First black Quadruplets The Fultz girls were born May 23, 1946. Along with being the first black quads, they were also the first identical quads to survive birth in the world.
Their parents already had 6 children at home, father was a sharecropper and mother was deaf and mute. Now what I found shocking was the fact that the doctor took it upon himself to name the girls, all Mary then with names of his family members! Apparently this was looked at as ok and not a big deal because of the times, black parents, especially poor ones had no say.
Read the passage below for more:
With no incubator, Klenner improvised cotton gauze blankets and laid the newborns together for warmth. The doctor meanwhile took it upon himself to name the girls – all of them Mary, followed by the names of the women in the Klenner family. There was Ann, for the doctor’s wife; Louise, his daughter; Alice, his aunt; and Catherine, his great-aunt.
To the delivery nurse, who is black, it didn’t seem strange.
“At that time, you know, it was before integration,” Margaret Ware, 79, recalled recently. “They did us how they wanted. And these were very poor people. He was a sharecropper, Pete was, and she couldn’t read or write.”
Sadly only one of the girls (Catherine) is still alive and she can not afford any of her and her sisters history. No instead she just looks at the pictures at auctions of herself and her sisters while others buy them for collectibles of “Black Americana”. That alone is a crime! If anyone has or sees any photo or other item and can afford to purchase it; the item should go to her if she wants it.
Here is the complete article with further information:
Photo/article credit are from the above link.
I heard about the Fultz Quads on a Dionne Quintuplets message board about between 5 and 10 years back. Made a Pinterest board about them here: https://www.pinterest.com/femaletrumpet02/fultz-quadruplets/
