Once again, in honor of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month.
I have decided to participate in the Prompts: So here we go!
March 8 — Did one of your female ancestors leave a diary, journal, or collection of letters? Share an entry or excerpt.
Here is a small insert of the memoirs of my mother Betty Mae Peters that will be published in January 1, 2013 by FreedomInk Publishing. The setting takes place in the 1940’s in New York City.
Betty Mae Peters Porter with her mother Agnes Mae Cully Peters
Many “black” people, in order to obtain employment, passed for white, “Spanish”, or anything but “colored.” This was quite common and quite accepted in the black community, as using whatever one could to “make-it” in a basically hostile society. Blacks also liked the idea of “fooling” paddies (a word for whites). The darkest black would smile a knowing we-smile upon encountering a friend or acquaintance “passing” on a job, and, far from giving-away the imposter, would instead return to the black community and laughingly report how so-and-so was fooling those “dumb paddies.” However, in my naivete, I was amazed to learn that whites went through the same kinds of fabrications for the exact same reasons.
If you like this, wait till you read the book “A Taste of Sugar”…
Copyright protected by Estate of Betty Mae Porter-1973-2012
Digging Roots: My Family History 
Can’t wait until the book comes out!
Andrea,
I wish I could have included more of the story. The story talks about my mother’s first job where she worked in a sweat shop in New York. I was like Wow!
Not sure how long this book will be, but with today’s technology and new ways of publishing, I think if it is only 100 pages, It will be great! We will see…would like 200.