![]() ![]() On September 15, 1970, one of America’s largest standoffs took place between the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party and multiple branches of law enforcement within the Desire housing projects in the city’s Ninth Ward. Her death certificate declared she was white.Paper Monuments Project #002: The New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party and multiple branches of law enforcement within the Desire housing projects in the city’s Ninth Ward engaged in one of America’s largest standoffs. ![]() Her grieving and equally pale sister passed as a white woman to claim the body, so Roxborough's secret wouldn't be given away. When her disapproving father refused to support her, Roxborough - then known as Mona Manet - committed suicide. She tried acting in California, then moved to New York to live as a white woman. Then there's the sad tale of Elsie Roxborough, a beauty from a distinguished Detroit family who became the first black girl to live in a dorm at the University of Michigan. "He ran track, dated white girls and was known as a terrific dancer." Years later, the university fought to keep James Meredith from registering as its first black student, Harry Murphy gleefully broke the news: "Ole Miss was fighting a battle they had no idea they'd lost years ago." "For a year, Harry had a ball at Ole Miss," Hobbs laughs. Murphy, who was assigned as a ROTC cadet to the University of Mississippi by a commander who assumed Murphy was white. His claim and the court fight with his biracial siblings made national news. That's until he stepped forward to claim a huge inheritance as the only colored descendant of Negro Civil War veteran Col. There was New Yorker Theophilus McKee, who'd chosen to live as a white man for all of his adult life. Once Hobbs began researching, the stories came thick and fast. ![]() Loss of the ability to answer honestly the question black people have been asking each other since before Emancipation: "Who are your people?" "To write a history of passing is to write a history of loss." But through her research, she came to understand there was another, critical part of the experience: It made her realize that all the tales she'd heard about passing over the years involved the gains that people expected for leaving their black identity behind. Hobbs was haunted by the story, and constantly went back to it in her mind. She missed her father's funeral, and never saw her mother or siblings again. It was the woman's mother with distressing news: Her father was dying, and she needed to return home immediately to tell him goodbye. Then, one day, years later, her phone rang. She married a white man, and they had children who never knew they had black blood. In California, the young woman passed as white. "She felt this was a way to offer opportunities to her daughter that she wouldn't have living as a black woman on the South Side of Chicago."Ī scene from Imitation of Life, a 1934 film starring Fredi Washington playing a black woman who passes as white. "Her mother really felt that this was the very best thing she could do for her daughter," Hobbs continued. "And her mother decided it was in her best interest to move far away from Chicago, to Los Angeles, and to assume the life of a white woman." "She was black, but she looked white," Hobbs said. This was at the insistence of her mother. Hobbs' cousin had been living as white, far away in California, since she'd graduated from high school. Which is exactly the way the cousin wanted it. ![]() Hobbs learned that she had a distant cousin whom she'd never met nor heard of. Several years ago, Stanford historian Allyson Hobbs was talking with a favorite aunt, who was also the family storyteller. After living as leading citizens in Keene, N.H., the Johnstons revealed their true racial identity, and became national news. Albert Johnston passed in order to practice medicine. ![]()
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