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American Tapestry

the Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama
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Oct 12, 2012floy rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I recommend this book. It is very well-written and well-researched. The author's idea is to talk about the history of race relations while talking about the specifics of the ancestors of MIchelle Obama. She traces Obama's family back to pre-Civil war days. Some ancestors were slaves, many were biracial, and some were white. Not unlike the family tree of many African Americans. The author started out with two women who were willing to help sort through the history and even have DNA testing to see if they were related to Michelle Obama. It turns out that both the African American woman and the white woman are distant relatives of the First Lady. The white woman had to confront the slave-owning history in her family but she also welcomed into her family her daughter's choice of a husband, an African American man. Sometimes, it was a bit confusing because the author tended to alternate in the same chapter between writing about MIchelle Obama's maternal relatives and her paternal relatives and the author also sometimes went back & forth in time. But it is well worth reading. It's hard to believe that Michelle's great great grandfather was a slave. Oh, if he could see her now.