In White America
Interracial Children and Adoption
by
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While Anne worked on the omelet I phoned the agency. The switchboard operator asked me to please hold. Finally the director came on. "Yes, Mr. Barlin." "It's been two years since we put in our application." "There are still no Jewish babies available." My impatience with the agency's parochial guidelines blew. "We'll take a child of any religion, any national origin. I was loud, angry and demanding. "Any race, any color." Heated, I waited for an answer. Silence. To repair the damage my anger might have done, I explained rapid fire. "Anne and I work with children of different races all the time. We wrote Jewish child on our application because you said that asking for a child of like religion would facilitate the process." She still wasn't talking. Did I blow my chances by yelling at her? "You'll take a child of any national origin?" "Yes, of course." "You're not just saying that ... to speed up the process." "No, we mean it." "Because of Mrs. Keebleer's long silence again I guessed that she didn't believe me. But then I heard, "Would you and your wife be willing to put that on your application?" "Yes, of course, happy to." I felt an abrupt change from anger to feeling giddy, as if the door I'd been pushing against for three years suddenly opened and I fell through. But another silence. I worried again that she had changed her mind. But then I heard, "Tomorrow morning?" "That would be fine."
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About the Book
Jessica Keebler, director of the Los Angeles County Bureau of Adoptions in 1955, faces an almost insurmountable crisis. There’s a logjam of unadoptable babies and a severe lack of adequate foster homes for these children. The crux of this issues rests with a statute in California’s adoption law stating “... an interracial child is a non-white and may be given only to a Negro family.” Since Negro family applications to adopt are as rare as rain in the Mojave desert, the backlog of interracial babies threatens the structure of Keebler’s department and her mental health. When Paul and Anne Barlin, a white family, say they will adopt a child “of any color, any national origin,” Keebler believes she may have found a way to resolve this backlog of babies. To make this unusual adoption a reality, she must have the courage to flaunt the law or stand up to the state legislature and ask them to repeal the law. Her actions will determine if one at-risk child will be placed in a loving home. This one case has the potential to change the landscape of adoption forever.
About the Author
Paul Barlin and his wife, Anne, were the first couple to adopt an interracial child in California, doing so in 1956. Currently a resident of Colorado, Barlin is the author of six other books.