You may wonder why I would dedicate a page about someone who supposedly betrayed the race by passing. Well, it's easy for me to overlook her but I like a challenge and I researched her and will further to try to understand why she did what she did when she had so much as a Negro/Black woman. There are two sides to every story! Despite her passing, a part of her still belongs to the black race; her achievements as a black woman are still apart of the great culture.
Elsie was born in 1914 in Detroit, Michigan to an elite, prominent Black family. She and her family lived in a way that only few Blacks lived...comfortable. Elsie grew up in nice homes, had good maids, good equipment, the best of whatever was to be had at the time. So, naturally, she felt she was just as good as anyone, including whites. Elsie's family subconsciously protected and sheltered her from the harshness that Blacks faced which was good but harmful because when she went out in the real world, she didn't have the "tools" to deal with the many rude awakenings that Blacks face which wasn't in tune with her fairtytale lifestyle. Elsie had an extreme self-importance and self-confidence, hey, you can't blame Elsie for not feeling less than anyone, including whites. You can't blaim her being ambitious and feeling like she was special. Maybe, some Blacks could have learned a lesson from Elsie about self importance. But, Elsie was the one who learned a lesson!
Elsie was a beauty, very striking with a strong aura and magnetic charm. She left an impression on anyone she encountnered. She always was highly ambitious. This is one of the reasons why she may have passed. I'll tell why later!
Elsie was envied in the neighborhood. She was "Hollywood" in Detroit with her own car, stylish clothes, and the talk of the town. Elsie had the most exciting life of any black girl in her neighborhood. By the age of 18, she was the most talked of Black socialite in America in The Black Press. She was the role model of "what you could be" and "Hey, some of us live as good as whites!" It must have been exciting to look through the society pages and see one of your own doing good and living good for a change because the sadness of the race was always publicized.
Elsie's uncle John Roxborough was the wealthiest man in Detroit. He was the originator of the numbers racket in Detroit. Another of his achievements was he discovered Joe Louis and groomed him as he supposedly did Elsie, to prove the splendor of blackness - its strength, beauty, artistry, and character. Elsie was raised to be "black and proud" and her family was proving that the impossible can be possible. Elsie's family was one of the few Black elites and socialites in America; they were the first of the kind. Elsie could have been added to the prestigious list of greats that came from Detroit had she stayed a black woman.
Elsie and Joe Louis spent time together at Idlewild, the American black society resort community near Manistee in northern Michigan. Elsie spent summers of her childhood there, playing softball, horseback riding, taking pictures on the beach, and dancing. Neighbors at Idlewild included author Charles W. Chesnutt, and physicians Daniel Hale Williams, who first performed open heard surgery and Charles Drew, who discovered blood plasma. Nella Larsen referred in her novel "Passing" (1929) to Idlewild as "quite the thing" for Blacks who had "arrived." Nella Larsen was a woman who was bi-racial and fought diligently through her life to live as black and white. Which was a loss cause. Elsie in a way tried to live on both sides of the fence too.
The dating between Elsie and Joe Louis were just that; just a fling! When Joe Louis eyes wandered, feisty Elsie broke the windows of his new Packard (car). Joe Louis was big news in Black America and beginning to get notice in White America. On July 13, 1935, The Chicago Defender front page banner read, "Not Engaged," Say Joe Louis and Girlfriend: Co-Ed Denies Rumor That She Will Wed." It quoted Elsie and Joe just saying they were friends and marriage was out of the question.
From the time Elsie was a child the black press wrote about her every doings, boyfrieds, and good and bad. Elsie's name moved rapidly move from the society pages to the entertainment/celebrity pages.
Elsie was a talented writer early on, in 1932 after graduation from Northern High School, Elsie stayed in Detroit doing various writing activities. Elsie's father owned the "Detroit Guardian" and Elsie wrote about cultural events, "going ons," gossip of the city and even about popular Black stars like Cab Calloway in her father's paper and in various leading black newspapers like The Chicago Defender.
Elsie had another love. She started writing, producing and directing plays; the most talked of plays at the time. Whether they were good or not, Blacks commended her for her efforts. Elsie created her own acting group, The Roxanne Players, which was much talked about in The Black Press. Elsie was respectfully called "the colored Constance Bennett."
Many who knew Elsie painted a picture of an influential, dynamic personality. She was a local celebrity around Detroit and an inspiration. Here was a Black woman who made people follow and listen to her...which was rare! Why hadn't Elsie notice her talent and power as a Black woman? Not even in the white race, could a white woman do as she. Maybe because she had it all and had life easy, she didn't realize what she could do and have enough strength to face any racism knowing there's a reward at the end. She didn't realize that when someone attacked a black with racism, their were trying to rob you of your greatness. Since Elsie wanted an easy life she passed thinking the white race would be her heaven but maybe it proved Hell. Elsie proved the grass isn't always so greener on the other side.
One of Elsie's first rude awakenings was as a student at the University of Michigan. Elsie was the first Negro student to live in the University of Michigan's dormitory. The whites didn't want to room with her and practically didn't care who she was even if she was better than them class-wise or money-wise, why? Simply because she was a Negro. Even though Elsie had more then some of her white classmates financially, was upper class, and had the same complexion as whites but it didn't matter, she had black blood in her veins and that was inexcusable no matter how light or rich she was she was considered second-class. Elsie never really experienced this before. She was always respected because of who she was in her community. She was in a way superior in her community. The University of Michigan was a white person's haven, which Elsie felt she was entitled to. Elsie's father, Charles Anthony Roxborough, who was the first Black state senator, used his newly power to investigate discrimination at U of M which in a way lessen the heat on Elsie. Arthur Miller who was a classmate, who later married Marilyn Monroe, called Elsie, "a beauty, the most striking girl in Ann Arbor." She was light skinned and very classy. To a kid like me, she seemed svelte, knowing, witty, sexy."
In the fall of 1935 the Theatre Guild of Detroit produced her play "Wanting," Elsie's sister helped out by acting as artist, Dodsie, best friend to the heroine. In February 1936, "The Crisis" (NAACP magazine) had a two column photo of Roxborough, captioned "Young Playwright," to publicize "Wanting." When the play was presented in Chicago, The Chicago Defender gave the play a bad review... Basically it said it was out of touch with "negro reality." "Elsie had characters involved with plans to go cycling in Italy, the idea of one owning a stable of ponies, of one making another a present of a yacht becomes ridiculous in the mouths of Black actors and actresses because these situations are so far from reality".... The Chicago Defender stated.
Maybe, reviews like these disillusioned Elsie. Maybe if Blacks tried to see another side of Blacks living - see the elite, protected, wealthy, "Blacks living as good as whites" lifestyle that wasn't filled with poverty, cruelty and brutality, they could have supported Elsie more and seen a different side of life and made it a goal for themselves. Elsie should have been applauded more for bringing something new to the public featuring Blacks that was never seen because Elsie was trying to prove not all Blacks live hardly and don't think or see the world the same. Perhaps, Elsie should have put herself to the side and discovered her "blackness" and her people who didn't live as good as her and put both sides of Black life together and Blacks should have tried to see her point of view as well.
As an aspiring playwright, Elsie who knew nothing about the ghetto, poverty, and hard living, wrote of intrigue, exciting simplicity, bliss, and freedom to do what you what. Elsie's writings and plays were something new to Blacks and Whites. Elsie was good at shocking people. Elsie's writings were applauded and criticized in the Black Press. The Black Press and Black community felt her stories wasn't in tune with the "average Negro" and felt they couldn't relate. Elsie submitted "Wanting" to Hopwood Minor Drama Contest in April of 1936, but with a new title, "A World of Difference." Her play placed third. Her competition Arthur Miller won first prize.
Most didn't understand or relate to Elsie's plays. The majority of Blacks didn't relate to her eccentric, bold, simplistic, life of bliss plays when they had to live in harsh reality and whites simply didn't want to see Blacks doing anything substantial unless it was singing, dancing, jumping, religious, and portraying ghetto or southern stereotypical life. Whites surely didn't want to see Blacks living as well as them. Even though Blacks and whites couldn't fully relate to Elsie's plays, that was life as Elsie knew it; or wanted it to be.
On April 25, 1936, Roxborough's play "Flight" was produced in Detroit. It was a play about a woman disillusioned with her race is advised to flee to a race that makes her happy. Two of Elsie's plays, "Flight" and "Wanting/A World of Difference" involved a character who leaves the group/race their born in for a different one. Telling from her plays, perhaps, Elsie had it planned for a while to pass but stayed black to see how far she could go. Both of Elsie's plays also seem to suggest when you want happiness or anything for that matter, do what you have to...even if it means being something your not or selling your soul!
On November 7, 1936, Roxborough's play "Father Knows Best" was presented by the Roxane Players at the Detroit Institute of Arts. No info is around about the play. But Elsie kept busy the rest of the year and the beginning of 1937. She ran the Roxane Players, which she named partly after herself, wrote for the University of Michigan's campus paper, and kept her studies up. Her dramatic group stayed on the up and up, despite the partial, less flaterring reviews because she was ELSIE ROXBOROUGH.
Elsie was a close friend and obviously one of the many influential people in legendary Langston Hughes life. She produced Hughes's play "Drums of Haiti," and charmed Hughes as she charmed boxer Joe Louis. Langston Hughes said in his autobiography, "Elsie Roxborough was the girl I was in love with in 1937."
In March of 1937, Langston Hughes visited Detroit frequently viewing rehearsals of his "Drums of Haiti" that was to open the next month. The play was about Jean - Jacques Dessalines, a rebellious slave who freed his people to become black emperor of Haiti...
Even though none of Roxborough plays was a huge success, The Black Press kept her in the papers. In the Afro American, "Social Skits" column it said :
"Last weekend, éclat Detroit probably packed into their Lucy Thurman YWCA to witness Langston Hughes's Troubled Island, the title of which dashing Mr. Hughes allowed equally dashing Elsa Roxboro to change to Drums of Haiti. The quidnunes would have you swoon in your best Melanie fashion over the Hughes-Roxboro duo because ... these two are supposedly in the throes of love. . . . Elsie has what the girls call "flash."
The romance didn't seem to be serious as they both assured The Black Press when asked about the romance. Love between Elsie and Joe Louis, Langston Hughes, and even Stepin Fetchit couldn't last long or become serious. Elsie believed in images, social status, and obligations. When she met Louis, Hughes and Fetchit they weren't famous and prominent as of yet. She was class, they were street. None of the men knew of the "good life" or about "keeping up appearances" as of yet like Elsie. Elsie most likely made sure romances with black men didn't go far because she wasn't quite sure of her future in her race and marriage to a black man was out of the question, because whatever she would do in the future, like passing, would be blown if she married a black man and had a child that possibly could come out black. She knew in the back of her mind if she was going to pass, she had to keep a clean background!
But by 1937 all three former black lovers of Elsie achieved social status in the world, Joe Louis, heavyweight champion of the world whom blacks and whites loved, Langston Hughes work was starting to take notice in white society, Stepin Fetchit was a movie star who became a millionaire. These men at first didn't fit Elsie's preference, class-wise, but ironically they became superstars in White America. Perhaps, Elsie felt as a "white looking" Black woman she couldn't succeed or be taken seriously as a Black and others didn't take her seriously either and she lacked the drive that Blacks had who came from nothing since Elsie had everything given to her all her life, so she didn't realize the importance of what "making it really means," opening doors and proving yourself to yourself, your race and the world. So Elsie took the easy way out!
When Elsie graduated around 1937, Roxborough dyed her hair auburn and passed into the white world. Elsie had the type of look that in the Black community, she looked Black despite her fair skin but at the same time if you saw her amongst whites you would think she was a white woman. The black community knew Elsie had passed and wasn't surprised because they expected that of someone who looked like Elsie. But it's always still a surprise and shock when Blacks and whites hear of it or actually know someone who passes.
The Black Press quite sure where Elsie was or what she was doing. She dropped out of sight suddenly. In late 1937, The Afro American column headlined on Elsie, "Elsie Roxborough Reported Living Incognito in Gotham." "Elsie is living in Gotham as Nordic, much to her family's undisguised disgust." They gave out a few hints in the column of her passing. The next time her black neighborhood friends and associates (who knew her as a Negro) heard about her was in 1949 when an eight column headline in the black newspaper Michigan Chronicle announced her death from an overdose of sleeping pills. Langston Hughes kept her photograph over his writing table for the rest of his life.
Did Langston Hughes poem "House in the World" tell of Elsie's Roxborough fate?
Why, would Elsie leave a race where she had superiority, prominence, prestige, and admiration for a race where she had to start from the bottom and be average, which Elsie wasn't accustom to? She felt being white would help her succeed automatically but she found out the hard way that she was wrong. Had she patience and perseverance as a black woman, like so many others, she would have progressed. Not satisfied with her own race and the struggles, she felt being apart of the white race would complete her and her life would be perfect. Elsie always was thinking outside herself. Since she was raised like a princess, naturally, she wanted the best and felt being Negro wasn't the best. In the 1940's Black America was enhancing and progressing, while as a white woman Elsie really went no where, while ironically three of her former beaus, Joe Louis, Stepin Fetchit and Langston Hughes were getting much acclaim with their inherented abilities in America.
Elsie felt if in America a Black woman isn't appreciated for writing and a Black could only "make it" for athletic or entertaining abilities, then she would flee to the white race where a woman's art and femininity would be appreciated, so she thought, Elsie found even white women face discrimination and sexism within their race.
Elsie took on the name Pat Rico, Elsie didn't seem to pass for white all the way, she seem to have passed for Hispanic/Spanish at first, to see if she could fool folks as Spanish before she pass as white but even Spanish people are accepted in the white world somewhat if their not too ethnic looking. Elsie spent some time in Mexico, where she touched up on her Spanish speaking and Hispanic culture in case someone asked about her family and where she came from. Perhaps, Elsie passed as Spanish and passed as an exotic European type to stay on the safe side in case someone questioned some of her features because she didn't look like the average All-American white girl.
As Pat Rico, she flourished for a while as a model and owner of a modeling studio in California. After a while in California, she moved to New York, downtown of course. Under her new name she published a story, "Charming Escort," in the September of 1939 issue of Street and Smith's Love Story magazine.
When Elsie was passing she dated quite a few white males but even when dating them she had didn't get too close for fear of being discovered and for fear of truly loving one, getting married, and having children in which she couldn't control whether they would look black or white. She didn't want to be humiliated if a kid came out black because then her cover would be blown. So whether white or black men, she never fell in love because of fear of having children with them. In the white world, Elsie couldn't get too close to anyone because she had so much to hide and feared if anyone got too close they would know find out her secrets.
Many light skinned women face a point in their life to pass or stay the race they were born as. Really it shouldn't be a question but many ones who don't look within themselves for their "blackness" not just on outward appearance face the decision. Elsie succumbed to temptation. Elsie passed as white thinking she could become a top-notch journalist or playwright. She obviously felt that when your white it means you succeed easily and life is heavenly, which she found wasn't true. As a Black woman, she was the talk of the town, mentioned in just about about every popular Black newspaper. She was success but that wasn't enough for her. She could have been one of the "first" black female playwright like Lorraine Hansberry. During the 1940's of her passing, Black America was making the world look at them positively, Blacks were proving themselves, portraying themselves truthfully, and doing what they were told they couldn't. Blacks were achieving what they were told they never could. Black people's talents were making them rich and famous in white America; they were showing they could do anything and be successful as whites. Ebony magazine was introduced in 1945 and many Black publications after that followed. You can't help but feel Elsie thought, "Did I make a mistake passing?" "I'm passing as white and not successful." "If I'd stayed my race, or was strong enough to stay my race I could have been one of the successful ones." We know she felt that as she watched Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Joe Louis, Langston Hughes and many others make good in different genres in the white world and were hailed worldwide as gifted beause of the talent they inherited from their race. They were special because they were black and achieving the so-called impossible.
Dark-skinned Blacks and Light-skinned Blacks share more then they think. Both are discriminated against in the black and white race. Neither seem to be able fit in. Darker ones find dismay among other blacks because of darker skin and/or for having more African features. Lighter ones aren't looked at as Black enough or being someone that Blacks can't relate to. Both face discrimination and racism in the white world because of their race. Elsie like many white-skinned Negroes were in the middle of both races; couldn't fit in the black race but couldn't be white because of the "one drop of black blood." Having light skin proved a blessing and a curse in a way. In the black community if you have lighter skin or/and white features more value is placed on you, your sometimes looked at as better then the average black because their considered the next best thing to a white man or woman, but that's the thing, your still Black and still number two in the white world because of belonging to the black race. Light skin is looked at as better because it's considered prettier and if you light enough can pass for white and not face racism and prejudice as much as a darker black. The "curse" is no one takes a fair complexion Black man or woman seriously, their often called not black enough, someone blacks or whites aren't able to relate to. Darker blacks automatically have strong dislike for light-skinned Blacks because of brainwashing that they have it so much more better or because of discrimination they faced from other lighter blacks. Many blacks self-hatred made them dislike lighter ones because they envy their complexion but little do they know lighter ones have problems and self-hatred themselves. Many admired their light skin because of hatred for the black within them. Many lighter ones have acted as though they were better but found in the real world, your still a nigger to the white man. Which made some treat darker blacks the same as whites treated them. Some didn't want to be white, yet, still valued their skin color, believing they were "the better of the black race." Their were ones who hated their light skin, the closer they were to whites complexion, the more dismay they had for whites because when looking at themselves they saw the very race they had disgust for, they saw personally the damage whites inflicted on them. Then their were ones like Elsie who felt their light-skin was an advantage and found the "blessing" and being light skin better because they could pass for white. High yellar Cotton Club chorines were valued at the nightclub because of their light skin, looked at as prettier, but when any of them tried to make it mainstream, their light skin stalled their success because of not looking black enough and no one wanted to see a white looking Black, whites or blacks. Performers like the Whitman Sisters, Mae Alix and other complained about their not succeeding because of their fair complexions and how browner girls were picked over them and were told only if they passed would they find success at the same time darker Blacks were complaining about how they couldn't succeed because of their complexion and lighter girls were picked over them. This proves Blacks of all complexions aren't exempt from racism and discrimination. Whites didn't want to see Blacks who looked like them suceed because it killed their stereotype and illusion of what they thought blacks looked like and it proved their white blood was in the black race and that they shared some commonalities; which they weren't ready to face. Many black actresses like Evelyn Preer, Fredi Washington, Anne Wiggins Brown, Vivian Harris, Hilda Simms, Ellen Holly, Lonette McKee, and many today found trouble succeeding as a Black actress just because they have no pigmentation and don't fit the stereotypical view of a black woman. Fredi Washington, Hilda Simms, and Ellen Holly didn't find success as an actress in Hollywood but actresses with color like Dorothy Dandridge did. Fair-skinned Black actors Dick Campbell, Monte Hawley, Lorenzo Tucker, Norman Astwood, Edward Thompson, Barrington Guy, Percy Verwayen, and Jack Carter were turned down on sight but darker tone Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte found acceptance and achievements. When will the world accept the many looks, colors, and features of black women and men? Until all are accepted passing will never die. When people say light skin is better, are they saying, your better because you have the choice to pass as white? Many like Elsie Roxborough didn't find it better being a light skinned black woman so their complexion help them pass. There was a battle within ones like Elsie, looking white but yet not white, feeling superior because of color but considered inferior in the world because of race. The black on the inside and white on the outside is a often battle for a weak, confused one - this is the definition of a tragic mulatto. As said in the movie, "Imitation of Life," "You don't know how hard it is to look white but be black." Elsie's blackness on the inside was ignored, her outward appearance was judged and the black race and very white race she looked like felt uneasy just because she wasn't considered fully of either race.
Passing for white seem to lessen Elsie's talent as a writer, she lost the "heart and soul" that all Black writers have that make their poems and plays profound. Along with passing for white, she lost her passion, culture, and pride which always helped her and other black writers. As a white woman what did she have? Freedom? But what did she do with it? We all would like to think, perhaps she passed just for the opportunities she thought she get as a white woman but really didn't want to be white. Maybe she didn't pass fully! Maybe she had such hatred for the oppressing race that to get back at them was to fool them and scheme like they did to get what she wanted. Maybe, Elsie felt like, "If you think I'm white, that's your mistake, I never said I was."
Elsie mostly passed out of spoilness to get what she felt she needed in a hurry "from the other side." Did she really want to be white? Did she feel she needed to learn something or attain a certain something from the white race to later laugh in white race face? Because, the way she was raised, she couldn't have utter hatred for the Black race and culture that she diligently worked in and for. Her passing was an act of desperation; distraught over her career not going as planned. She had to know how passing could harm her, but nothing hurt as much as her career spiraling down, maybe she felt she'll go for broke.
Perhaps, Elsie was trying to live the best of both worlds. She was Black when the coast was clear and white when the going got tough. Elsie may have been trying to have her cake and eat it too because she didn't leave the Black race fully. She still went uptown to Harlem to hang out at Bill Robinson's Mimo Club and was even photographed. She went to the dock to watch Langston Hughes sail to Europe. She still kept in touch with her family. Elsie sure didn't fear being "caught" like many who passed for white. Elsie was being very hypocritical and contradicting just like the very race she was passing as, "hating Blacks in the daytime but at night couldn't get enough of their entertainment of songs, dances and sex."
If Elsie really wanted to be completely of the white race, wouldn't she have strayed far away and wouldn't have kept in touch with family or blacks or her roots?
If Elsie had been a performer or actress, maybe she would have stayed in the race but she had bigger dreams of writing and producing plays on stage and maybe even on Broadway, which very few of the Black race had succeeded at. It's to be said that maybe she was discouraged by members of her race who told her "Blacks won't have the chance on Broadway." Maybe Elsie could have been the one with a little more encouragement. She took the supposed easy way out by passing.
One wonders was it hard for Elsie to be apart of an oppressing race, a race that had treated her bad because of being black which she detested but to be white she had had to become like them in their presence. As white, she had to accept white values, so if niggers was being discussed she had to join in, fore no one is hated more then a white who sticks up for Blacks but at the same time she joined in when Blacks were called great, gifted artists...in her mind she use to be one or could have been one still. The love and hate for both races, the passing for white hoping not to be discovered, and the awareness mentally and heartfully that she was still black had to be mentally and emotionally draining especially hearing the degradation of Blacks by whites since she was Black by birthright and in her heart she knew what was being said about blacks weren't entirely true. One wonders, did she ever feel the urge to stick up for the blacks and shock them with the conclusion that she's one of them? She had that sass in her! Psychologically it was damaging to hear blacks put-down in her presence because she knew in her heart she was black despite her passing and she was included in their insults. She knew if they knew she was black she wouldn't be accepted so though passing she wasn't fully accepted still.
By the mid 1940's, Elsie took on a new name, Mona Manet. Mona (Elsie) was featured in New York Times in October 21, 1943 issue, where it said Mona Manet was in charge of makeup and coifurres for the Time's "Fashion's of the Times" style show. And she had opened her modeling salon, Mona Manet, Inc... by 1944.
In, February of 1946, a new, internationally flavored magazine, "Fascination" was launched in New York by Hungarian Geza Herczeg, who had won an Oscar in 1938 for writing "The Life of Emile Zola" for the screen. Mona (Elsie) joined the staff, and wrote a column on new cosmetics. "Fascination" was not first rate, and soon folded. Mona/Elsie never connected in New York with any important magazine.
Did anyone or why didn't anyone tell Elsie she could of started her own magazine or wrote a column on cosmetics and styles in the Black Press and magazines? She would have been more appreciated for it. The difference between black and white culture is blacks put more emphasis on achieving as means to help themselves and their race because it's a way to show support, encouragement, and pride. The white race is use to achievers it's monotony in the white race. Blacks celebrate ones who achieve and accomplish because it's a step forward for all. Elsie surely was celebrated for her achievements when she was black by the Black race. She would have been celebrated much more even to this day if she stayed her race and grew as a writer and accepted the love, support, criticism, and encouragement from Blacks to help her become a great, admirable writer worldwide by all. If Elsie had took to heart her black pride she would know despite racism and prejudice blacks still can succeed. Maybe, if she opened her heart, Blacks would have opened their heart to her. Elsie's achievements aren't mentioned in mainstream Black history books.
No one is quite sure if Elsie actually committed suicide or if she died of nerves but her death had a lot to do with mental and emotional problems (many lighter skin women faced more emotional and mental problems and committed suicide more then any other in their race) and a broken heart over her unattainable dreams. None of New York's press mentioned her death even though she had notable writings in if not important but popular magazines. Her New York death certificate noted her false name and listed her race as white in New York where she died. Her family had a private funeral service in Detroit possibly to keep whites and blacks from knowing of Elsie's "sin." Elsie's passing was honored on the front pages of Detroit's Black Press. The Michigan Chronicle spread a banner headline. Her achievements as a black woman weren't forgotten and were proudly stated in the paper. The paper attributed her death to nerves then suicide. Elsie/Mona roommate found her dead. Elsie didn't seem suicidal. Elsie stockings were soaking in the wash bowl, a sign of going out the next day, she contacted her family the previous week asking for money. But, Elsie may have felt like the character she created in her play, Russell Terrell in "A World of Difference," an unsuccessful writer (like Elsie) had a wish for death... When I go to bed at night. I don't care whether I live until morning or not - most times I fall asleep praying for death. I feel all lost in a great vastness, and beaten .... I go through the usual automatic rituals, eating tasteless food, talking meaningless talk, laughing soulless laughter. I'm too much of a coward to really die - I've just prayed to sneak out in my sleep.... If I were only of some use to the world!
Those words are so intriguing. Elsie's talent in this piece of writing shows her potential. Had she patience and had not been so spoiled, who knows what she would of became, the possibilities are unlimited. In this instance, passing was a bad move ... professionally, psychologically and it maybe even caused her life. It's possible Elsie had a wish for death because all her plays had something to do with her life. She "felt" unsuccessful as black and passing for white seemed her only last hope and if that wasn't successful, death was the last and only way. She surely couldn't be black again; she knew she wouldn't be accepted.
As white, Elsie had to surely be careful, if she wanted to be an actress, she couldn't. She couldn't do anything that would put her in the spotlight, in the public's eye mainstream because she would be "outed" by someone and her real race revealed so it seem better for her to pass for white and remain behind the scenes of show business. Being outed was a humiliation Elsie didn't want to deal with. Many who "passed" especially in entertainment were outed by either blacks or whites and careers ruined. If Elsie was to attain success she had to try to be successful on her own and "behind closed doors." She couldn't converse or go for help to whites or blacks who once knew her as Black. It must had been bittersweet and difficult to see the black race enhancing in all types of fields while she was struggling as a white writer.
I can guess all day about why Elsie Roxborough passed. She's a mystery and only she knows what really happened. If in another world Elsie reappears I hope she appreciates the fact that a few of her race remembered her positively, wanted to know her, and her work instead of her passing and tried to undestand her decisions and I hope she particularly knows that she didn't mean as much to the white race as she did to the Black race. Blacks realize what she could have been and appreciates what she did do, even if she didn't.
Why is it always of interest and a "big deal" when a black passes for another race? There have been whites who've passed, Jews, Indians and Spanish have passed for white. Merle Oberon, silver screen legend, passed for white, she knew she couldn't be Indian and be a movie star; because she knew as an Indian woman she would be stereotyped. She didn't despise her culture but felt she had to do what she had to do to make it even if it meant tricking white Hollywood, so be it! Even her mother went along with it. No one found out until after her death. Her "passing" actually made Oberon more of a legend and ironically her talents more appreciated. Oberon isn't hated or "outed" in Hollywood history. Some even praise her for being clever enough to fool whites! Subsequently, Merle looked ethnic, she never looked fully like a white woman but if she said she was white, that was good enough for Hollywood because of her fair complexion. Merle was a beauty and talented, her beauty was an admiration too many. She was always noted for her rare beauty which she inherited from her race (she didn't look like the average white beauty) but if she had been her race and tried to succeed she wouldn't have made it the way she did as white because in Hollywood, no matter the beauty or talent, being white is a must. Rita Hayworth, a legendary beauty and actress, was Spanish, everyone knew but Hollywood put her through painful plastic surgery to make her look less ethnic and more white. This world is sickly obsessed with race and color.
It's ironic the same year Elsie Roxborough passed, Oscar Micheaux, legendary black film-maker, released a movie called "God's Stepchildren" about an unruly, spoiled girl who causes all kinds of trouble throughout her life, particularly not wanting to be Black and passes as an adult but isn't successful as planned and commits suicide. The same year Elsie died in 1949, the movie "Pinky" came out about a girl who passes, she doesn't necessarily hate her race but couldn't take the cruelty she would face looking white and being black so she uses her light skin to advantage by passing but later finds she can be successful within her race. In Elsie's time I'm sure she knew of the many movies and plays on "blacks passing as white" who met defeat, even her friend, Langston Hughes wrote a story on a unsuccessful attempt on passing and the emotional stress it can cause. Maybe powerhouse Elsie felt she was invincible. Langston Hughes own father passed for another race often urging his own son to pass. I'm pretty sure Elsie and Langston conversed heavily on the subject of "passing."
It's ironic how when Elsie passed it was said "I knew it" and "I told you she would" but someone like legendary actress and activist Fredi Washington who's fair complexion was always talked about more then her talent, never gave people the satisfaction of saying "I knew she would pass", others were always boasting about how she could pass and maybe wanted to. It's like they wanted her to pass but she never did and some seemed shocked that she didn't pass and had great pride for her culture, more then some darker-skinned Blacks and she did many great things for her race but she always had to prove herself and it seems people were never satisfied. Some Blacks at the time felt dismay of their blackness and because they had self hate they felt if they were light enough they would pass so couldn't understand why Fredi wouldn't pass. Some would dislike ones like Fredi and Elsie for the very thing they wish they had, their "light skin," some Blacks felt inferior around lighter Blacks like they would around a white. Some Blacks would be cruel and treat lighter ones like an outcast, that was their way of getting back, treating a lighter black like the white world treated them. Darker Blacks couldn't fight the white world so fought and disliked ones in their race who looked white because through them they saw white (privilege), not a black, which brought anger out. Fredi was judged because of her fair skin and people felt why would she stay what she was... a black woman and not fully accepted in the world as Black, if she could have a better life as white. Elsie proved that theory inconclusive though. Fredi was black on the inside and that's all that counted. It didn't matter who accepted her or looked at her as white or black. She knew what she was and that's all that mattered. Many darker blacks passed for white mentally; but no one questions them.
Elsie felt nothing she could do would make the Black race happy because in her all they saw was the very race they had contempt for. So many white skinned Blacks felt, I never be accepted in the black race, why not be what I look like!
Black America used the term "light skin" too loosely. They don't know light skin until they see someone like Elsie Roxborough, Fredi Washington, Dick Campbell, Norman Astwood, and Jack Carter. Light skin use to mean having no color, now one is called light skin if you just have a lighter shade of color. There's not as many "white Negroes" like their were in the early half of the 20th Century. The white blood was very strong in the Black community then. Most having inherited white blood from rape, most had a grandparent who was white whether they knew them or not. There were so many "white Negroes" because whites made the "one drop of black blood" rule which casted mulattos out of their race and forced them to be black. Whites didn't want mixed race people in their race though it was their fault. Whites felt their race was pure and having mixed race ones in their race would ruin that. Elsie and Fredi and others had black parents, they just inherited their light skin naturally from whites from the past. Which is kind of ironic when bi-racial people who have a current white relative come out more black now and days. Blacks can come out in any ole' color, most black families can have anywhere from dark skin, brown skin to pale skin Blacks. The white men putting white blood in the black race caused more problems, as if blacks didn't have enough problems from whites. The white blood in the black race enabled blacks to be various colors, have various white features, even looking all white which caused some blacks to feel inferior and some superior. Some even took on some of the discriminating traits of whites by treating other blacks in discriminating ways to feel superior since they couldn't in the white world. One problem with the black race is they say their proud of their race and culture but want to look white and looking white is valued but at what price - selling out and proving the oppressors right that white is better. Looking white is not being white so an inferiority complex is a prevalent trait in many blacks and looking like what they'll never be is psychologically draining and abusive because it's a form of self-hatred.
It's ironic how whites don't want to be pale, they tan because they want color in their skin and they can still be successful, yet Blacks who are naturally tanned are judged because of their color. Many lighten their skin or value their light skin hoping for equality. But whites can be "colored" and succeed. This all boils down to, it's not all about skin color, it's the power and control the white race wants over other races and uses color as a way to make people of color inferior.
Food for thought, Did Elsie Roxborough learn her lesson and want to come back to the Black race after 10 years or more of passing since professionally her career went no where but couldn't face the race and their harsh criticisms and judgements and that's why she maybe committed suicide? She achieved and failed as Black and as white; what else was there for her to do?
A lot of "maybe's" "why's" and "could of's" and "should of's" here but Elsie story can't help but be filled with it. I truly feel maybe Elsie was playing a role that ones would talk about after she was gone. What is your review?
I decided to create a page for Elsie Roxborough because she was one of the first Black female playwrights. As I looked through old Black newspapers, there was a lot of talk on her which proves she was "somebody." Her work was interesting and profound. You can feel her enthusiasm while reading her writing. Her work really should be reviewed and appreciated. Her difference in writing wasn't appreciated by Blacks then, maybe it can now. Elsie Roxborough could have been the first Black female playwright mainstream, maybe even producing and directing on Broadway or Hollywood or both and it could have gained way for black female playwrights now. She had it in her. She just steered herself wrong. Elsie Roxborough left behind pleasing writings.
Can Blacks forgive Elsie Roxborough? There's evidence she didn't entirely leave the black culture behind. As an extremist, Elsie seems to like to take dares and risks. The last risk did her in, professionally, emotionally, and personally. Did she learn her lesson as did so many fictional characters who passed in movies? Will we ever know?
