Political activist Angela Davis has been a truth seeker for her entire career. In an episode of 'Finding Your Roots,' Davis learns the truth about some of her family’s lingering mysteries.
Davis took in learning about her ancestor's identity. “I didn’t think we’d ever have a name. I always imagined him as an anonymous figure,” she says.
The news astounds Davis, as she connects her ancestor's time in the war with her own activism."I'm going off the top of my head! You just threw information at me," she says, laughing. Davis guesses what her mom would've made of this:"It's good to know my genetic background. it's good to know my ancestry. But those are not necessarily my people. My people are those who fought for me, who supported me."
Turns out Mollie Spencer lived near a white man named Murphy Jones. With the help of DNA evidence, the"Finding Your Roots" team discovers that Murphy Jones was, in fact, Frank Davis's biological father. "I assume that my ancestors lived on plantations as slaves. But of course I didn't now who they were. I didn't know who the slave owners were. I just feel so sad that these are my people who had to live under those conditions. It makes me realize what a miracle it is that we’re here now,” she says.
"I'm happy to find that there's a motif of resistance because that is what I feel like I've been trying to do since I was a teenager," she says.
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