Was I to blame for my mother abandoning my sisters and me? Was my skin too dark? Was my hair too wooly? Did she love me at all? In this riveting and powerful memoir, Judy Fambrough-Billingsley bares her soul and describes the transformation she experienced in her quest to answer these questions. As the daughter of a white German woman and a black American soldier, the author became one of the many unwanted "brown babies" whose mixed-race often led to their abandonment after World War II. From childhood in Germany shortly after the war to adulthood in America, Too Brown to Keep: A Search for Love, Forgiveness, and Healing recounts the author's inspirational odyssey, as the search for her birth parents leads to discovery of the good, the bad, and the ugly family secrets she struggled to unearth for decades.
She gives a captivating, true account of the emotional and psychological effects of being biracial, abandoned, an international adopted baby, and the heart-wrenching, very public rejection she suffered at the hands of some members of her newly discovered family. Her remarkable journey of the trials and triumph she endured on her journey of self-discovery results in a thought-provoking chapter on forgiveness and healing. This easy-to-read book concludes with a guide to researching your own ancestry or finding and reconnecting with a person who has been missing from your life. Too Brown to Keep is gripping, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.