Mabel Christie was a Bajan woman born in Barbados. Her father was a Scottish man who fled to Barbados to escape famine. There, he married a black woman. Mable migrated from Barbados to America and got married to a Bajan priest named James Carter. They had four children, Malcolm, Marion, James, and Charles. Malcolm was often ridiculed for having reddish hair and freckles like his mother and was told by his father he was not his biological son. Malcolm later fought for  World War II, marrying a woman named Jackie after. Charles fought in the Korean War. He settled down in Brooklyn to work where he met Grace Williams. They married and had three daughters, Carmen, and twins, Carol and Charlotte. Unfortunately, Charles was struck with MS and passed away when Carmen was four and the twins two. Grace became a single mother working as a secretary for wages. She became the first black family in her neighborhood when buying a two-family home from an Italian man. Malcolm, being the only family she had left, stepped up for her and his nieces. They married in November of 69’. Malcolm loved to see at least one of each daughters’ children, me being the last he held. I’m proud to be of both Bajan and Scottish blood, coming from a single parent grandmother, and happy to know my grandfathers fought for their country. 

– Camille Jackson

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant