Gregory Freeman: Ancestors May Be Different Than You Think, P-D 10/21/1994

Headline: ANCESTORS MAY BE DIFFERENT THAN YOU THINK
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., Oct. 21, 1994
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 13D, Edition: FIVE STAR

TO MANY, Shirlee Taylor Haizlip has become the Alex Haley of the '90s. Haley authored "Roots" in the 1970s, and sent Americans everywhere searching for their ancestors.
Haizlip's book, "The Sweeter the Juice, " is doing the same thing in this decade. But this time, Americans are looking for something deeper than who their relatives were and where they lived. Thanks to Haizlip's book, countless people are asking about the race of their ancestors.

Haizlip was here this week to speak at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Haizlip's book tells of her mother, Margaret Morris, whose father left home in 1916. Later, most of Margaret's siblings did the same, leaving Margaret behind. For years, Margaret was left in a fog, never really knowing what had happened to her family, concerned that she had done something wrong, always wondering why she had been abandoned.
Years later, as a gift for her mother, Haizlip began searching for her mother's relatives. What she found surprised her. As she searched, she learned that her father had left town to become a white person. Her siblings had later done the same, leaving young Margaret behind because she was not quite light enough to "pass."

During an interview, Haizlip showed pictures of various people. One picture was of several members of a Midwestern, white-appearing family. Haizlip explained, though, that those in the picture were her cousins.
"When I give talks, I like to show pictures of my grandfather and his brother, " she said. "They look like ordinary white folks.
"There are many African-Americans with white heritage and lots of whites who have black heritage who don't know it, " she said. "According to some geneticists, 95 percent of `white' Americans have various degrees of black heritage. Some 75 percent of all African-Americans have at least one white ancestor and 15 percent have predominantly white blood lines. And 80 percent of all of us have Native American heritage."

Haizlip was angry when she first learned how what her grandfather and other relatives had done - not because they were "passing, " but because they had abandoned her mother. But as she came to realize that they had done so for economic reasons - her family had concluded that the best way to survive was to become white - she began to understand major truths about race in America and how we perceive one another.
A better understanding of one of America's little-talked-about mysteries could significantly improve race relations, she suggested in the interview. "If we can think of ourselves as family, we can become less of `them' and `us' and more of `we, ' and reduce what I call the `pigmentocracy' within our society."

Haizlip's book is about her family and about a legacy of slavery, the belief by some that light skin is to be desired and dark skin is to be disdained. The legacy continues today, she says. Her travels around the country have made her aware that many fair-skinned African-Americans today make a conscious choice to live as white people, leaving their hometowns to take up new lives in other cities. They hide their heritage and eliminate contact with their family and friends to "pass" as whites.
"I think people do it today because they feel that they will be unburdened from the hassles that we have as blacks, " said Haizlip, who is herself very fair-skinned but not enough for her to "pass."
"But I also think there's an element of black hatred that's involved there, too."

Since the book's release, Haizlip has been overwhelmed by people, white and black, who want to learn about their racial heritage. "Maybe it's because I've poured my life out in this book, people want to pour their lives out to me, " she said.

For Haizlip's mother, there's been a happy ending. Haizlip's research turned up a bevy of relatives and, most importantly, her mother's older sister. The sister, Grace Morris Cramer, was apprehensive at first, but the two have settled into the sisterly love that they hadn't been able to enjoy for more than three-quarters of a century.
"At 82, my mother's become a transformed woman, " Haizlip said. "She now has a full wall of pictures of relatives that she never had before. Her pain and burden's been lifted."

Note: 1998 column on subsequent Haizlip book: "Black Couple Hope Book Sheds Light On 'Normal' Lives".

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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