In 1997 June Cross, a journalist, produced a documentary, Secret Daughter, with PBS Frontline about her life as a biracial daughter of a white woman and a black comedian. This was a poignant, difficult undertaking as Cross revealed how her mother, Norma Booth, for fear of jeopardizing her white husband’s show business career coupled with her own insecurities about June’s appearance, gave her daughter away to be raised by a middle-class black couple. This allowed June to be raised among “her people” in a safe, nurturing environment and kept Norma’s former life a secret. Now in a revealing memoir, Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away, Cross chronicles in detail the circumstances surrounding her complex journey.

June Cross was born in 1954 to Norma, as aspiring actress and James Cross, a comedian of Stumpy & Stumpy fame. When Norma left June with Aunt Peggy and Uncle Paul, June assumed it was just for a short visit; it became an extended visit, an informal adoption for the childless couple. Even though she visited her mother in New York and later Los Angeles, she always returned to Aunt Peggy in Atlantic City, New Jersey. June’s visits with her mother were of a schizophrenic nature; she was told to pose either as a niece, an adopted daughter, or a friend but never as Norma’s birth daughter. Norma was ever fearful that if she were to reveal she had a black daughter, Larry Storch, her husband and a star of the television series, F Troop, and several movies, would lose roles. June was always in a state of confusion about her mother’s denial of her existence.

Aunt Peggy, a school teacher, was close friends with the formidable Gregory family, a picture-perfect postcard for the Talented Tenth that Dubois endorsed. Accomplished, highly educated, strong standing in the community of Atlantic City, New Jersey, they were executives, scholars, and musicians; and fiercely proud of their black heritage. June lived in the shadow of these standards and then she would go to her mother’s house and have to play another role. June’s insulated black middle-class world became integrated in high school during a time of rebellion, black pride and afros. She began to embrace her natural hair and her Negroid features, the very thing that was a factor in Norma giving her up when she realized she could not pass June off as white. She was in constant battle with Aunt Peggy about appearances and impropriety, and who was acceptable to date and befriend. Aunt Peggy felt a career as a journalist would deter June from getting husband; she preferred she have a more “traditional” major.

I enjoyed learning about the black entertainment business of the 1940s and 50s; and to learn that Jimmy, June’s father, who she only saw only once as a child after her parents separated until she was an adult, was considered a trailblazer. Jimmy’s career was derailed by racism and alcoholism but his comedic style influenced comedians such as Jerry Lewis. I also appreciated learning about the history of a vibrant, African-American community in Atlantic City, which I had always thought of as a tourist, oceanside city.

I approached this book as being another tragic mulatto story, and while some elements fit the bill, I came away with respect for June Cross and the bravery it took to put the dynamics of her convoluted life out to be judged and dissected. Though I cannot help but still believe that Norma was a coward–even right up to the time of the documentary, in actuality it was probably the ultimate gift of love to her daughter to have given her to a black family as her own troubled background, and her inability to accept the complexity of raising a black child in a white world was beyond her capability. This book stands with the tomes of the best stories by children of mixed-race unions.

Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub

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