. Lulu May later married a Black man and had more children, Walter's younger brothers, who lived in a shack on the plantation. "I just know he didn't have to work in cotton fields and do all that hard work, because he stayed up at the house of his master, who was really his father, because he was a firstborn to this Miss Lulu May, a young maiden woman," says my grandmother, Recalia Ruth Davis Childress. He spent most of his youth with his white half-siblings in the "main house", where the plantation owner and his family lived, while the workers and former slaves lived in shacks. However, unlike most babies born in such circumstances, my light-skinned great-grandfather grew up keenly aware of who his father was. Segregation and discrimination were reinforced under these so-called Jim Crow systems of racist laws well into the 20th Century. Fundamental aspects of enslavement continued under laws passed that meant Black citizens entered into contracts of service or labour with their former white enslavers, who would continue to be known as their "masters". This resulted in the birth of my grandmother's father, my great-grandfather Walter, born at the turn of the 20th Century.Īlthough enslavement in the US officially ended in 1865, for Black people in many southern states, like South Carolina, emancipation did not mean the end of subservience. As a young woman, Lulu May was raped by the white plantation owner. She was born in the 19th Century on a plantation in Newberry, South Carolina where her parents had been enslaved. My grandmother has often told me the story of her grandmother, a woman called Lulu May. Her revelation prompted us to investigate why some families are forced to keep secrets in the first place – and what psychologists can tell us about the impact of those secrets on our mental and physical health.īut I'll let Alex tell her story first, in her own words.Īlex andria Gamlin: My great-grandfather Walter ![]() It turned out that Alex's family kept a huge secret in the past, one to do with race, identity and belonging. During her visit, we talked about our careers, our families – and family secrets. ![]() We met over 10 years ago in New York City: I am a Black British Londoner, and Alex is originally from Michigan. ![]() Last year, my friend Alex came to visit me in London from the US.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |