A Chosen Exile

Countless African Americans have passed as white, leaving behind families and friends, roots and communities. It was, as Allyson Hobbs writes, a chosen exile. This history of passing explores the possibilities, challenges, and losses that racial indeterminacy presented to men and women living in a country obsessed with racial distinctions.

• Light, Bright and Damn Near White: Black Leaders Created by the One-Drop Rule
• One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets
• White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing
• Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away
• Passing
• The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White: A Secret History of Race in America
• Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black
• Imitation of Life
• Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color
• The Heavens Might Crack: The Death and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.