From White to Black: The Story of a Black Family that Started off White

By Tracy Lewis, Ph.D.

Biographies & Memoirs

Education & Textbooks

History

Language: English Restricted (R)

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No. of pages

101

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Overview Ratings & Reviews

~~In my college dorm in California I was the only black student in residence. In fact, I was the only black student enrolled in my all white private school. Daily questions from my fellow students, who were eager to ask everything they had ever wanted to know about black people, made me more aware of my blackness than ever before. However, my schoolmates’ questions created an ever increasing need to know deep down inside of me. Soon I started asking the same questions of myself…where did I come from? Where did my parents, my grandparents, and my great-grandparent come from? Who were they? What race were they? Why were there so many light skin people in my family? My inner city friends had been instructing me to “get back to my roots” for years. I was finally going to take their advice. Reconnecting with my family was the starting point. After meeting my 88 year old Great-Aunt Bunch for the first time in 2006, the pieces of our family puzzle began to come together as I sat in her kitchen listening to her recount our family history, and what I heard was fascinating!

From White to Black tells the story of my family, told to me by my Great Aunt, Louise “Bunch” King and through the family history records of my Great-Cousin, Grace Pride (who has long since passed away). Bunch was born in Pennsylvania, the daughter of an Indian-Italian father and a White mother. Bunch's maternal grandmother, Cornelia was the daughter of a Scottish plantation owner and a mulatto mother. Bunch grew up in a family that had been white for almost 100 years… until the institution of the "One Drop Law" in 1930. Bunch's family was subsequently reclassified as Negro in 1930 when her Indian grandmother's ¼ Negro ancestry was revealed in a county census. This sudden reclassification and its ensuing segregation resulted in a backlash of racism and discrimination that forever changed the destinies of Bunch and her brothers and sisters. Bunch’s stories of family, desperation, racism, discrimination, and hardship are compelling, inspiring, entertaining, and shocking.

“From White to Black” is an American story. It’s the story of a Black family that started off White.

The Story Behind This Book

In my college dorm in California I was the only black student in residence. In fact, I was the only black student enrolled in my all white private school. Daily questions from my fellow students, who were eager to ask everything they had ever wanted to know about black people, made me more aware of my blackness than ever before. However, my schoolmates' questions created an ever increasing need to know deep down inside of me. Soon I started asking the same questions of myself...where did I come from? Where did my parents, my grandparents, and my great-grandparent come from? Who were they? What race were they? Why were there so many light skin people in my family? My inner city friends had been instructing me to "get back to my roots" for years. I was finally going to take their advice. Reconnecting with my family was the starting point. After meeting my 88 year old Great-Aunt Bunch for the first time in 2006, the pieces of our family puzzle began to come together as I sat in her kitchen listening to her recount our family history, and what I heard was fascinating! "From White to Black" is an American story. It's the story of a Black family that started off White.

Praise and Reviews

~~Dr. Tracy Lewis is a talented writer and expressive biographer. She passionately and enthusiastically tells the story of her unrelenting search to uncover her family history and of meeting her Great-Aunt Bunch for the first time. Even if you are not genetically linked to the Lewis Family Tree, you will fall in love with the wise, witty, and charming Aunt Bunch, who shares touching, funny, and even shocking stories about her family, including “the family’s skeletons!” Dr. Lewis and her remarkable Aunt Bunch do a superb job reconstructing and narrating the story of their family in a way that is both informative and entertaining. I laughed out loud many times as I enjoyed reading this inspiring, truly American story. Kudos to Dr. Lewis for a job well done!

Muriel Burch,
Author of “Mama, Can I Tell You Something?”