White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing

As seen on The Today Show!“Important in helping us understand America’s complex racial history.”—Kenyatta D. Berry, Host of PBS’s Genealogy Roadshow

White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing is the story of Gail Lukasik’s mother’s “passing,” Gail’s struggle with the shame of her mother’s choice, and her subsequent journey of self-discovery and redemption.

In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her African-American mother’s decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness.

Haunted by her mother’s fear and shame, Gail embarks on a quest to uncover her mother’s racial lineage, tracing her family back to eighteenth-century colonial Louisiana. In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage.

With a foreword written by Kenyatta Berry, host of PBS's Genealogy Roadshow, this unique and fascinating story of coming to terms with oneself breaks down barriers.

• Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away
• One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets
• Light, Bright and Damn Near White: Black Leaders Created by the One-Drop Rule
• Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance
• Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black
• A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life
• One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life - A Story of Race and Family Secrets
• Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond
• Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond
• We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America