Hoo, boy. Somebody at Guinness had best be working on some serious back-pedaling. Rebecca Lanier just turned 119 years old, which might make her the oldest person now living. As the daughter of former slaves, however, she doesn’t have the right documentation, and therefore doesn’t count.

Lanier has documentation to prove her age in the form of a letter from the Social Security Administration, but no birth certificate because, as you will recall, the US wasn’t great on race relations in the 1890s. Lacking the ‘crucial’ birth certificate, Guinness World Records refuses to acknowledge her.

I would suggest that whoever is working public relations for the company that just snubbed the African American survivor of two world wars start looking for employment in another field.

[Daily Mail]