J.P. Morgan was a wealthy financier, with an impressive personal library full of rare books and art. Even top museums couldn't compare.
But the woman managing the bookshelves hid a secret that could NEVER get out.
Belle da Costa Greene, the face of the library, was a powerful careerist who was well-respected and embraced by wealthy whites. She curated New York City's famous Morgan Library for decades.
But nobody knew she was Black!
Fed up with racism, in 1905 her mother decided that the family would pass as white when Greene was sixteen – causing a rift because Greene's father was an outspoken civil rights activist.
Greene walked a lifelong tightrope keeping up this facade. She changed her name to sound Portuguese and refused to marry, fearing that children would reveal her Blackness. She financially supported her family, so even their livelihoods were dependent on the deception!
Although Black people today don't have the same pressures, we use similar creative survival tools. Code-switching helps us navigate white supremacy. We change our appearances, speech, and sometimes entire personalities just to "make it."
Like Greene, many juggle multiple identities that systemic racism forces us to create. The sooner white supremacy is dismantled, the sooner we can rest from its horrors. So we have to keep fighting, imagining, and creating the world we want to live in!