95-year-old Houston man finally gets birth certificate after decades-long search

James Dorsey, a 95-year-old great-grandfather living in Houston, has finally received an official birth certificate after spending almost his entire life without an official record of his birth. Attorney Raynique Keelen personally delivered the document to Dorsey's home, ending a search that had lasted for decades. Dorsey was born on a Louisiana plantation in 1931. "Mr. Dorsey, we have something for you," Keelen said as she entered his home, according to Houston television station ABC13. For Dorsey, receiving the official certificate ended years of worry about his legal identity and citizenship. When ABC13 reporter Brandon Hamilton asked how he felt about finally getting the document, Dorsey said: "Lord, have mercy. I don't know how to feel. I feel so good. I didn't know what was going to happen to me if I didn't have it."Early life on a Louisiana plantationDorsey was born in August 1931 with the help of a midwife. At that time, many births in rural Black communities across the American South were not officially recorded by state authorities. As a child, Dorsey grew up working in the cotton fields on the plantation. "I was born on Ellerbe Plantation. Sure was...about 25 miles out of Shreveport, Louisiana," Dorsey told ABC13. During the 1950s, he moved from Louisiana to Houston and began building his life in Texas.