Forgive Me

“I’m looking for a house/In the world/Where white shadows will not fall/There is no such house/Dark brother/ No such house/At all.” Some say Langston Hughes wrote this poem for the love of his life, and, at times, his muse, Elsie Roxborough. Some say this is a ridiculous notion, that Elsie certainly didn’t deserve to be immortalized in a poem. Some say she was a disgrace to all the races she represented over the years. Some say, if a person is of a number of races, why shouldn’t they reap the benefits of each one? Some say the benefits to anything come with the repercussions of everything. And, here I sit, writing in my kitchen, a cat in my lap and a poodle at my feet. Me, a middle-class white girl who grew up a lower class-ish white girl in a suburban Dallas town miles from anything important or cultural or awe-inspiring, who dares to decide to tell you the tale of a black aristocrat from Michigan who decided to pass for white, and occasionally, Hispanic. How dare I. But, I am free falling down a rabbit hole that, seemingly, has no bottom. And, you just have to know this story. Because, Elsie was something else. She burned both ends of a candle we call race. Somehow, she wound up with all wick and no wax. But first, let’s drop the Roxboroughs into history.

Charles Roxborough, Jr. was born a free biracial man in Cleveland in 1863. Charles married Valerie, a Creole woman also of both African and European descent. They settled in New Orleans where Charles became prominent in both law and politics. Charles and Valerie heard of the Detroit opportunities for young, black families. Anxious to leave the southern US, they ventured onward to Michigan where they would eventually spawn five generations of lawyers, notably son Charles Anthony Roxborough III, who would become the 1st African-American man elected to the Michigan Senate. Another son, John, became a successful realtor in Detroit, though that office moonlighted as a front for an illegal numbers ring. John was listed as the wealthiest man in Michigan at various points in his life. His claim to fame was his discovery and career management of former world heavyweight boxer Joe Louis. We’ll get back to Joe in a moment. Let’s chat again about young Charles, who we will now just call Charles, since we are finished talking about Charles Jr. It’s always difficult when families love certain names. I should know. We have two Chynnas in our lineage. Charles was married 3 times. Cassandra Pease gave him two daughters, Elsie and Virginia, before dying after Virginia’s birth. Vaudevillian actress Lottie Grady gave Charles 2 sons (maybe), Charles IV and Sonny, before their divorce. Lottie went on to run a saloon in Idlewild, Michigan. There is no information and no offspring reported from his 3rd marriage to court recorder Hazel Lyman. Find a Grave shows Charles and Lottie sharing a headstone together in the Pleasant Plains Township, though historians clarify that is mother and son, who was misidentified on the headstone as Charles III. He is also identified as Sonny, but there’s no info on whether that was a mistake or if there is another son from that union. Very little info exists regarding the children of Charles/Cassandra or Charles/Lottie, save our subject, Elsie.

Elsie Patricia Roxborough was born in Detroit in 1914. It is written that the Roxborough children realized a life that few black families of the times could imagine - beautiful homes, domestic employees, incredible education opportunities, and an immersion into fine culture. Elsie was sheltered from the harshness of what it meant to be black in America in the early 20th century. By the age of 18, Elsie was the most talked about socialite in the US black society pages. Shortly after turning 17, Uncle John introduced her to Joe Louis, right as Joe’s career began to take off. A 1984 article in the Detroit Free Press claimed that Elsie was in love with Joe and wanted to marry him (they were rumored to be engaged), but her father did not feel that Joe was cultured enough to provide Elsie with the life he had worked so hard to give her. An aspiring writer, Elsie went on to graduate from the University of Michigan. History recognizes her as the first black woman who lived in a UMich dormitory. Classmate and playwright Arthur Miller, later married to Marilyn Monroe, said of Elsie, “She was a beauty, the most striking girl in Ann Arbor. To a kid like me, she seemed svelte, knowing, witty, sexy.” Post-college Elsie became a successful playwright, too. The Theater Guild of Detroit produced one of her many plays, Wanting, in 1935, featuring the acting debut of her sister, Virginia. Wanting featured black characters cycling in Italy and owning horse stables. The Chicago Defender gave a scathing review of the play, stating that showcasing black Americans doing such things made it out of touch with “negro reality” (their words) and “utterly ridiculous.” But, as a writer, you type of which you know. Elsie wasn’t knowledgeable about racism, poverty, or hard living. She came from a world where intrigue, bliss, and the goal of owning a yacht were all within reach. Black audiences couldn’t seem to relate to the world she lived in, and white audiences didn’t want to see black people doing anything other than stereotypical acts common to the times: acting as maids, acting in service industry positions, et al. Elsie met Langston Hughes and produced his play, Drums of Haiti, through a theater group she founded. Though Langston laughed away rumors of both romance and engagement, history says she was his beloved. Again, this relationship was probably discouraged by the Roxborough family, as Langston was shorter than Elsie, poorer than Elsie (he was still living in his parents’ basement), and 12 years her senior. In his autobiography, he says of her, “Elsie Roxborough was the girl I was in love with in 1937.”

Elsie surfaced next in Los Angeles, as the owner of a successful modeling agency. She was using the name Pat Rico. The Roxborough’s were masters of many languages and Elsie had spent ample time in Mexico. No one in California doubted Pat Rico’s heritage. While it is unclear what lured her to New York, someone in Detroit may have outed Elsie in the early 40s when a gossip column reported she had died her hair auburn and had “gone Nordic.” She began a successful writing career, as European socialite Mona Manet, with several New York magazines and was reported to have sold a screenplay to Hollywood. On October 8, The Michigan Chronicle ran a front-page story announcing Elsie Roxborough, living in NYC as Mona Manet, was discovered deceased in her apartment on 10/2/49. Of her death, they said, “Sleeping pills can come in handy. Sometimes, one can take too many. Elsie took too many. Suicide? No. Elsie was the type of girl who would have left a note for everyone in the Roxborough family if she contemplated suicide. She left no note.” Her death certificate identified her as white.

Sources for this article include The Passing of Elsie Roxborough by Sallie Blair, Can We Forgive Her by Kathleen A. Hauke, & Wikipedia.