mulattoes

An African-American male tells of his mother, a white woman, who refused to admit her true identity.

Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to "pass" for white, describes his journey through African-American society from genteel aristocrats to the musicians of ragtime.

James McBride shares the story of his mother's life and complicated racial identity which he only learned after becoming an adult. He tells of her infancy in Poland as the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, her childhood in small-town Virginia, her move to Harlem at the age of eighteen, her marriage to an African-American man, her achievements as a wife and mother to twelve children, and her refusal to ever admit she is white.