Who is Ruth?

Born Ruchel Dwajra Zylska on April 1, 1921, in Poland, Ruth McBride Jordan (or "Mommy"), the mother of twelve children, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family and raised in a violent Southern town. At nineteen, she moved into a new life in New York City, where she fell in love with a black Baptist minister named Andrew McBride. When she married McBride, she was pronounced "dead" by her Jewish relations. Ruth is author, James McBride's, mother.