The Weight We Carry

667 words | 2 mins 46 secs read time

Sometimes, life has a way of connecting dots you didn't even know existed. That's what happened to me recently while listening to The Personal Librarian on Audible and attending a Momsgiving event last week.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of Belle da Costa Greene, a Black woman who passed as white to become J.P. Morgan's personal librarian in the early 1900s. Belle managed million-dollar art collections and navigated high society circles while carrying her enormous secret. Her mother invented a Portuguese heritage to explain her family’s complexion and convince the world they were white.

Belle lived in constant fear, knowing one wrong move could unravel everything. Back then, passing as white, even in liberal New York City, could mean death.

As I was deep in this book, I attended Momsgiving, an event hosted by Mahoga…