Rebecca Lanier, Born to Slave Parents in MS, May Be Oldest Woman at 119, but Guinness Won't Recognize Due to Lack of Birth Certificate

Rebecca Lanier, born to slave parents, may be world's oldest living person at 119 but Guinness World Record won't recognize because she has no birth certificate due to prejudice in the South during 1890s.

ODD: Rebecca Lanier, who was born to slave parents, is suspected to be the oldest living woman in the world at age 119, but there's one hitch. The Guinness World Record won't bestow that honor upon her because she doesn't have a birth certificate, which they require to prove age. The family maintains that the letter from Social Security Administration verifies her age. Of course, this isn't her fault now is it? Blacks weren't recognized as anything but property back in the 1890s, so the thought that she would have a birth certificate in her possession is ridiculous.

Mrs Lanier, of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, who was born in March 1892, has seventh-generation grandchildren and outlived her husband and their two daughters. She was born in a small Mississippi community to parents who had been slaves, at a time when many laws were prejudiced against black people in the South.

Because Mrs Lanier is black she was born with no birth certificate in the 1890s, which was normal in the South even though slavery had ended almost thirty years earlier. Source

Prejudice and denigration of blacks ruled the day in the South back then, so the Guinness World Record should make an exception on the historical context this all occurred in.

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