St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1952-07-11
Ebony Reports
On LOST" Family
In Current Issue


Chicago, ul.-Five years age
the family Of DR.. Albert c. John,
ston opened the doors Of their
spacious home in Keene. New
Hampshire and invited the nation
to step in and listen to one of the
most amazing stories of the gen.
Grafton.
Through the columns of
Readers Digest" and later in a
best-seller book and a penetrat-
ing movie, the dramatic and fear
full story of the Johnston family
was unfolded for the whole world.
With courage and determination,
DR.. Johnston, his wife and four
children told the world of their
secret: We are Negroes who have
been passing as whites for the
last 10 years. Now we are becom-
ing Negroes once again.
Overnight, as millions read the
Johnston story and saw the
forceful picture produced by able
Louis De Rochemont, the family
became popularity know as the
Lost Boundaries" family.
Since then everyone, including
the Johnstons, wondered, What
will happen, now that their secret
is out and they have taken up
their lives as Negroes?"
Today, in an equally dramatic
account, EBONY Magazine, one
of the leading publications in the
world, tells for the first time in
its current issue just what has
happened to the Johnstons in the
five years since their little Sc
cret became known to the world,
To-day, DR.. and Mrs. Johnston
still reside quietly in the pictur-
esque New England town of
Keene," writes Miss Clotye Muir
dock, associate editor of EBONY.
THE physicians practice rather
than diminishing, has increased
tremendously. Three of the four
Johnston children have grown up
and moved away from Keene. The
youngest child, Paul, Is away at
school. Two of the Johnston chill
dren, Donald and Anne, married
white mates, while the oldest boy,
Albert, married a Negro girl. All
OF the married children say they
are happy and have few problems
because of their race"
Many wondered, after reading
the story and seeing the movie
about the Johnston's, just how
they were going to be accepted by
their neighbors now that they are
taking up life again as Negroes.
Nothing significant happen
ed" insists the doctor and his
wife. Nothing except that we
continued to live as equals in a
town which wears its democracy
like a shining shield"
The doctor, who is a radiologist,
says he has never encountered
race prejudice among patients re-
ferred to him. He and his wife
have dropped out of all of the
city's social clubs since admit
ting they were Negroes.
Although they have admitted to
the world that they are Negroes,
the Johnstons still tiptoe across
the color lines whenever the oc-
casion demonds 1t, reports Miss
Murdoch. when they go south
they always make the trip as
white people" in order to avoid
discrimination"
Many Americans wondered, too,
what about the children, who
have been brought up as whites.
Miss Murdoch says the strongest
repercussions from publication Of
Lost Boundaries" were felt by
the Johnston children.
The most affected, says the
EBONY writer, was Albert, now
26 years old, married to a colored
girl and living and working in
Los Angeles. His job was one that
only a white man could handle,
and II he had been asked his race,
says Albert, he would have said
he was white for IT was taught
to answer that way as a little kid
and I've never answered any other
way"
Albert is outspoken on the is
sue of white-Negro relations, and
is writing a book, "an explosive,
controversial" book on his ex-
periences.
DIR. Johnston's decision to dis
close his secret may have more
repercussions later on among his
children, perhaps his grandchil-