'The testimony of Equality does not reflect all of Rosa’s experiences within our Society.' Photo: Book cover of Talking About Skin: A memoir, by Rosa L Carter
Talking About Skin: A memoir, by Rosa L Carter
Author: Rosa L Carter. Review by Helen Lockwood
Rosa Carter, who is a Staffordshire Quaker, has written a fascinating memoir. Although originally only intended for her three sons, it has now been published for a wider audience. It should be essential reading for white Quakers who wonder about the lack of black people within the Religious Society of Friends.
The preface begins ‘I am one of the two thousand “brown babies” born in Britain to white mothers and African American GI fathers during the last two years of the second world war’. Her mother, with the support of her much-loved Granny, resisted pressure from other family members to give Rosa up for adoption. She spent her early life with her mother with very little knowledge of her father, who disappeared on military service before she was born.
It is an interesting account of life in the 1950s for Rosa with her mother Ellen, who was in domestic service in a rural village. This was extremely hard work, with basic housing and, as the only black child in the community, Rosa experienced racism at school, in the community, and from her wider family. There were, however, positive people in her life including some good friends and caring adult women.
Further education was prevented when her mother refused to fill in details about her father on a grant application, and so she was unable to go to university. Rosa’s life then took a different path, through nursing training, where she met for the first time another black person, Elaine, who became her lifelong friend. Through her, Rosa found a positive identity as a black woman.
Rosa experienced two failed marriages – the second having a terrible effect on her, resulting in a major breakdown and mental health problems for some years. Recovery came in time with the aid of a counsellor and good friends.
Rosa became a Quaker at this later stage in her life, drawn by Friends’ testimonies to Equality, Truth, Simplicity and Peace. But the testimony of Equality does not reflect all of Rosa’s experiences within our Society. We should be thankful that she has remained with us, particularly in Staffordshire where she has given much valuable service.
