In the late 50’s and early 60’s it was a very unfashionable to be an unwed mother. It was especially unfashionable to be unwed and pregnant with a bi-racial child.
As such, many young women were sent to “birthing homes” so as to not be an embarassment to their families. Most of the lying in periods were for a matter of months to allow the mother to consider her options. At that time, most of the options were adoption, although many women did not adopt their children and went home to deal with their circumstances.
The records from homes such as Florence Crittendon, Salvation Army, etc., were kept in strict confidence and remain so to this day because of the number of adoptions that occured.
It is very possible the Ms. Dunham spent several months in one of these very secluded “birthing homes” and that could account for her long unaccounted absence and untraceability.
” n the late 50’s and early 60’s it was a very unfashionable to be an unwed mother. It was especially unfashionable to be unwed and pregnant with a bi-racial child.”
When people discuss Barry’s BC controversy, I think they apply modern practices and policies to the situation, forgetting that the time period was almost 50 years ago.
The Civil Rights laws did not get passed until 1964 and 1965 and this was a time of huge national angst and uproar about segregation.
Dating outside your religion was not widely accepted.
Dating outside your race was almost non existent.
Out of wedlock births were a huge social stigma.
An out of wedlock birth of a bi racial child to a teen age girl
would have been a social nightmare for the grandparents.
In Obama’s book, he wrote about how upset his grandparents
were about the relationship between their teen age daughter and this older, black man.
No one went to their wedding and no real record exists, he wrote.
No relatives were informed.
The parents were already very uncomfortable with the relationship , even before the pregnancy.
He infers that once “ the baby “ arrived, their views softened.
“ Then the baby arrived with 10 fingers and 10 toes “ is the extent to which he discusses his mother’s pregnancy and his birth.
And almost makes it sound as if the birth was a surprise.
And you know this, how?
I was a young woman in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and I can assure you that none of the above was fashionable. NOT AT ALL!
If it were fashionable why would ypur next point be the case:
As such, many young women were sent to “birthing homes” so as to not be an embarassment to their families
I fear that you are condensing later practices and imagining them to be the case in earlier years. "Birthing homes" existed precisely because unwed pregnancy of any color was highly UNFASHIONABLE!