Woman Wins Plea to Be Listed as Black

A woman who said her parents “wanted their kids to make it” and listed her as white on her birth certificate won her quest Wednesday to be designated a black.

“I’m very thrilled. I’m very happy about it,” said Mary Christine Walker, 39, after U.S. District Judge John Brooks ordered the Kansas Department of Vital Statistics to issue her a new birth certificate. “I’m glad it’s over.”

The former Denver public school teacher, a native of Great Bend, Kan., said she has always called herself black despite the well-intentioned deception her parents began when she was born.

“My parents wanted their kids to make it, and they picked the easiest way possible,” Walker said. “They knew what it was to be black. They knew the problems.”

Her father, who is black, and her mother, whose mother was white and father was black, endowed their daughter with a fair complexion, green eyes and light brown hair that allowed perpetuation of the secret.

Walker said the deception never bothered her until she applied for a job and officials pointed out the discrepancy between the “white” on her birth certificate and the “black” she filled in as her race on an application. The officials accused her of lying to take advantage of minority hiring policies.