Adopted Siblings Find Each Other

Born in Africa, raised by American families, these adopted siblings found each other and ECHOboom shares their remarkable story.

David Banks Life Story in a Nutshell

As far as I know, I was born in Monrovia, Liberia on January 12, 1953 to a woman named Fatima Peters. I was told that I am the oldest of three brothers. When the youngest brother died of starvation, our mother decided to give us up for adoption. She gave my brother and me to two different American families.

I’ll discuss my brother first because he is for whom the least is known. His name is Willie, at least that’s what I was told. The family that adopted him did not tell him he was adopted. When we tried to make contact with them, they asked us to stop writing or trying to call because they did not want him to be traumatized when and if he found out that he was adopted. What I do know though, is that his name is Willie and he is around same age as I am within maybe 1 to 3 years. Again, that is what I was told. This may or may not be true because, as it turns out, there was a lot of misleading information and a lot of information withheld and/or downright destroyed regarding my heritage.

My birth certificate list my natural father as an American Ship Stewart, but that may or may not be true. Because, at that time, if you wanted to give up a child to an American family, the child had to have been fathered by an American. That is, a child fathered by a French national to a native African mother, cannot be adopted to a British family. I was told that my father was Greek and at another time I was told that my father was North African.

I was adopted into a family of American educators my father (David Banks Senior) was an agricultural teacher working on an agricultural co-op between the University of Liberia and Tuskegee University. My mother (Rosa Woods Banks) was a school teacher who, more or less, followed my father around and taught wherever he was stationed. I do remember traveling a lot. I remember Paris, Spain, England, Switzerland, many U.S. states and many countries in Africa.

When we were not on travel we lived in Shorter, Alabama and later moved to Tuskegee, Alabama after the death of my father. By the time I was 12 years old, I had crossed the Atlantic Ocean 7 times. We were jet setters in the 1960’s when Blacks and Whites could not even drink out of the same water fountain in Alabama.

It seems that I have always known that I was adopted. My mother said that I came home one day and asked “what means adopt.” I was probably told on the school playground. And we all know how cruel school playgrounds can be. One rule of thumb in a small town – if one person knows, everyone knows. Both Shorter, Alabama and Tuskegee, Alabama were and still are small towns. Either way, I certainly don’t remember being traumatized by finding out or knowing that I was adopted. If it was any trauma, it was centered around moving from the international stage to the deep south right during the height of the civil rights movement. Alabama was a culture shock and living in both Shorter and Tuskegee, Alabama was an even deeper culture shock (and still is).

I completed my bachelor of education degree in Business Administration at Tuskegee University. I went on further to receive my masters of education and doctor of education at Auburn University. I also received post-doctoral degrees from Auburn as well as Florida State University.

I followed in my parent’s footsteps and became a professional educator. My areas of expertise include teacher education, adult education, computer science and institutional data analysis and research. I have been teaching at Tuskegee University for close to 20 years. I have also taught at Southern Union College, Auburn University and Alabama State University.

I am also a musician/keyboardist and have played professionally all over the United States.

Being curious about my heritage about 7 months ago, I purchased an Ancestry.com DNA kit and found out that I am half-African and half-British.

On Jan 3rd of this year I received an email message from a “Kar Car” through ancestry.com – below is the thread.

Kar Car

Good morning, It appears we are first cousins. I was adopted and I was wondering where were your parents born

Banks

I am also adopted. My mother was born or at least lived in Monrovia, Liberia where I was also born. Information on my father is unknown.

Kar Car

Wow! I was born in Liberia as well. I believe my mothers last name is Peters. However I don’t know any other information. Have you been able to discover anything?

Banks

Yes my mother’s name is Fatima Peters

Kar Car

My mothers name is also Fatima Peters

Banks

My name is David Banks my email is dbanks8@gmail.com. We are brother and sister if you are a female and brothers if you are male…where do you live. I live in the US in Alabama.

4 hour gap – in the meantime, Banks upgraded his Ancestry.com membership just in case the conversation was cut off by Ancestry because of membership level. Banks did not know what was going on, this was the longest 4 hours in history.

Banks – After the long wait…communications resumed

Kar Car

I live in Georgia

Kar Car

I am female. This is amazing!

Kar Car

xxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com My phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx maybe we can talk when you are free?

Banks

Double check the number the call didn’t go through, but my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx – Banks still not convinced that this is real.

Carter

Sorry mistype my phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. Please call instead of emailing. Much appreciated!

Conversation went to phone after that. Since the initial conversation, we have shared letters and pictures from both our natural and adopted mothers.

The meet-up happened at the Marriott Hotel in Columbus, Georgia on a day these siblings will treasure forever.

Below is the link to the Youtube video of that meeting

Michelle found out that she was adopted by stumbling upon her passport. When she confronted her mother, her mother first denied it then later admitted it. However, in the meantime her mother destroyed all paper work related to Michelle being adopted.

We found during the weekend that we had another sister, Carol Robinson of Wasington DC.

It was also discovered that our brother “Willie” now knows that he is adopted because he came looking for Michelle at her home address. He was turned away because, at that time, Michelle did not know she was adopted even though she was grown and married to a navy sailor and was out of the country in Japan.

We spent the weekend together – on Friday we experienced jazz at an area live music venue.

On Saturday we had a reception at the hotel, where Michelle’s husband joined us. My son David Jr. also joined us with his family.

We went to church together Sunday.

Finally we had dinner together at Red Lobster on that Sunday.