Brooke Stephens answers “I wondered if there were really any towns...”

Ginger asked this question about The Vanishing Half:

I wondered if there were really any towns like Mallard in the post-slavery South that we’re made up of light-skinned blacks. Did they exist?

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 S…moreYes, 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.(less)

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