Beto O’Rourke’s ancestors were slaveholders, records reveal
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke recently delivered an impassioned speech while meeting with the Gullah-Geechee Nation, an organization of African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved on plantations from Florida to South Carolina. However, O’Rourke...Why You Should Dig Up Your Family’s History — and How to Do It
“When I started, you had to do all of this manually,” said Sharon Morgan, founder of OurBlackAncestry.com. “You had to actually go to the place where your family came from and do the research in the courthouse.” Now, many documents have been digitized and are readily...Raising the Dead: Coming to the Table
I did not realize until I was an adult that my ancestors were enslaved. I was born in Chicago in a time greatly influenced by the Civil Rights Movement that was sparked by the lynching of Emmitt Till in 1954 and the refusal of Rosa Parks in 1955 to give up her seat on...Truth Hurts, Then Heals: Coming to the Table
“Be prepared to face the truth if you undertake genealogical research,” said Peter Wingate, one of two instructors for a genealogy workshop I attended called “Tracing your family tree to the slave era.” Peter was correct. Until 2013, I was...Our Organization
Coming to the Table is a program of RJOY, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth
