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In Tracing My Family’s Roots, I Discovered What Was Lost
The dreams deferred by systemic racism haunt my past and present
Langston Hughes said it best:
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong…
Once upon a time in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, there existed a place known more for peanuts, cotton, and tobacco than people.
There were few famous people, even fewer famous Black people in Tarboro, North Carolina, save Kelvin Bryant, a University of North Carolina football standout who later played in the NFL.
But there was another man who should have been famous. I called him Paw-Paw.
He was the grandfather who raised his daughter’s children because multiple sclerosis took away her ability to do so.
I became obsessed with the origins of this man, a stout, stable presence in our lives who made sure we needed nothing.
After Alex Haley found his roots in 1976, I tried to find mine. So for years, I would stalk my grandfather like the…
