My mother’s father was half Blackfoot Indian and half African American. Her mother was Irish American (we were told she was related to the Kennedys). My grandfather was born in East Orange, NJ, but move to Cleveland, Ohio and his career by running a “numbers house”.

My grandmother's father ran whiskey and had a club, which is how my grandfather met her. When she got pregnant (three times) by my grandfather, her family and her community disowned her. In the mean time, my grandfather provided for her, but could not marry her. She ended up passing away due to lung complications, but mainly because the "white" or "black" hospitals would not treat her.

There is a lot more to this story, but it would take a book to tell it.