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Many Rivers to Cross
African-American history has played an integral role in the shaping of politics, economics, and culture in the United States. Growing up, how did you learn about the accomplishments and struggles of African Americans? Were you in a classroom? Reading a book? Talking with relatives or friends? How has your understanding or knowledge of African-American history changed and/or developed over time? What do you think is the most effective way to pass along this rich and growing history to future generations?

Eunita Johnson

My 6th, 7th, and 8th grade grammer school teacher, in Chicago, IL, taught Black history to our classes, and it started me on a journey to research every bit of Black history I could find. It also started me to research my family’s history, and I have search it back to the 1780’s with very interesting results, that I hope to put into book form. It is history our family didn’t know about, because of early deaths in the family. One of the main things I found out, was that my 4th great-grandmother was a white women, who had an affair with a Black slave and the results were my 3rd great-grandfather was born a free black man. There are books written with him as part of the subject matter, it is a very interesting history. We always hear about the White man fathering Black children by their black slave women, but this is a very different history. She keep him until he was 11 years old, and she married a white man and gave him up. I have copies of all of the papers verifying this.

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