Medicine: Whitened White

In Columbia, S. C. fortnight ago Will Pickens White, an obscure piebald, pursed-mouthed Negro of 68, leaped from his bed yelling: “Jesus, my God, what is this!” Night before Will Pickens White had taken a bath. This morning his entire skin was as dead white as a flounder’s belly.

To newshawks who last week investigated the “miracle,” Mr. White told a tale which doctors recognized as the history of a case of vitiligo, a harmless but mysterious skin condition which an occasional Negro develops. “About 30 years ago I had a little pimple on my forehead,” said Will White. “I went to the barber shop and got some medicine to get rid of the pimple. Next morning I woke up with pimples all over my face. The medicine wasn’t no good. The pimples kept coming and going. When they’d go they’d leave a white spot.” The blotching spread until it brought about the depigmentation suddenly observed by Will White after his bath.

Piebaldness in Negroes is no rarity. It has sometimes been checked by doses of gold or arsenic compounds but hardly ever cured because no researcher has yet satisfactorily established the constitutional cause of the discoloration of a Negro’s skin.

Negroes who want to hide their markings daub themselves with black coffee, potassium permanganate solution or dilute iodine. Will Pickens White last week indicated that he would never tint his whiteness. Said he: “God intended to let people know what He could do. Now that I am white, I would rather stay that way.”