Photo Gallery Black Germans Then and Now
Rudi Richardson with his adoptive parents and sister on an American military base in Germany. He was 17 when his parents told him he was adopted. He then found out he had never been naturalized as a US citizen. This caused problems for him three decades later, when he was deported to Germany after spending time in prison for drug possession and petty theft.
Rudi Richardson in London, where he runs Streetlytes, a nonprofit that provides assistance to homeless people.
Rosemarie Pena's identity document after her adoption. "Many of us never knew we were adopted, and many of us thought we were the only one," Pena said. Her adoptive parents changed her name to Wanda Lynn Haymon. After discovering she was adopted, she reclaimed her birth name.
Pena, then Wanda Haymon (in white dress), with her adoptive parents, Sgt. Walter Haymon Jr. and Perrie Haymon, and a cousin. Pena was 38 when she found out that she had been born in Germany.
Rosemarie Pena in Berlin, where she spent the past summer in an intensive German-language course. Of her work on the Web site BlackGermans.us, she said, "it's important for me to find a way to engage both sides -- the Germans who remained in Germany and those who went to the States."
