About a month or so ago, I suggested that everyone needs a passport or

[Ms. Toad]

156. Yes and no.

Many midwives serving black families never recorded the births, and in some instances were actively discouraged from registering the births they attended. So if you are an older black person, born at home, you are less likely to have had your birth registered than if you are an older white person born at home. (Here is an article about the general problem: https://facetofacegermantown.org/many-americans-obtaining-birth-certificate-proves-challenging-alfred-lubrano-inquirer-staff-writer/)

In addition, because of targeting of black churches, which resulted in destruction of black churches, secondary documents (baptismal records, for example) - needed to create a birth certificate - are more likely to have been lost or destroyed for blacks than whites. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_against_African-American_churches.

(My father was born at home and has a birth certificate. But he was a white farmer in Nebraska, not a black in the south.)