theGrio’s summer 2012 books round-up: Great beach reading on black love, African-American history and more!
theGRIO REPORT - Whether you are looking for words of wisdom from a top chef or a former of secretary of state -- or perhaps a little history or just a great story -- theGrio has your summer 2012 reading list covered...
American Tapestry: The Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama, by Rachel Swarns, Amistad, $27.99.
Our personal and collective histories are comprised of many lost and an untold stories; most of us will die never knowing the truth. We should all be as lucky as Michelle Obama, who had investigative reporter Rachel L. Swarns to dig deep and uncover her fascinating ancestry.
It took five generations to get from slavery to the White House, and Swarns thoroughly guides the reader along the path. A path that began with a slave named Melvinia, Obama’s great-great-great-grandmother, and the white man she bore several children to in the mid 1800s. The book takes us through the pain and shame of slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Migration, and the jazz era in the Chicago of the 1920s and beyond, all with Obama’s family history woven into the mix.
Swarns , the journalist who covered Michelle Obama’s first year in the White House for The New York Times, not only explores the first lady’s roots, but she also reminds us how we, as Americans, are connected through common bloodlines and a shared legacy.
