To answer questions about
The Vanishing Half,
please sign up.
Brooke Stephens
Yes, there were several towns like that in the Louisiana area. You should read CREOLES: the history and legacy of Louisana's free people of color by Sybil Kein. It's an academic historical study of the Free people of color and if you look at the old photos they all look very light and often had straight hair.
New Orleans was famous for the serious skin color issues. One was the "paper bag"test which meant that if your skin was darker than a brown paper bag then you were considered too dark to be a member of their social circle, so you couldn't attend "their" clubs, their churches, social groups and organizations. None of this was legal but the attitude and the lifestyle still exist there.
PASSING by Nella Larson is a book written in the 1930s about this issue and is still relevant today. I had a grand Uncle Chauncey who did it. When he joined the navy in 1942, the intake officer who filled out his paperwork just automatically looked him and thought he was white so Chauncey didn't bother to correct him and that's how he passed out of our lives and we never saw him again. He moved to California and wrote to us a few times but we were never invited to visit.
New Orleans was famous for the serious skin color issues. One was the "paper bag"test which meant that if your skin was darker than a brown paper bag then you were considered too dark to be a member of their social circle, so you couldn't attend "their" clubs, their churches, social groups and organizations. None of this was legal but the attitude and the lifestyle still exist there.
PASSING by Nella Larson is a book written in the 1930s about this issue and is still relevant today. I had a grand Uncle Chauncey who did it. When he joined the navy in 1942, the intake officer who filled out his paperwork just automatically looked him and thought he was white so Chauncey didn't bother to correct him and that's how he passed out of our lives and we never saw him again. He moved to California and wrote to us a few times but we were never invited to visit.
Rose Brown
There were a number of places in Louisiana with light-skinned only populations when I grew up there in the 60's & 70's. Just to name a few that I am aware of- Mallett, Frilot Cove and Lebeau (which was mentioned in the book).
Pam
I just heard the author being interviewed and she said that the idea came from her mother who said that she had heard there was such a community in Louisiana. That was the springboard for the novel.
Sherry Schwabacher
DeLisle, Mississippi
Harriet Stern
Definitely. Especially in New Orleans
Amy
I once saw a play "The Blue Vein Society" in the 1980s at SUNY Cortland that explores "Class and Color within Black America" and was set in the 1880s. I kept thinking of that play as I read this book. Turns out the playwright taught at SUNY and coincidentally his childhood sounds a bit like Early's.
Keisha
There was rumored to be such a town, albeit small, in Long Island, New York
Mary
google Gouldtown New Jersey. Figures promiently in Phillip Roth's The Human Stain, which deals with race, academia, sexual politics and so much more.
Angel
This has me intrigued, as well. I live about an hour and a half from New Orleans and want to research this....
Amy
I once saw a play "The Blue Vein Society" in the 1980s at SUNY Cortland that explores "Class and Color within Black America" and was set in the 1880s. I kept thinking of that play as I read this book. Turns out the playwright taught at SUNY and coincidentally his childhood sounds a bit like Early's.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more