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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project REGINA DENNIS-NANA Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: January 21, 2016 Copyright 2018 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Childhood and Education Born in St. Louis, Missouri 1949 Family from the south, has roots back to slavery Beaumont High School 1964-1968 Attended Forest Park Community College 1969-1972 Transferred to Wilberforce University 1972-1973 Graduated from Wilberforce University 1974 Pre-USAID Career Worked for United Parcel Service in NYC, New York 1973-1975 Lived in Paris, France Took French at the Chambre du Commerce de Bruxelles Enrolled at Institut de Formation de Cadres pour le Développement 1976 Took a train to Casablanca, Morocco Traveled through Nouakchott, Mauritania Lived in Dakar, Senegal 1976 Taught business English at Lycée Maurice de la Fosse in Dakar 1976-1977 Abidjan, Côté d’Ivoire 1978-1979 Peace Corps volunteer to create a Business English Department MA in Development Anthropology from SUNY-Binghamton 1979-1981 Earned certificate in French Translation from SUNY-Binghamton 1981 Taught French at Northwest High School in St. Louis, Missouri 1981 Ran a catering business called Authentic African Cuisine 1990s Founded a Toastmasters club in Nigeria 2005 Mentored Toastmasters clubs in Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Côté d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Mali, and Sierra Leone USAID-Funded Projects Mogadishu, Somalia—Worked for Africare 1983-1985 Implemented a USAID agro-forestry project 1985 Abidjan, Côté d’Ivoire—Healthcare Administrator 1986-1987 Yaoundé, Cameroon—Provincial Health Coordinator 1988-1990 1 Benin—Worked on healthcare programs 1988-1989 Yaoundé, Cameroon—Population Program Coordinator 1990-94, 1996 Cameroon, Niger, and Benin 1994-2000 International Healthcare Consultant for Population Technology Foreign Service Career Washington, D.C., Africa Bureau—Program Development Officer 2001 Abuja, Nigeria—Program Development Officer 2002-2005 Ghana—Office Chief and the Cultural Affairs Specialist from the 2005-2009 Public Affairs Office Port-au-Prince, Haiti—Food-for-Peace Officer and Mission Disaster Relief Officer 2009-2011 Conakry, Guinea—Program Development Officer 2011-2014 Retired from the Foreign Service 2014 Alliance Française World Affairs Council in St. Louis, Missouri INTERVIEW Q: Today is the 21st of January 2016 with Regina Dennis. I’m Charles Stuart Kennedy. DENNIS: I hyphen my name to reflect my husband’s name, Nana, N-A-N-A. Q: Alright. And you go by Regina? DENNIS: Yes, I do. Q: Okay Regina, let’s start at the beginning. When and where were you born? DENNIS: I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, July 25, 1949. Q: Okay. First, I’d like to get some idea of the background on your father’s side and your mother’s side. So, what do you know about your father’s family? DENNIS: I’d also like to mention, Stu, I was born in St. Louis when African-American women could not deliver their babies on the main floors of private hospitals or in the major maternity wards. Therefore, if they could afford it, they were allowed to have their children in the basements of private hospitals. So, I was born in the basement and in the 2 hallway of Barnes Hospital. This was an upgrade from a horrible experience that my parents had with the delivery of their first child. My parents, a married couple, had their first child, a girl, and named her Janice Marie, at the world renowned Black teaching hospital in St. Louis called Homer G. Phillips Hospital. Black doctors from around the country and the world came to Homer G. to complete their residences, as it was called. It was also noted for its emergency trauma center. After Janice Marie’s delivery, my mother was informed that she had a girl and the baby was taken away by a nurse. The nurse came later and told my mother that her baby was stillborn. They never let my mother see or hold her child. In those days, women took what the nurses and doctors said as gospel without asking questions. After that horrible experience, my father said “No more of my children would be born at Homer G.” So, when it was time for me to be born, he drove my mother to Barnes Hospital, the best private health care he could offer, and they took my mother to the basement in the hallway. This is where I was born, at a time of institutional racism and segregation. Subsequent years, my mother delivered my sister and four brothers in this same fashion. Each time, Daddy said, “Here is your money; give me my woman and baby.” From the hospital, Daddy took Mama and me to one of his elder sister’s house, Aunt Stell. She welcomed the young mother and me. She made a dresser drawer as my first bed. Q: Oh boy. DENNIS: And that’s the story of how I was born. As we speak, there is a significant scandal evolving these stillbirths at Homer G. Approximately 100 Black women have come forward with claims that they were told that their babies were born dead and they never got a chance to see their babies nor did they ever see death certificates or anything. The story came to light, because Zella Jackson Price, one of the mothers and a popular gospel singer, found her alleged dead or lost baby through social media. For reasons that remain unclear, the infant ended up being raised in foster care and adopted by another family when she was 16. Melanie lost her hearing at age three because of measles. The lost child, Melanie Diane Gilmore, now is a woman with young adult children, including a set of twin girls and a boy, of her own. Diane, the name Zella gave her daughter at birth, lived in Springfield, Oregon. In 2014, Diane’s children shepherded detective work to give their mother a special 50th birthday gift: find her biological mother. The only information they had was her birth mother’s name, Zella Jackson, their mother was born in St. Louis on November 25, 1965. The young adult children searched social media, mainly Facebook, and found Zella Jackson Price. They sent a text message introducing themselves, asking if Zella had given birth to a child on November 25, 1965 in St. Louis. Texts were followed with DNA testing that proved a match of 99.997 percent correct that Zella and Diane were related. The children arranged a surprised virtual meeting between their mother and Zella. Diane and her children traveled to St. Louis to meet her mother after 50 years of separation. Local news carried the story and it was picked up and broadcasted nationally. Other 3 women came forward with similar stories of giving birth to babies at Homer G. only to be told their babies had also died, mainly stillborn. Q: Oh boy. DENNIS: While my mother has passed, my sister and I have been following the case on her behalf. We are a part of a group of women who have come forward with similar stories of being told their babies were stillborn, even though their pre-natal care visits indicated no signs of abnormalities. Attorneys Al Watkins and Donna Clark Frayne investigated the case. The lawyers told 20/20 television program that they believe the babies were part of a stolen baby ring. Al Watkins believes Melanie Diane Gilmore was stolen from Zella Jackson Price and sold into adoption. Q: Well that’s incredible. Just disgusting. DENNIS: Yes, it is. So, we’re following the situation because my siblings and I believe that we have an older sister out there somewhere, but we don’t know where. Q: Well- DENNIS: Investigative journalists are probing to verify what transpired 50, 60 or 70 years ago. Hospital records were poorly maintained and kept. Homer G. closed in 1979 and reopened in 2003 as a senior citizen residence. State and city government offices conducted investigations. U.S. Attorney General for the State of Missouri, Richard Callahan, led the investigation into Price's story. Callahan was unable to find evidence of a baby-stealing conspiracy, and decades-old records put Price at a completely different hospital from the one where she said her baby died. Callahan said the records suggest that Price abandoned her baby, despite Price denying she would never intentionally leave her baby behind. In August 2014, the State closed the case. Attorney Watkins claims the adoption papers have forged signatures. St. Louis City’s Health Department found only two of approximately 50 death certificates applications submitted by families. I submitted an application for Janice Marie, my lost sister. Other families, including mine, were never contacted to inform us of the results. Mothers who had hopes of finding their lost family members are emotionally upset. Moreover, they have lost hope that God will answer their prayers and reconnect them with their lost babies as Zella Jackson Price was reconnected. Instead, the scandal has opened wounds women had buried in the past. Okay, now we can get back to your question. Q: Okay. What do you know about your father’s family? 4 DENNIS: I know that my father’s family originates from South Carolina and they were Geechees and spoke the Gullah dialect, a language spoken on the South Sea Islands of South Carolina. Gullah is a mixture of African dialects, English, French and Portuguese. Q: Oh yes. DENNIS: About 30 years ago, I went through a phase when I wanted to know the origins of my family. I went from house to house and stayed all night with elderly family members and allowed them to cook and talk.

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