94-year-old man wishes to get birth certificate: 'I couldn't even pronounce what it would mean'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Decades after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the effects of slavery are still felt today.

For a Houston great-grandfather, he's hoping to get what he says is a missing part of his identity: a birth certificate.

"I was born on Ellerbe Plantation. Shreveport, Louisiana," James Dorsey said. "As far as you could go on the plantation. That's where I was living at."

Born on Aug. 14, 1931, Dorsey says life for Blacks at the time meant living on a plantation.

The 94-year-old was born 68 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 66 years after slaves in Galveston would learn of their freedom.

While slavery was outlawed, Dorsey says manual labor and its grueling conditions were the only option -- even at 8 years old.

"My grandfather used to take me out in the field with them. And they have me on one side of the road and picking cotton, couldn't pick too much, you know, because I was giving to them. They putting it in the sack," he said.

Dorsey says he soon learned, as an adult, that he faced another challenge: proving who he was.

As a result of routine practices on plantations, he was born to a midwife. Also common, he says, is the fact that his birth was never recorded.

"I went to the courthouse. I went to the school board. They were over everything, all the schools and plantations, what the school was on, they were over everything," Dorsey said.

From Louisiana, Dorsey says he moved to Houston in 1956. Over the years, he says he's been able to get a Social Security card and driver's license. Now, he has one wish: to get a birth certificate.

"Oh, Lord. I don't know. A lot of people go crazy (laugh)," he said about getting a birth certificate. "That sure would be something because I missed out on so much."

ABC13 reached out to the Louisiana Department of Health. A spokesperson directed Eyewitness News to the state's vital records department to submit an application and follow the process.

Dorsey's daughter, Barbara Dorsey Curry, helped fill out the application.

"I pray that they get his birth certificate for him because he really needed it, and he's been wanting to get it, but he didn't know how. And so that's when we turned to Channel 13," she said.

There is no timeline on how long the process will take.

"What does a birth certificate mean to you?" ABC13 asked.

"What does a birth certificate mean for me? I couldn't even pronounce what it would mean," he responded.