In 1897, Atlanta, that was the heart of black economic success, the street where blackowned businesses thrived despite the increasing brutality of Jim Crow laws.

If the Washingtons owned a tailoring business on Auburn Avenue, there would be city records.

She spent the next week immersed in Atlanta archives.

Business directories, tax records, property deeds, commercial licenses.

Finally, she found it.

Thomas Washington, proprietor, Washington and Sons fine tailoring 127 Auburn Avenue, established 1889.

Cross referencing with census records, she assembled the family structure.

Thomas Washington, born 1855, wife Ruth, born 1858.

Four children listed in the 1900 federal census.

David age 16, Samuel age 13, Grace age 11, Clara age nine.

Clara born approximately 1891, which would make her about six or seven in an 1897 photograph.

The youngest child, the position matched, but it still didn’t explain the central mystery.

Why did Clara Washington, daughter of two black parents, sister to three black siblings, appear white in this photograph? Rebecca knew she needed to find out who Clara was, and more importantly, what had happened to her.

Rebecca began building Clara Washington’s life story from fragmentaryary records, searching for any clue that might explain the photograph’s mystery.

Atlanta City Directories showed the Washington family’s stability and success.

Thomas Washington’s tailoring business appeared in every directory from 1889 through 1904, with advertisements describing fine custom garments for distinguished gentlemen and later ladies and children’s specialty tailoring.

Church records from Big Bethl AM Church, one of Atlanta’s oldest and most prominent black congregations, listed the entire Washington family as members.

Clara’s baptism record dated April 1892, confirmed her birth.

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