Lots of talk about race has surfaced in recent weeks with the recent Rachel Dolezal controversy, and now one woman is speaking out as well. Verda Byrd, who considers herself African American, found out after 70 years she was, in fact, Caucasian. After her biological mother suffered a trolley accident, the infant Verda (then Jeanette Beagle) was adopted by an African American family and raised as a “fair skinned African American”. Verda never knew of her adoption, nor that her parents were not indeed her actual parents until decades after their death when researching her family history.
Now reunited with her living brothers and sisters, Byrd says she still chooses to identify as African American, and empathizes with Dolezal, but concedes their situations were very different.
The full story can be read at USA TODAY.
