Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family

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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 973.04960730092 EAN: 9780520222571 ISBN: 0520222571 Label: University of California Press Manufacturer: University of California Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 321 Publication Date: 2001-05-01 Publisher: University of California Press Studio: University of California Press
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Editorial Reviews: Pearl's Secret is a remarkable autobiography and family story that combines elements of history, investigative reporting, and personal narrative in a riveting, true-to-life mystery. In it, Neil Henry--a black professor of journalism and former award-winning correspondent for the Washington Post--sets out to piece together the murky details of his family's past. His search for the white branch of his family becomes a deeply personal odyssey, one in which Henry deploys all of his journalistic skills to uncover the paper trail that leads to blood relations who have lived for more than a century on the opposite side of the color line. At the same time Henry gives a powerful and vivid account of his black family's rise to success over the twentieth century. Throughout the course of this gripping story the author reflects on the part that racism and racial ignorance have played in his daily life--from his boyhood in largely white Seattle to his current role as a parent and educator in California. The contemporary debate over the significance of Thomas Jefferson's longtime romantic relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings, and recent DNA evidence that points to his role as the father of black descendants, have revealed the importance and volatility of the issue of dual-race legacies in American society. As Henry uncovers the dramatic history of his great-great-grandfather--a white English immigrant who fought as a Confederate officer in the Civil War, found success during Reconstruction as a Louisiana plantation owner, and enjoyed a long love affair with Henry's great-great-grandmother, a freed black slave--he grapples with an unsettling ambivalence about what he is trying to do. His straightforward, honest voice conveys both the pain and the exhilaration that his revelations bring him about himself, his family, and our society. In the book's stunning climax, the author finally meets his white kin, hears their own remarkable story of survival in America, and discovers a great deal about both the sting of racial prejudice as it is woven into the fabric of the nation, and his own proud identity as a teacher, father, and black American.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Very Touching and Powerful Comment: I really enjoyed following Neil Henry on his search for "the other side" of his family tree. This book has a real suspenseful edge to it as well as profound, touching and painful aspects.There is so much here. History lesson,sociological study,detective story,love story ...it's all here, and very well done. Customer Rating: Summary: Searching a Lost Branch of the Family Comment: Fascinating story. The author, who is black, allows us with full sincerity into his heart and soul. Being middle-class white myself, I believe I know how other middle-class white people think because of our shared experiences. But blacks have lived other experiences. This book gave me a peek into the middle-class black world. For that I thank the author. Reading how the author spent frustrating hours researching and searching for his genealogical past in different towns and states, and in archival and governmental departments was tickling. He showed me step by step how he got ever closer and closer to his goal of finding this lost branch of the family. Throwing in as a monkey wrench the fact that the branch he spotlighted was white whose patriarch disowned his child (the author's ancestor) during the slave days because she was ½-black made for a very interesting read. I recommend this book for all, esp. whites. It's written in a simple open style except when he goes off on his black-politics tangents. But even that helped illuminate his inner workings. I have black acquaintances who hold the same hypersensitive political beliefs. But nevertheless I found that these tangents took away from the unity of the book. It could be argued that there are two books here under one cover: one is a fascinating story on finding a lost branch of the family, a black man finding his white kin; and the other is on impersonal racial politics. I skipped thru the politics. But it's OK, the first half was well worth the price. Also, I found that at times the author spent too much time on some of his immediate family who really had little to do with the book. Perhaps if he had delved more into his own experience as a black man in a white world rather then relating his parents' experiences in the Jim Crow era. But thankfully the story always got back to the struggle within the black author himself , of his anger, and of his conflicting black and (largely unknown) white heritage. When the author finally made first contact with his contemporary (white) distant cousins, who were indeed vaguely aware of a black half-aunt from a few generations back, and after so many intervening generations of lost contact, and after so many steps of unending research, well, it was very moving. It was very deeply moving. Even a Klansman or a Black Panther would've been moved by this story of reunion of black and white in the same family. I couldn't put the book down,. What an adventure in closing the circle that spanned over a century. I hope the story didn't just end where the book did. Customer Rating: Summary: Neil Henry's Journey Comment: This is a splendid book on many levels for the historian, genealogist, or anyone who just likes a spellbinding story. For Mr. Henry tells a fascinating story of discovery. Mr. Henry not only reveals the various paths he trod to find his other family--but reveals many insights into black/white relations and how they change, black/black relations within and outside black neighborhoods, and, in snippets, gives hints on how we all can get our act together to make this a better country for all Americans. I was absolutely mesmerized by this book and highly recommend it. Customer Rating: Summary: From An Old Seattle Friend Comment: I was shocked when Neil jumped up and angrily walked away from me saying that I was a racist. It was 1970 and Neil Henry and I were sitting with a group of friends in Franklin High School's library before the start of school. We often were together whether we were in math. class, playing chess, or basketball. Neil Henry is an old friend of mine who I haven't seen since high school, and reading his book brought back many memories. This one memory of him depicts the struggles that he must have felt about his own identity. "Pearl's Secret" tells an incredible and spiritually uplifting story of his victory to gain a hidden truth of his family that was his own identity. His life tells of a extremely capable young man who wanders through the world in search of something he isn't completely aware of himself. It is a story that many of us spend our lives dealing with in our own ways. Neil's strength and courage is his reward. That morning over thirty years ago when I felt I had hurt a good friend is now brought to light for me. I'm sorry Neil, and thank you. Customer Rating: Summary: A 'Secret' Worth Revealing Comment: Neil Henry took this journey for himself and his family. That he chose to share it through 'Pearl's Secret' is a gift to us all. This work is an excellent addition to the body of literature about race relations in America. This book chronicles Henry's often exasperating research into the history of his white ancestors and their descendents. Through years of diligent, tedious searching, Henry managed to find his present-day white kin and visited with them in the hope of having his burning questions answered and sharing collective lore and memories. His writing style and candor in describing his curiosity, anger and dissapointments made for more engaging reading than I had anticiapted from a book which I had mistakenly believed was only about genealogy. The conculsion that Henry's 20th century black family raised in Seattle was far better off than his distant white relations living in the south is a testament to the home enviornment in which he was raised by loving parents who truly understood the importance of instilling pride, self worth and confidence in their children--no matter the odds stacked against them. Overall, I found the book to be uplifting and positive. I would recommend it highly. More Reviews