Mixed Families, Adopting Across Racial Boundaries

This book is a study of transracial adoption, a trend that became popular in the late 1960s among white couples, partly because of a shortage of white babies available for adoption and an abundance of minority children in the adoption system.

The trend was initially applauded as an important step toward dismantling racial barriers, but a competing philosophy emerged in the 1970s arguing that Black children needed to grow up in Black families in order to develop a positive self-image and a strong sense of identity.

In an effort to examine and better understand the debate, Ladner interviewed 136 transracial adoptive families to explore how they were coping with the issues that arose. What she discovered was a mixed picture. Some families believed it would have been better for their Black child to have grown up in a Black family, while others viewed the experience positively, finding that it fostered greater understanding and appreciation between races.