Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 101

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Christmas card from wealthy heiress Dorothy DaPonte and her controversial foster daughter Carrie Mae. Printed holiday card, 6½ x 4½ inches, with 3¾ x 2½-inch photograph mounted on recto, and Autograph Note Signed by Dorothy Danner DaPonte on verso; mat toning and foxing in margins, lacking a bit of one corner. Mobile, AL, 19 December 1956
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This is an interesting story, though not necessarily heartwarming. A noble attempt at integration ahead of its time? A failure of misguided liberalism? Just the timeless tensions between an overbearing parent and a rebellious teen, set against an unusual background? Build your own narrative.

In 1951, a wealthy widowed Alabama lumber heiress named Dorothy Danner DaPonte decided to raise Carrie Mae McCants, the 6-year-old daughter of a servant who was in crisis. Because the girl was Black, the arrangement caused a scandal in Alabama high society and became a national news story. Dorothy's efforts to have her foster daughter integrate the Mobile school system resulted in death threats and cross burnings. Carrie Mae was educated at elite private schools in France and Maine, but after she returned to Mobile for high school, tensions grew in the house. Dorothy disapproved of the company Carrie Mae was keeping and her vulgar preference for the "tom-tom beat of rock 'n' roll music." At age 16, Carrie Mae married a Black disc jockey and left home. Dorothy and Carrie Mae both made unkind comments to the press. Jet Magazine ran a feature: "Why Ala. Girl Left Wealthy White Mother: 10-Year Guardianship Became a Life that was Unbearable" (23 March 1961). They eventually reconciled--somewhat--and Dorothy later helped raise Carrie Mae's own son. They were the subject of a 1995 book, and a 19 March 2007 story in the Flint Journal. Dorothy died in 2002, and her daughter Carrie Mae in 2006.

Offered here is a Christmas card from happier times, illustrated with a photograph of Dorothy and Carrie in traditional Dutch costume, posed around a spinning wheel in front of a mantel. It was sent just months after the Klan burned a cross on their yard. On verso is a short message to a friend or admirer, probably referring to a message of support: "I am very grateful for your sympathetic message and your most interesting and inspiring quotation from the year 1529. Carrie Mae and I wish you a very merry Christmas indeed."

With--an explanatory note by the recipient, describing Dorothy as "an exceptional woman . . . a southern noblewoman, a fighter for integration, and a lovely woman." It states that the photo was taken "during their European travels, 1955." Also included is the 23 March 1961 issue of Jet featuring their story.

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