history
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When a Slave Ship Figures Into Family Lore
Last month marked the 176th anniversary of the slave-led mutiny aboard the schooner Amistad. That act of bravery on July 1, 1839, resulted in freedom for 35 Africans after a legal process that culminated in having a former president, John Quincy Adams, plead their case before the Supreme Court. Freedom, however, was not in the…
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How Can I Find My Ancestor’s Military Records?
This week, we decided to tackle a common question that we get from people researching their roots: What are the best resources for finding records on African-American veterans of the 19th and 20th centuries? Military draft, enrollment and service records can provide a gold mine of information about an ancestor. In the case of African-American…
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The Courageous 5 Who Made History in Selma
In 1972, seven years after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, abolishing tools and tactics used to disenfranchise Southern black citizens, Selma, Ala.—the crucible of the civil rights movement—elected its first black City Council members since Reconstruction. A huge voter turnout and a shift to district elections in the city where people…
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How Did My European Ancestors Migrate to Guyana?
Dear Professor Gates: I am a first-generation American whose family hails from Guyana (and, further back, Germany). My father has a German last name: Rohlehr (pronounced “Rohlair”). I would like to know more about my ancestors in that line who first came to Guyana from either Germany or the Netherlands. The story goes that during…
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My Ancestor’s Records Were Destroyed by Fire. Now What?
Dear Professor Gates: My grandfather Charles Richard Jackson was born in Russell County, Va., in November 1870. My father, Charles Daniel O’Brien Jackson, was only about 2 years old when his father died. Story was that my grandfather may have been robbed and murdered. His family lived in Honaker, Va., and in McVeigh, Ky. My…
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What Happens When Cubans Speak About Anti-Black Racism in Their Country
Editor’s note: With the U.S. Embassy reopening in Havana on July 20, The Root is giving some insight and perspective into the lives of Afro-Cubans who suffer discrimination and economic distress, even in the midst of the Cuban revolution that Fidel Castro declared put an end to racism. Harvard professor and The Root Chairman Henry…
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One-on-One With Afro-Cubans: What It Means to Be Black in Cuba
Editor’s note: With the U.S. Embassy reopening in Havana on July 20, The Root is giving some insight and perspective into the lives of Afro-Cubans who suffer discrimination and economic distress, even in the midst of the Cuban revolution that Fidel Castro declared put an end to racism. Harvard professor and The Root Chairman Henry…
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Were My Kin’s White Neighbors Descendants of My Ancestor’s Owners?
Julia Ann Scott (born about 1840, died in December 1893) was my maternal great-great-grandmother, a “mulatto” woman who lived in Lunenburg County, Va. According to her marriage record to Willis Rainey on Aug. 15, 1868, her mother was M. Kensey, but no father was listed. I have suspected for some time that her father was…
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How Long Ago Did African Ancestry Enter My Family Tree?
Dear Professor Gates: According to 23andMe, my brother and I each have 0.1 percent sub-Saharan African ancestry. But instead of being at the identical spot on the chromosome, his segment and my segment are next to each other. How would we estimate the date that the African-American ancestor entered our family tree? Would we combine…
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The Defiant One: Why You Should Know Civil Rights Icon Gloria Richardson
Some called her “Glorious Gloria.” Others referred to her as the second coming of Harriet Tubman. Coincidentally, activist Gloria Richardson was just 24 minutes away from a stop on the Underground Railroad when an iconic photo of her defiantly pushing away the bayonet of a National Guardsman was taken during a 1963 protest in Cambridge, Md.…