A WOMAN raised in an African American family discovered that she was biologically WHITE 70 years after she was born.
In 2013, Verda Byrd, 75, from Converse, Texas, was told by her mother that she was adopted – a revelation which would change her life forever.
Verda then began to search for her biological parents and soon discovered that her siblings were actually white-skinned.
She said: “It’s was unbelievable. I grew up not questioning birth or anything else because it was never told to me that I was born white.”
Her astonishing story is now the subject of an autobiography titled Seventy Years of Blackness.
Verda was actually born Jeanette Beagle in 1942 to a family of 10 children, reports KENS-TV.
However, her father Earl Beagle walked out on his wife and kids the following year – financially hobbling the family.
Jeanette and her siblings were then put up for adoption when her struggling single mum was severely injured in a trolley accident.
She was adopted by Ray and Edwinna Wagner – a financially secure African-American couple in Newton, Kansas.
The baby was renamed Verda Ann Wagner and never told of her heritage or the fact that she was adopted.
She was regarded as a light-skinned black child by her family and friends and admits she never questioned her background.
Verda, who has been married twice and has a daughter of her own, said: “My adoptive mother, Edwinna Wagner, never told me that she had adopted a white baby.
“She took it to her grave that she had a white daughter.”
Verda refuses any comparison to “trans-racial” Rachel Dolezal who in 2015 was revealed to be a white woman while posing as a black leader of an African-American civil rights organisation.
She told USA Today: “She lied about her race. I didn’t lie because I didn’t know.”
The 39-year-old was born on November 12, 1977 in Lincoln County, a northerly region of the US state of Montana.
Her parents Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal are both white and primarily of Czech, German and Swedish descent.
Before landing herself in controversy, Rachel made a name for herself as a civil rights activist and an academic who specialised in African-American studies.
She also acted as the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Spokane, Washington.
In June 2015, Rachel’s parents Larry and Ruthanne revealed she was not actually black.
They decided to reveal the truth about their daughter after she made a report to the police and local media that she was the victim of nine hate crimes.
When it was revealed that she was actually white, critics accused Dolezal of cultural appropriation and fraud.
After facing major backlash, Rachel eventually admitted she was “biologically born white to white parents”, claiming race is “not coded in your DNA”.
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