Why Is Deerfield (Still) So White?

In 1962, my parents adopted an infant girl who they named Rebecca. Rebecca’s birth certificate identified her as Caucasian. However, over the course of a few months her skin darkened. And when my parents began to ask questions, they learned that Rebecca was half African American. While they were surprised, my parents were split on how to proceed. My dad, a prominent businessman, felt that raising a black child in all-white Deerfield would be too much of a hardship on the family and Rebecca herself. My mom, an ardent civil rights activist, had bonded with her baby and wanted to keep Rebecca. Eventually, they made the gut-wrenching decision to relinquish Rebecca to social services for re-adoption. I was adopted several weeks later, replacing Rebecca.

With the luxury of hindsight, it’s tempting to harshly judge my parents’ decision, which is what I did most of my life. However, as I recently discovered, there’s more to the story than what meets the eye.

Three years prior to Rebecca’s adoption, in 1959, the all-white North Shore suburb of Deerfield where my parents lived had condemned a housing development — which was in the process of being built — when village officials discovered that the developers intended to sell the homes to African Americans. Town leaders didn’t openly admit to opposing integrated housing. Rather, they objected on the basis that…