Woman Finds Mom’s Birth Certificate, Realizes Why She Always Wore Makeup To Bed

The Truth Comes Out

“My mother’s tearful plea for secrecy only added to my confusion about my racial identity,” says Gail.

“As did her birth certificate that I obtained from the state of Louisiana, which listed her race as “col” (colored), and a 1940 Louisiana census record, which listed my mother, Alvera Frederic, as Neg/Negro, working in a tea shop in New Orleans. Four years later, she moved north and married my white father.” And that was the crux of the matter.