Sherry Tucker Brown: Forging a family heritage despite being denied another

"I have met Black Dewars in Jamaica, and there are still Black and white Dewars who live in Jamaica. Her grandmother was sent with her sister to New York, but they had other family members who could pass for white, and were sent to Scotland. However, none of her family shared in the Dewar family inheritance."

"That was really the story of the United States. I wasn't getting any of the money, so why was I supporting them? Although we didn't inherit the Scotch whiskey money, the family, the Tuckers still did very well and did very well by their children and their children's children."

"No matter what was going on in the United States then, I mean the total segregation, he still went to law school and he graduated from Colombia as a CPA. Alfred Tucker, a World War I veteran became the eighth Black Certified Public Accountant in America, and the second Black CPA in New York City."

Sherry Tucker Brown, now 80, traces her family lineage to John Dewar, founder of Dewar Scotch Whiskey, through her grandmother Francis Dewar Tucker born in Jamaica. While Black Dewar descendants exist in Jamaica, Brown's family received no share of the Dewar inheritance. Her grandmother and sister were sent to New York while lighter-skinned relatives were sent to Scotland. The family established a household rule prohibiting Dewar Whiskey, viewing their exclusion from wealth as emblematic of American inequality. Despite this, the Tucker family achieved prominence through their own efforts. Brown's uncle, Alfred Tucker, became the eighth Black Certified Public Accountant in America and the second in New York City, working at the New York State Transit Commission despite pervasive segregation.

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