Advertise on podcast: Ancestor's Footprints with Bernice Alexander Bennett

This episode featuring author Andrew Lawler will explore a lesser-known chapter of American history where enslaved people aligned with the British crown during the American Revolution.  At the start of the American Revolution, Black men took up arms to achieve freedom--by fighting for King George III. Hear how the people owned by patriots nearly squelched the Revolution in its cradle.  Andrew Lawler is a journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications. His latest book--which the Times calls "absorbing"--is A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution. For more, see www.andrewlawler.com Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

When Your Ancestors Choose You- Finding Binky This episode will explore what it means to carry the memory of your ancestors, the challenges of researching enslaved families, the emotional weight of the records, and the moment when genealogy becomes more than research, when it becomes a calling. Michael A. Willis is an award-winning author, speaker, consultant, blogger, and instructor with more than twenty-five years of experience as a genealogist. He specializes in Louisiana research, particularly in East Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Orleans, and Terrebonne Parishes. In October 2025, Michael received the International Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Book Award for Finding Binkey, a work that documents his search for his fifth great-grandmother through oral history, documentary evidence, and DNA, while also teaching valuable lessons for those researching African American families. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

This episode Celia: Justice After Death, explores the life and legacy of Celia, an enslaved, pregnant teenager and mother in pre–Civil War Missouri who resisted sexual exploitation and was executed in 1855 after defending herself against her enslaver. Her case exposes the stark injustice embedded in Missouri’s antebellum legal system—a system that denied enslaved women legal protection from sexual violence while simultaneously holding them fully accountable under the law. Through the voices of Celia’s descendants, this conversation connects Celia’s lived experience to her 2024 gubernatorial pardon and to ongoing family-led efforts through the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation to advance truth-telling, reconciliation, and awareness of modern human trafficking. Celia’s story is not only history—it is an enduring call to justice.  Adriene Holder is the third great-granddaughter of Celia and Robert Newsom and a Board Member of the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation, where she co-chairs the Family Heritage Committee and helps lead descendant-driven efforts to preserve Celia’s legacy through genealogy, oral history, and historical documentation. Through her legal advocacy and descendant leadership, Adriene is committed to advancing justice, preserving historical truth, and ensuring that Celia’s legacy continues to inform efforts to confront inequity and uphold human dignity today.  Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge is the second great-granddaughter of Celia and Robert Newsom and the founding President of the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation. She leads descendant-driven efforts to preserve Celia’s legacy and advance education, reconciliation, and justice.   Pamela is deeply committed to connecting historical truth with present-day systems change, ensuring that stories like Celia’s inform a more just and equitable future. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

In today’s episode, titled DNA, Genealogy, and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, we will discuss how DNA and historical research are helping identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in American history. Through genealogy, genetic testing, and community participation, families and researchers are working together to restore names and identities to individuals whose stories were never fully told. This work reminds us that genealogy is not only about building family trees — it is also about justice, memory, and recognition. Lisa Fanning, an Indiana native who is a genealogist, genetic genealogist, and family historian. For more than 30 years, she has traced her own family’s roots across the American South and Midwest, developing a deep passion for reconstructing complex family histories. Lisa has contributed to major projects such as the DNA Doe Project and the Tulsa Race Massacre DNA Identification Project. She serves on the Board of the National Genealogical Society and on the leadership team of MAAGI, the Midwestern African American Genealogy Institute. She has presented nationally and internationally, including for PBS and the United Nations. Today she joins us to talk about her work helping identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and how DNA is helping restore identities more than one hundred years later. - Check out information on the burials/surnames/and locations on the City of Tulsa’s webpage at www.cityoftulsa.org/1921Graves    - Tell us their family story about the Tulsa Race Massacre at www.tulsa1921DNA.org    If you have experience in African American genealogy research and are interested in volunteering some of your time to the project, please email us at [email protected] Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

"Our Claiborne Parish: A Family History Research Project of Communal Kinship” traces the evolution of a family-led inquiry into a community-centered preservation model.Tracing six generations in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, her work has become a living portal of kinship—where paternal lines like Calloway, Bennett, Bugg(s) and Robinson converge with maternal families including Walston, Taylor, and Levingston. Across generations of forced displacement, this convergence reveals documented milestones that shaped American history. At its core, this work is a call to steward descendancy itself—affirming each generation’s responsibility to amplify ancestral voices and safeguard the integrity of their stories. Stewarded by Regina "Califa" Calloway Project Motto: "Steward Your History" A visionary Woman of Faith, Ms. Regina “Califa” Calloway hails from Oakland, California, Louisiana reared and African rooted.Transcending three decades of leadership in Arts, Heritage, and Cultural Pedagogy, Ms. Calloway is the Founder and Creative Director of nzoCALIFA Presents LLC, Heritage-based Educational Consulting Agency grounded in kinship, cultural memory, and collective repair.  nzoCALIFAncestry is the agency’s genealogical platform, expanding access to family history research while empowering communal stewardship, ushering ancestral memory to incite healing and transformation. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade is the chronicle of a shared journey toward racial reconciliation. Informed by genealogy, it deals with race, social justice and healing from the traumatic wounds of slavery. Over a three year period, the authors traveled through 27 states, visiting ancestral towns, courthouses, cemeteries, plantations, antebellum mansions, and historic sites.  Bernice Alexander Bennett welcomes Sharon Leslie Morgan and Thomas Norman Dewolf to share this compelling journey with us. Sharon Morgan is a marketing communications consultant and a nationally recognized pioneer in multicultural marketing. An avid genealogist, she is the webmaster for OurBlackAncestry.com and is a founder of the Black Public Relations Society.  Thomas Norman DeWolf, author of Inheriting the Trade, is featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary film Traces of the Trade, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on the acclaimed PBS series POV. DeWolf speaks regularly about healing from the legacy of slavery and racism at conferences and colleges throughout the United States.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

Building Justice Through Ancestry: Archives, DNA and the New Infrastructure for Liberation This episode will focus on how genealogy and ancestry research can serve as tools for justice and liberation, particularly for Black and Brown communities across the diaspora. Christopher Smothers, a historian and genealogist, will share the importance of accessing public records and archives to reclaim names, land, and historical memory. He highlightes the role of DNA evidence in supporting claims for recognition, restitution, and reparative justice. In addition, he will emphasize the need to build infrastructure for genealogical research, including training archivists in culturally competent access and forming partnerships with government agencies. He also touched on the challenges of privacy concerns when accessing certain records. The conversation will also explore ways to integrate genealogical skills into educational settings and the potential for using ancestry research in public policy to address wealth distribution and systemic racism. Smothers expressed hope for the future of this work, emphasizing the need to make ancestry research more pragmatic and tangible for achieving justice. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support. This episode includes AI-generated content.

Becoming a Good Relative shares remedies for the debilitating shame that can overtake white Americans when we face our peoples’ colonial past and our current complicity with systemic white supremacy. It offers a unique methodology, supported by African American and Indigenous Elders. To counteract cultural appropriation, the book includes stories of reclaiming European ancestral memory. The appendices contain historical notes, questions for reflection, practical skills and rituals, and recommendations for further reading. This memoir offers practical strategies for wealth redistribution as well as spiritual teachings on mutual liberation. In addition, it encourages Americans of modest income levels to engage in reparative actions and giving.  HILARY GIOVALE is a mother, writer, and community organizer. A ninth-generation American settler, she is descended from Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe. As an active reparationist, her work is guided by intuition, love, and relationships. https://www.goodrelative.com/book Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

Kathy Lynn Marshall, author of "Finding Grammie' Secrets," shares her journey to uncover the untold story of her great-grandmother, Ella Roy, known as Grammy Carter. Born in 1866 in Alexandria, Virginia, Grammie was remembered for her elegance and caring nature but remained silent about her past, leaving generations curious about her experiences and wealth. When Kathy's mother received a medical diagnosis, they embarked on a race against time to discover Grammy's secrets, leading to a deeper understanding of her life and legacy. Kathy emphasizes her role as a genealogical detective, bringing forgotten women and African Americans into the historical narrative through speculative non-fiction and empowering others to reclaim their heritage. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

America's Forgotten Patriots of the Northern Theater shines a light on the overlooked heroes who fought for independence in the shadows of the Revolutionary War’s northern campaigns. From the rugged battlefields of Saratoga to the icy marches through New England, this compelling narrative uncovers the lives of the diverse and courageous individuals—American men, women and children of African and Indigenous descent who served in the Continental Army and in local militias—whose sacrifices were critical to the American cause but were left out of traditional histories. Drawing on rare documents, firsthand accounts, and recent scholarship, this book restores these patriots to their rightful place in the story of America’s fight for liberty and freedom. Meticulously researched and powerfully told, it is a vital contribution to Revolutionary War literature that challenges what we think we know about the struggle for independence. Ric Murphy is a historian, educator, author, and filmmaker. His most recent work is the Arrival of the First Africans in English America, which received the 2020 Phyllis Wheatley Award and became an award-winning documentary.  He is the founder and President General of the Society of the First African Families of English America, and is a scholar on the history and relationships of Americans of African, European, and Indigenous descent during America’s colonial and antebellum periods.  Through his works he has contributed immensely to the research, documentation, and preservation of African American history and culture from the arrival of the first documented Africans in English America in 1619 through the colonial period to the American Revolutionary War, and beyond. Murphy’s work and commentary have been cited by journalists and historians in major national media outlets and used in broader discussions of African American genealogy, historical commemoration, and military service. He has written numerous books, and served as editor of the book series, the recently released Forgotten Patriots of the Northern Theater Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

In Becoming Trustworthy White Allies, Melanie S. Morrison brings together essays, lectures, and real-life stories drawn from her decades of anti-racist work. With honesty and care, she names the challenges white people face on the path to allyship—and the practices that make genuine partnership possible: moving through shame and guilt, building accountable relationships with people of color, unearthing suppressed ancestral stories, stepping out of social segregation, taking action to dismantle systemic racism, and rooting the work in cross-racial collaboration. This is a guide not for quick fixes but for lifelong commitment—inviting white people to show up with humility, consistency, and courage as trustworthy partners in the work of racial justice.  Melanie S. Morrison is an author, speaker, and racial justice educator with thirty years of experience helping groups and communities navigate the deep work of transformation. She was the founder and executive director of Allies for Change, a national network of social justice educators, and lead facilitator of Doing Our Own Work, an intensive anti-racism program for white people. She is the author of six books, including Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham. Her newest book, Becoming Trustworthy White Allies, was published in September by Duke University Press. For the past six years, she has been engaged in research and writing about her ancestors in Montevallo, Alabama, who accumulated wealth built on stolen land and enslaved labor, and she is working collaboratively with people in Montevallo seeking to forge truer, fuller narratives about the history of slavery in that region. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

From Fragments to Foundation: Uncovering a Buried History of Tragedy and Triumph  The challenges and stories of the family’s past existed only in scattered fragments—few names, little memories, whispered speculations, and family tragedies. For author Melvin J. Collier, the mystery of his paternal lineage became a lifelong quest, one that would lead him through mounds of records, across centuries, and deep into the genetic code itself. Determined to “leave no stone unturned,” Collier embarked on an exhaustive search to piece together the buried history of his father’s great-grandfather, John “Jack” Bass—a brave Civil War soldier from Vicksburg, Mississippi, who narrowly escaped death and left an enduring legacy despite living only about 40 years. This remarkable journey not only brought John Bass’s story to light but also carried Collier back seven generations to 18th-century North Carolina, revealing a saga of unbreakable resilience, insurmountable loss, and great triumph. Along the way, Collier’s research blended the power of traditional genealogy with groundbreaking DNA analysis, uncovering stunning truths, including a direct connection between the Bass family and the Igbo people of present-day Nigeria. Through personal discovery and expert guidance, he reveals how DNA can revolutionize family history research, sharing 23 practical DNA tips and a roadmap for tracing African American roots before and after emancipation.  Rich with historical detail and infused with the thrill of discovery, From Fragments to Foundation is both an inspiring family memoir and an educational guide for anyone eager to unearth their own ancestral past. It’s a story of determination, identity, and the unbreakable thread that binds us to those who came before. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

Without Fear tells how, during American history, Black women made human rights theirs: from worldwide travel and public advocacy in the global Black press to their work for the United Nations, they courageously and effectively moved human rights beyond an esoteric concept to an active, organizing principle.   Acclaimed historian Keisha N. Blain tells the story of these women—from the well-known, like Ida B. Wells, Madam C. J. Walker, and Lena Horne, to those who are still less known, including Pearl Sherrod, Aretha McKinley, and Marguerite Cartwright. Blain captures human rights thinking and activism from the ground up with Black women at the center, working outside the traditional halls of power.  By shouldering intersecting forms of oppression—including racism, sexism, and classism—Black women have long been in a unique position to fight for freedom and dignity. Without Fear is an account of their aspirations, strategies, and struggles to pioneer a human rights approach to combating systems of injustice. Keisha N. Blain is a historian and professor at Brown University. She is a Guggenheim, Carnegie, and New America Fellow and a New York Times bestselling author. She has published eight books, including the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (2018); and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America (2021). Her latest book, Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights (W.W. Norton, 2025), offers a sweeping history of human rights framed by the work and ideas of Black women in the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

The Early County Massacre has been known as the “Grandison Goolsby War” for over a century, focusing on the events of December 30, 1915, when forty-six-year-old Grandison used gunfire to defend himself from a lynching mob. Lesser known is that the incident started two days earlier when Grandison’s son was attacked on his way to a wedding and that it all led to the Supreme Court of Georgia sending that same son to death row five years later. Author Orice Jenkins tells the full story of Ulysses Goolsby and the massacre more than one hundred years later, highlighting the relationships between the victims and survivors and emphasizing the noble accomplishments and sacrifices of Grandison and Mary Goolsby. Orice Jenkins is a recording artist, genealogist, educator, and author, born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. He began researching his family history upon discovering that Whitney Houston’s grandparents were from his grandmother’s hometown of Blakely, Georgia. Since then, he has traced his ancestry back to 1745 in Central Virginia, uncovering the stories of several formerly enslaved Americans. Orice is a member of the Sons and Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. He has presented his findings at The College of William & Mary, Yale University, FamilySearch’s RootsTech Conference, and the International African American Museum’s Center for Family History. His research has been featured in The Washington Post, National Parks Magazine, PBS’ Finding Your Roots, and on the National Park Service website. Orice is the author of The Early County Massacre: Goolsby vs. The State of Georgia, a book chronicling the family of Grandison Goolsby, a prominent farmer who was extrajudicially lynched in Early County, Georgia in 1915. Orice also publishes a blog called Chesta’s Children, and serves as the Executive Director of a youth music program in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

Reflections on Sarah Rector Her name was Sarah Rector.  She was a young black girl born in Indian Territory on March 3, 1902.  Her parents were Joseph and Rose Rector, all of  Taft, Indian Territory. Her story is similar to that of Danny Tucker another black child born in Indian Territory. He, like Sarah had a humble beginning, and he, like Sarah would make headlines for sudden wealth acquired by oil rich land. Early in her young life, Sarah received a land allotment like all who were members of the Creek Nation. Like thousands of blacks once held in bondage by  the Five slave-holding tribes, (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations) she and her family members received land allotments prior to Oklahoma statehood.  It was a general practice that Freedmen often receive land considered to be of less value for farming as did citizens declared as Indians By Blood, and Inter-Married Whites.  However, the story changed when oil was discovered on her land allotment, near Taft, Oklahoma. In 2010, Angela Walton-Walton authored a blog titled “Remembering Sarah Rector, Creek Freedwoman.”The narrative of Sarah Rector has been recounted by numerous individuals, and the public will soon have the chance to delve deeper into this subject matter with the release of the upcoming film titled “Sarah’s Oil.” Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.