Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-10-03
DALLAS YOUTH I0 COURT 10 PROVE HE IS WHITE MAN Mystery Surrounds Birth of Texan, Reared by Negro
 Family.
BELIEVES .KINSMEN ~
 RICH, INFLUENTIAL
Frank $. Kennedy Begins Determined Fight to Clear Up Puzzle of Parent age-Black Foster Mother Tells
 Of Receiving Child at Night.

Dallas, Texas. Oct. 2-Believing that he is related to a rich and influ- ential family and that despite his having been reared from infancy by negro woman, and having graduat- ed With honors from a negro high school, he comes of white parentage, Frank s. Kennedy, 24-year-old Dal- las youth has engaged the services of an attorney to establish his ident- ty. The youth has none of the pe- cul!ar characteristics of the negro race, and Attorney Lee I. Sterling, who is Investigating the case, be- lieTos he will be able to establish conclusively that the boy is of white parentage. Leaves Negro Associates.
 The story of the hidden tragedy of this boys life that has been enacted in Fort Worth and Dallas for the past tWenty-four years, according to At ;fnfneX 3Starling, came to light. a short. f:tlme. Nago when Frank Keifnedy ifs (said-to have torn himself away, from, the obnoxious company of negroes and began a struggle against odds, to. justify that inner consciousness *of Anglo-Saxon superiority that glowed and pounded within his breast. r Frank Kennedy. graduated with hopors from the negro high sel1pol dla Dallas. and The has a diploma signed kbF Edward "A. Belstering, then presi- dent of the school board, to show for T Franks negfo foster mothar ,sHattie White. formerly Hattie Canada. 6ged G1 an old-fashioned before the war pegrp. is said by MT. Starling to live on Clark street. Mir. Starling has an interesting statement from this old woman as to how the boy was -Arauaht to her by her husband. Law renee Canada at night in Fort Worth twentv-four years ago. According to Nr. Starling, the negro women ue- l clares that she received money resu- | larlv for the maintenance or the chlla bntil few years aSO.
 Now at 4 years or age, Prank heil- nedy, wIlO OI ills own accord, changed his name from Canada, speaks IL culverlng voice Of his struggle TO be what he felt he had the right rO pe. The rerulsion for negroes. the nor TOT of their constant society that longing that he dared not admit TOT the friendship of white boys, the Jeers and ugly epithets he heard when ne tore himself away from the bonds of q race exile more terrible than prison-all these things burst from the youths lips in statement to a newspaper man.
 Could Easily Pass as White,
 Kennedy has all the appearances o1 benig white. His hair while dark is straight and his head is not shaped like the average negre's head. His other features have the appearance of those of any other white man. He could successfully pass as white any
 where.
 Attorney Startling will not make
 public all the details of his investlga- tion of the boys past and his an
 restry but he says that when he com
 niafes his chain of evidence he may
 have most interesting. announce
 ment to make. In part, however, he
 says:
 "In 1906 Hattie Canada and Law
 rance Canada separated and Hattie
 came to Dallas, bringing the boy
 Frank S. Kennedy, with her. The olf
 reoro woman was told by a Whltt
 man to return some papers she hat
 receiyed when she first obtained tn'
 how and have them changed so sh
 oould continue with the work
 ,earing the lad These papers were
 never returned to her. the woman savs Lawrence Canada died at th' Tarrant county poor farm Februar. 4, 1904 c.,soY ) "Frank advanced rapidly ln th 5 negro school of Dallas. His negrr
 fosfer parents seemed to live well