DEEP WATERS

I've mentioned before that I've begun CHATS (Connecting Hearts Across The Seas), a Facebook Reading Group with my girlfriend Ondrea Harrison. We're two months and two books into our journey together, and I think it has surprised us all how much we've been personally challenged. Our first book, Cane River by Lalita Tademy had us in tears as we traveled back in time to the days of U.S. slavery and the Civil War. Our hearts broke over the oppression our ancestors endured: African Americans oppressed by their Caucasian slave owners, Caucasian women oppressed by their men and society, the poor oppressed by the wealthy. Together we praised God that even though racism, sexism and economic disparity still exist in our country, none of these exists at the same magnitude of those times. But that's not the end of the story. Cane River incited some intense dialogue amongst us ladies, and I realized that the discussion of race and culture in the United States is still a neces...

A year ago, while living in my parents' native state of Virginia, I embarked on a journey into my ancestral past. My motivation for this undertaking? Well, I love history and I love a good story, so I had recently followed many others as they delved into their ancestries. Cane River by Lalita Tademy, one of my favorite books that I shared in a previous blog post ("Books That Made A Difference To Me"), chronicles Tademy's genealogical findings in the framework of fiction, much like Alex Haley's Roots . My husband Anthony and I have also enjoyed countless documentaries about genealogy, such as PBS' African American Lives . And occasionally on Friday evenings, I have enjoyed watching the likes of Tim McGraw, Vanessa Williams and Lionel Ritchie discover their family roots on NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? When I began digging into my family roots, I wasn't sure what I was going to find. Like many African American families, my family is rather colorful...