| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Woman Who Thought She Was Black Finds Out After 70 Years She's Actually White |
| 2015-06-25 |
| [HOUSTON.CBSLOCAL] A woman who thought she was black found out after 70 years that she was actually white. Rachel Dolezal is Verda Byrd on Converse tells KENS-TV that she found out she was white when she started searching for her biological parents in 2013. “My adoptive mother, Edwinna Wagner, never told me that she had adopted a white baby,” Byrd explained. “She took it to her grave that she had a white daughter.” Byrd was originally born to Earl and Daisy Beagle – described as white transients – in September 1942 in Missouri. Byrd’s original birth name was Jeanette Beagle. Her and her four siblings were taken by the state of Missouri after Daisey Beagle fell 30 feet to the ground in a trolley accident. Earl Beagle had already walked out on the family by the time of the accident. She was then adopted by an African-American family from Newton, Kansas – Ray and Edwinna Byrd. They changed her name from Jeanette to Verda Ann Wagner. She grew up treated as a “fair-skinned black child.” |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 Oh my heavens! What if my parents (R.I.P) went to their graves without telling my I was really black? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2015-06-25 13:47 |
| #6 Not necessarily Beso, though agree this is only a story because Narrative! Back in the 40's Newton would have been a major rail transport hub, and there was still a decent black population from when freed slaves moved west. There were even entire towns populated by blacks. In general west Kansans were religiously hardy, and in the 40's the dirty 30's would still be a prevalent mindset. It is quite likely the parents were just good people who adopted an abandoned child because it was the right thing to do. And without knowing more details, it could have been the State of Missouri which had something to do with the adoption. Looks like she didn't pay no mind until bucket list time. Dodge City, also a big rail hub, had a vibrant black and, surprise, Vietnamese community until about 20 years ago. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2015-06-25 12:40 |
| #5 Prediction: Self Identification of race is meaningless, mandatory genetic testing will soon be imposed to return to honest evaluation of race. |
| Posted by: Black Charlie Crique9103 2015-06-25 10:38 |
| #4 She waited 70 years to find out she is a racist. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2015-06-25 06:34 |
| #3 I thought that would have had to have been a pretty liberal Kansas adoption agency for the 1940's. Not if the child looked mixed. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-25 06:25 |
| #2 fell 30 feet to the ground in a trolley accident. How tall exactly was this trolley? Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2015-06-25 04:28 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: 2015-06-25 01:28 |