Racial Passing

Who are you? From whence do you derive? No, this is not a Shakespearian couplet. But it is one of the most important and spiritual questions of all time. Questions that history has failed to have answered. Is there a right or wrong answer? For some, the answers are simple. While for many others it's not as simple because the world is not simple. Which side do you belong on? Racial passing, let's explore this concept with a fine tooth comb (no pun intended).

Racial passing is the act of a person belonging to one particular race who tends to pass for another race. Although this term is broad and is meant for anyone but it is usually referred to members of the black race who passes beyond the color line. There are many instances where this can be seen throughout history, and the mass media (books, and films). Today I would like to expound on the historical aspects by speaking on the life and times of Ellen and William Craft. Also, I will give a brief explain utilizing two movies that highlights the topic of racial passing (The Imitation of Life and An American Scandal).

The world is comprised of many beautiful people filled with many attractive colors, races, and creeds. Like a kaleidoscope, which depicts several swiftly changing scenes and patterns; people's thoughts on controversial issues tend to be colored often with a jaded eye.

Ellen and William Craft the names of two African American abolitionists who were husband and wife. Ellen Craft (1826-1891) was a light-skinned black who helped her and her husband escape from slavery by passing as white.

Ellen was born in Clinton, Georgia, to a biracial slave woman and her master and was so light-skinned that she was often mistaken for a member of her father's white family. Because of this confusion at age 11 Ellen was given as a wedding gift to a daughter who lived in Macon. There Ellen met William, whom she married in 1846. Two years later, the Crafts began to devise their escape plan, which involved Ellen posing as a white slaveholder traveling with "his" slave William.

This plan required many levels of deception. Because a white woman would not travel alone with a male slave, Ellen had to pretend to be not only white but a white man. She cut her hair, changed her walk, and wrapped her jaw in bandages to disguise her lack of a beard. To hide her illiteracy, she wrapped her right arm in a sling to have a ready excuse for being not able to sign papers; and she explained all of the bandages by claiming to be an invalid traveling north to receive medical care. In this manner, the Crafts traveled from Georgia to Pennsylvania by train, steamer, and ferry without being discovered. They arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas Day in 1848.

In Philadelphia they quickly made friends with abolitionists William Wells Brown and William Lloyd Garrison, who was inspired by the power the Crafts’ story could have as an antislavery method. The Crafts relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, and began traveling as antislavery lecturers. But the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which mandated that fugitive slaves living anywhere in the United States must be returned to their owners, put their freedom at risk (see Fugitive Slave Laws). Because of their celebrity, the Crafts were singled out by slave catchers as targets.

In November 1850 they made their way to England, where they had five children, attended an agricultural training school, and continued to support antislavery activists. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, William's autobiography, was published in London in 1860.

In 1868, following the American Civil War, the Crafts returned to the United States with two of their children and settled in Ways Station, Georgia, near Savannah. There they farmed a cotton and rice plantation and attempted to start a school, although financial debts from the plantation and hostility from white neighbors ultimately led to the school's demise. Ellen Craft had deceased in 1891 and, at her request, was buried under her favorite tree on their land. William eventually moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he died. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom was reprinted in Arna Bontemps’ 1969 collection Great Slave Narratives. The Crafts' story remains a testimonial to the intelligence, cunning, and courage many African American slaves brought to their determination to be free.

Let's take the film imitation of life, this film clearly states a young lady is determine to racially pass off as white. When Sara Jane was younger it seems as though she was envious of Susie from the very beginning. She sees all the things that Caucasians have and how life for them seems to be easier. There was a scene in the 1934 version where the children were in the kid's bedroom and they were playing with dolls one white the other black. The bi-racial child insisted on playing with the white doll. There was also another scene where Susie's mother kneeled down to give her a kiss and Peoliah insisted that the white child's mother kisses her too. There was another scene where Peoliah and Sara Jane were in school and when her mother shows up to bring her rain gear the bi-racial child storms out of with embarrassment. Her teacher was also fooled stating the she has no colored students in her class; however when her mother points her out the bi-racial child storms out and never returned to that school again. This is clearly a case of being ashamed of being who you are. All through the 1959 version we see Sara Jane treats her mother really bad, so bad that she don’t want to be seen with her mother in public. Sara Jane has found a boyfriend and when he finds out that she is part black he beats her up. Sara Jane gets employed at a department store and her mother shows up and she denies that is her mother! Annie who is her mother makes a statement you were born to hurt or to be hurt! What a painful statement! Her mother (Annie) desperately tries to let her daughter know that no matter what “I love you Sara Jane" her mother goes to the extreme to go to her place of business (Sara Jane) as she’s performing as a showgirl. Annie shows up unexpectedly because she knows her days are accounted for, her last dying wish was to see Sara Jane and instill in her of her mothers love! Sara Jane still angry when she sees her mother because of who she is treats her mother so rudely and when one of her young white associates enters the room she doesn’t admit the fact that’s her mother she simply states that’s someone she once knew. It took the death of her mother to come to grips with her racial identity. She now wants to admit that she is black and that was her