White Mother

Book excerpt: Into the lives of two ragged little Negro girls came an angel—a white angel. So it seemed to Veanie and Mingie Bennett, seven-year-old twins in a Florida town, half-savage, motherless, caring for their paralyzed and dying father. Alone they fought for their lives, stole food, and struggled against a hostile world. Then chance led them to the white side of town and the door of Mrs. Rossie Lee. It proved to be the door to a new life. “It was not at first intended to be an autobiography, but I found that I could do it no other way and still reveal and convey my full purpose—to write the story of a most gracious lady—a Southern white lady—to whom my sister and I attribute all that is sweet in our lives. I discovered that my sister and I were so intricately woven into the background, setting, and the story itself that we had to fulfill our inherent parts in this beautiful memory. Thus I ventured to tell the story as we lived it then and remember it now.”—Jessie Bennett Sams (“Veanie”)