An African American discovers her white roots. Village Voice article by Thulani Davis

[D J 1 3 8]

This was in last week's voice.

Some years ago, when my grandmother died at 94, she was writing a novel based on her life. She left only a few pages and an outline, but her life was indeed novel material. The daughter of Chloe Curry, a cook and tenant farmer who had been enslaved in Alabama, and Will Campbell, a white Mississippi Delta cotton farmer, she was born at the end of Reconstruction and was raised by this pair, who stayed together until his death early in the 20th century. Since I started searching for more clues to the lives of my grandmother and her mother for a book two years ago, I have, for the first time, come face to face with my white ancestors.

http://villagevoice.com/issues/0329/davis.php
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[Alanda Marquette from DiscoLadyLand]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
This was in last week's voice.

Some years ago, when my grandmother died at 94, she was writing a novel based on her life. She left only a few pages and an outline, but her life was indeed novel material. The daughter of Chloe Curry, a cook and tenant farmer who had been enslaved in Alabama, and Will Campbell, a white Mississippi Delta cotton farmer, she was born at the end of Reconstruction and was raised by this pair, who stayed together until his death early in the 20th century. Since I started searching for more clues to the lives of my grandmother and her mother for a book two years ago, I have, for the first time, come face to face with my white ancestors.

http://villagevoice.com/issues/0329/davis.php
http://images.villagevoice.com/issues/0329/davis4.jpg http://images.villagevoice.com/issues/0329/davis6.jpg http://images.villagevoice.com/issues/0329/davis3.jpg I just found out that my great-grandfather's family was white prominent slave-owners that decided to keep link with the "whiter shade" of their seeds and set up land for their families. I mean I even saw old pictures of the family owned cemetary from 80 years ago. I also realized that the family did alot of inter-breeding because of their wealth and prominence. So this carried out into generations of incest & molestations up until 20 years ago which of course the culprits were put in jail because of code of silence was broken among the braver girls of the family.

It is very amazing to come face to face with your ancestory. Good article.