Nearly 500 Voices from the Past Resurface (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Legal scholar Dorothy Roberts delved into decades-old interview transcripts and uncovered profound insights into her family’s interracial marriage amid Chicago’s rigid racial divides.
Nearly 500 Voices from the Past Resurface
Robert Roberts, a white anthropologist at Roosevelt University, launched the Mixed Marriage Project in the mid-20th century. He and his wife Iris conducted extensive interviews with interracial couples across Chicago. The effort captured stories from unions dating back to the late 1800s through the 1960s. Transcripts filled 25 boxes that gathered dust after Robert’s death. Dorothy Roberts inherited them during her move from Chicago to Philadelphia. What began as a scholarly endeavor to complete her father’s work evolved into a personal revelation.
She pored over the documents and found striking contrasts in the researchers’ approaches. Her father’s notes emphasized physical attributes in an anthropological style typical of the 1930s. Iris, a Black immigrant from Jamaica, focused on emotions, home life, and children’s behaviors. Roberts described her mother’s entries as resembling screenplays, rich with vivid details.
A Mother’s Overlooked Contributions
Iris Roberts played a key role by interviewing wives starting in the 1950s, while her husband spoke with the husbands. This division revealed complementary perspectives on the same relationships. Dorothy learned of her mother’s involvement only through the files. The discovery sparked questions about her parents’ own union, formed in the restrictive 1950s. Even more startling, Roberts spotted herself listed as participant number 224…