#philippadukeschuyler #pianist #prodigy #experiment #youngcelebrity #blacknomore Philippa Duke Schuyler, the daughter of George Schuyler a journalist and Josephine Schuyler, a Texas heiress. To understand Philippa, you have to look at George. After a discharge from the Army, Schuyler moved to NYC where he first worked as a handyman. He stayed at the Phylliss Wheatley Hotel that was run by Marcus Garvey's UNIA. He followed Marcus Garvey but ended up deviating greatly from his philosophy. After becoming a journalist, in 1929 he wrote the pamphlet "Racial Inter-Marriage in the United States", which called for solving the country's race problem through miscegenation, which was then illegal in most states. In 1931, Schuyler published "Black No More," which tells the story of a scientist who develops a process that turns black people to white. Here we enter Philippa who was born in 1931. George and his wife believed that intermarriage could "invigorate" both races and produce extraordinary offspring. For 3 years before Philippa was born her mother ate only natural and raw food, avoided meat, went on a body and mind preparing regime to cleanse her system in preparation to bear a "superior" child. Her and George were Eugenist and Philippa was their experiment in hybrid vigor as they called it. They definitely nurtured a child prodigy. Philippa was known as the baby genius of the Harlem Renaissance. She amassed accolade after accolade. At 4 yrs old she not only performed Mozart but wrote her own compositions. At 6 her IQ was 185. On June 19, 1940, "Philippa Duke Schuyler Day" was declared by the Mayor. While staying in Harlem her mother wrote an advice column as a black woman for The Pittsburgh Courier, the nation's largest Black newspaper. 😬 As Philippa aged, the same white society that had a big interest in her moved on. She also started developing identity issues. White society didn't accept her and the music world she was a part of limited her. So she changed her name to Felipa Monterro and began to pass as white and travel the world. She became a journalist and author, she was fluent in a few languages. She died in Vietnam in a helicopter crash in 1967. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJwktvBB6I2/?igshid=13f7nzklhatf6
