- 1 day ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:09I would love to see a script as soon as possible.
00:13That would be awesome.
00:14My name is Laverne Cox. I'm an actress.
00:17I was born in Mobile, Alabama.
00:20As a kid, all I wanted to do was get out of Alabama.
00:23That's all I wanted to do was get out as soon as possible
00:26and get to New York.
00:28But it was many years of just auditioning
00:31and being told no repeatedly.
00:34And then the big break, I would probably say,
00:36was a show called Orange is the New Black.
00:41And it led me, becoming the first openly transgender person
00:44to be nominated for a primetime Emmy for acting.
00:48When I think about the career that I've been able to have
00:50over the past few years as an openly transgender woman of color,
00:54I think I've been very lucky.
00:58I've also been able to use my platform to advocate for the issues
01:02that are important to me.
01:04And I'm deeply interested in the history of black people in America,
01:09specifically, and I'm a black person in America.
01:12I think having a deep understanding of your own personal history
01:15is a wonderful way to contextualize the present
01:18and to go forward into the future.
01:22So I'm really excited about that.
01:29My first step in this journey is traveling to my hometown of Mobile, Alabama,
01:34and meeting up with my mom.
01:36She's sort of the family historian.
01:46I'm more interested in learning about my mother's family line
01:49because I never had a relationship with my father.
01:53Growing up, a lot of my gender stuff was challenging for my mother.
01:57I was very feminine.
01:58Hey, darling.
02:00Oh, Laverne!
02:00But she eventually supported it, and thank God.
02:06So this is, like, the journey for me and really us
02:11to find out more about our family.
02:14Okay.
02:15So what is it you want to know?
02:17I just want to know where we come from, I guess.
02:19There's lots, lots, lots to learn.
02:21This is Emma Jane.
02:23Emma Jane Jones Cox.
02:25Who's also known as Madea.
02:29This is a picture of Madea when she was with the American Woodmans.
02:35This was a group of men and women
02:38who were advocates for African Americans in the community.
02:42They believed in helping people to vote, get registered to vote.
02:47Oh, my goodness.
02:48Mm-hmm.
02:49I never knew that.
02:50How did I not know that?
02:51We didn't talk about that a whole lot.
02:53Your grandmother was an activist in her time,
02:57and she believed in equality for women
03:00and, of course, for the African American community.
03:03My grandmother, she was a domestic worker.
03:06She cooked and cleaned in the homes of white folks
03:09in the segregated South.
03:12And I think it's so important to note
03:14that even though she didn't read or write,
03:16she was, she was, she was smart, and she was savvy,
03:19and she was an incredible, remarkable woman.
03:23So, my mother is constantly talking about my grandmother.
03:28Maria's mother was Winnie McGuire Jones.
03:33So, Grandma Winnie is my great-grandmother and your grandmother.
03:36Yes.
03:36Her husband was A.C. Jones.
03:37And they were born where?
03:39In Dallas County, Alabama.
03:41From what I understand, Granny Winnie was a beautiful woman.
03:45Mm-hmm.
03:45Just like you.
03:47There's a story that we tell about my great-grandmother,
03:50Winnie McGuire, that she was full-blood Cherokee Indian,
03:53but we're not sure because a lot of, historically,
03:56we know that a lot of black folks were told
03:57that they were Native American, but they were really white,
04:00and so we're not really sure.
04:01For so many black Americans who were brought here as slaves,
04:05we don't know exactly where we're from.
04:06You know, we assume we're from Africa.
04:08We don't know exactly what part of Africa,
04:10and that could be really amazing to find out.
04:12So I took a DNA test. We're waiting for the results.
04:15I'm really curious to find out what my genetic background is.
04:22So that's some of our history.
04:25Some of our people.
04:25You're going to go and find out some more about us?
04:28I'm going to find out what we can find out.
04:29And let me know because I'm interested in finding out as much as possible.
04:33I'm just going to find out and not tell you, girl.
04:36Of course I'm going to tell you.
04:37Okay, good.
04:39All righty, girl, I got to go.
04:40All righty. Oh, it's so good seeing you.
04:43I love you. I love you too, baby.
04:45Take care. You too.
04:47I actually didn't know my grandmother helped register people to vote.
04:50I connect to that.
04:52I connect, like, deeply to that desire to empower my people.
05:04So I'm in Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, to meet with a genealogist.
05:09My ancestry DNA results are in.
05:11I'm so excited to find out about the Cherokee side of my family tree
05:15and particularly about my great-grandmother, Winnie McGuire,
05:18and her side of the family line.
05:20Hello.
05:22Yay.
05:25So, I heard you have DNA results for me.
05:29Are you excited?
05:30I am.
05:31I'm nervous too.
05:32I don't know why I'm nervous, but...
05:34What we found in your DNA.
05:36Oh, my God.
05:37Okay, there's lots of Western Africa.
05:40Oh, my goodness.
05:4122%.
05:41Yep.
05:42Goodness gracious.
05:42And 20% Nigerian.
05:44It's funny because people are like, you look like you're Nigerian.
05:47And I'm like, I don't know.
05:48Yep.
05:48So we're right.
05:49So now you know.
05:5020% Nigerian.
05:52African Southeastern Bantu, Mali.
05:57And then 9% Senegalese.
05:59So you've got about 93% African.
06:04I'm very, very black.
06:06You are.
06:06No Native American.
06:07There's no Native American.
06:09So that is a family myth.
06:11Right.
06:11You're just not inheriting those markers.
06:13So we're just not seeing it.
06:14Or it's also possible that it just was the family story that's really common.
06:19For other people, it was also a way of feeling more strongly connected to America.
06:23You know, to feel like you were part of the people who were here before.
06:28Interesting.
06:29Right.
06:29I never knew that.
06:30Yeah.
06:31So what else can you tell me?
06:32Well, I have a tree.
06:36Mmm.
06:38My mother, Gloria Cox.
06:40Her mother, my grandmother, Emma Jane Jones.
06:44My great grandmother, Winnie McGuire.
06:47Her father, George Washington McGuire.
06:50And her mother is Georgiana Banks.
06:52Georgiana's parents are Bolin Banks, Matthews, born about 1825.
06:59And Lucy Ross, born about 1833.
07:03So they were my great, great, great grandparents who were born into slavery on this side of the family, presumably.
07:09Wow.
07:13So what can I find out about Bolin?
07:15And what are these two last names, Bolin, Banks, Matthews?
07:18We were able to get him back for a certain amount of time with the surname Banks.
07:22But then before, as we tried to go further back, we couldn't find him.
07:27So I have a record for you to look at for him.
07:33Up here, it'll tell you the place.
07:351870 census in the county of Dallas, in the state of Alabama.
07:40This is a census from 1870.
07:42It is.
07:43That's incredible.
07:44Yeah.
07:44Just that part of it is amazing.
07:46So, I see a Bolin Matthews here at the very top.
07:5145 years old, male, black, Lucy's wife.
07:57Right.
08:00And then the daughter, Georgiana.
08:03Mm-hmm.
08:04Georgiana Banks is my great, great grandmother.
08:06Who's that?
08:07So this is Willis.
08:09Matthew, Willis.
08:10Matthews.
08:11And...
08:12What is that, Cass?
08:13Mm-hmm.
08:13These would also be sons of Bolin.
08:15Bolin, Banks, Matthews.
08:17So we initially looked for him as Banks.
08:19Right.
08:19And then could no longer find him as Banks.
08:21And then he was then listed as Matthews.
08:24With emancipation, I think a lot of people changed their names.
08:27Maybe with the slave owner's name?
08:28Right.
08:29Quite possibly.
08:29As they came out of slavery, they didn't necessarily have surnames.
08:33So the surname of their slave owner would be given to them.
08:37So Banks was how he identified later, and Matthews was how he first identified.
08:43What else can we infer about the census records?
08:46So this column shows the value of real estate.
08:53So he owned real estate?
08:55He did.
08:55Oh my goodness.
08:57Yeah, in 1870.
08:58In 1870, he owned real estate in Dallas County, Alabama.
09:02Right.
09:03That's a really big deal.
09:04It is.
09:05Historically, this is major.
09:07So unique.
09:07So he was the only African American on the page who owned land.
09:12They must have been mad at him.
09:14How does this happen?
09:15One way to find out a little bit more about where it came from would be to look for the
09:211860 U.S. Federal Census slave schedule.
09:24The slave schedule is sort of a list of assets.
09:27Right.
09:28Okay.
09:29Okay.
09:29We see the earliest record we have for him has the surname Matthews.
09:34So we can presume that that was likely the surname of his slave owner.
09:38Yes.
09:39So that's what we're going to want to search for here.
09:41So we'll do a search to see if there were any Matthews families who owned slaves in Dallas
09:46County.
09:49Virginia Matthews.
09:50So Virginia Matthews would be the name of the slave owner.
09:54So Matthews was a woman, a female slave owner.
09:57All of these other rows would indicate her slaves.
10:02She had a lot of slaves.
10:03So she had a lot of slaves.
10:05This would be a very wealthy family.
10:06Wow.
10:08There's a 12-year-old here.
10:09Mm-hmm.
10:10There's a 19-year-old, another 12-year-old, a 13-year-old, a 12-year-old, a 14-year
10:14-old.
10:19Hmm.
10:20Okay.
10:21We would be looking for someone.
10:24Folan was 45 years old in 1870.
10:27So we'd have been 35 in 1860.
10:30Right.
10:30And as we scroll down Virginia Matthews, I see two 35-year-old black males who were owned
10:38by Virginia Matthews.
10:41So it looks like one of these is potentially Bolin.
10:46Right.
10:47Wow.
10:50Wow.
10:51Wow.
10:52Wow.
10:57Wow.
10:57It´s just really hard to think about a human being as property.
11:03We weren´t even people.
11:12And my family.
11:13This is my family born into this.
11:19so can we determine if Bolin was in fact one of Virginia's slaves you can go further back than
11:26this the key at this point is to try to find county level records that would pertain to the
11:32slave owner and see if it names her slaves there might be um county records that have their names
11:38right you'd need to go on to Dallas County the county seat is Selma and see if they have some
11:43of the records thank you so much you're welcome so if I going to Selma I'm hoping to get confirmation
11:52that my three times great-grandfather was indeed a slave of Virginia Matthews and then maybe I'll
11:59have a shot at digging deeper into who he was
12:09it was so emotionally impacted by seeing the slave schedules it just crystallized the deep
12:18dehumanization that happened and it made me think about the dehumanization that still happens to
12:23black folks in America to trans people in America to women I've thought about all the moments when
12:28I've been treated as if I were less than human when I've been called an it and so it just
12:32felt
12:32it didn't feel like history it felt like now I'm going to meet with Manisha Sinha to find out more
12:40about my three times great-grandfather Bolin Banks Matthews so my journey has brought me here to
12:47confirm that my three times great-grandfather was indeed the property it feels like a horrible thing
12:53to say of Virginia Matthews yes and we have some interesting documents for you here that might
12:59help you solve that mystery inventory and appraisement of the estate of Peter E Matthews on the White Bluff
13:06plantation in Dallas County taken the 15th of April 1856 so I'm assuming Virginia presumably inherited
13:15all of his assets yes so Virginia is his wife so this is from four years before the 1860 slave
13:22schedule
13:23that I saw yesterday absolutely so Peter Matthews owned a plantation called White Bluff in Dallas County
13:30okay articles of property values two pianos two settees these are literally a list of a list of his
13:42property and do they say they don't say anything about slaves here so part of this is this and this
13:48is the second page it's continued names of Negro slaves so it's the steward Jim Andrew Brown some of
13:59them had last names bowling Beverly Barry Joe they had a lot of slaves and they have a dollar value
14:07next to
14:08their names yeah this bowling is bowling bowling most likely yes 750 dollars my understanding is that
14:18their value is assessed based on age and gender yes so in 1856 he would have been 31 so he
14:25is valued at
14:26this amount because he is over 30 and if you look at some of the other valuations here you'll see
14:34a prime
14:35field hand would be valued at over $1,000 which in the 19th century that is a lot of money
14:42really
14:42shows you what slavery was all about the commodification of human beings it was their region's entire
14:54economy was dependent on slavery and not just the south the entire country amen this is a cotton
15:01plantation slave-grown cotton was the largest item of export from the United States its value is more
15:10than the value of all other goods so the cotton that is being grown by these enslaved people is being
15:16sent to textile mills in New England into England it's fueling industrialization but then thinking about
15:23those folks who are fighting to keep slavery it was only they had to continue to dehumanize this the slave
15:29to
15:31keep them in servitude but ultimately was about money absolutely as depressing as this document is we now have
15:42documentation that my three times great-grandfather Bolin Banks Matthews was indeed a slave of Virginia
15:49Matthews um pray tell how in the world did Bolin get this property so a colleague of mine at the
15:59Vaughan
15:59Smitherman Museum right down the road here in Selma might be able to help you answer those questions
16:04wow yay the search continues thank you so much thank you my pleasure
16:16it's still not really clear how exactly my three times great-grandfather Bolin acquired the land but I'm
16:24hopeful to find out more information about Bolin's life after emancipation
16:30so today I'm heading down the street to meet up with historian Erica Dunbar hello hello I can't wait to
16:39hear what you have for me today let's take a look at this first document that I found for you
16:49board clothing med attention fuel etc January 1st 1866 what girl what am I looking at so this is a
17:00document from the Freedmen's Bureau it's basically a labor agreement who is Joel E Matthews Joel Matthews
17:11was actually related to the Matthews family and so if we look at the names of everyone on the list
17:19are
17:20these the former slaves oh my goodness gracious
17:29Balin this different spellings of his name it's deep when you can't read or write and you tell someone
17:34your name and they like spell it in all these different ways the great thing about a name like
17:38Bolin is that it's not John right or Peter so they got a place to live they got clothing they
17:43got medical attention and fuel for their house but there's nothing about money here correct so yeah
17:51yeah we we this is not that we knew this though I mean it's like on paper there folks are
17:56free but
17:59the practice has not really changed yes economically these folks are not really better off in 1866 and they
18:07were in 1865 or 1855 amen and how does he get from here to owning $500 worth of property one
18:15of the
18:16things that's you know sort of difficult about this time period is that the records are spotty and so
18:21the reality is we don't have the documentation that tells us how Bolin transitions from appearing on this
18:28list with nothing to being a landowner however I have another document that I'd like you to look at
18:37know all men by these presents that the undersigned Bolden Banks has this day executed a note to Shields
18:44and Johnson for the sum of $100 and payable on the first day of November 1878 this is a loan
18:52he got a loan
18:56wow well yes that was that what I'm so one can presume then from this that maybe the way he
19:01got
19:02the land was a loan we don't have the records that allow us to make those direct links but we're
19:07still
19:08not certain how he gets his land he has land before the loans but he has land before the loan
19:13what I was
19:14able to to find was that he borrowed money consistently over time so he's asking for a loan every year
19:23up
19:24through 1892 but the other thing that's important to note is that someone's willing to loan him the
19:29money that's that feels remarkable it tells us something a little bit about Bolin right that
19:35he's perceived in a certain way and perhaps he has some social currency yeah but I have something else I'd
19:45like to show you that I think will help us know a bit more but let's move to this next
19:52document
19:53paper looks pretty in its distressedness this is from 1891 Wow Dallas County execute to Bolin banks
20:02colored a deed to 30 acres of my land in Dallas County Alabama including the houses thereon to have and
20:11enjoy during his life so long as he shall live on and cultivate such 30 acres this is the will
20:20of
20:21Virginia Matthews so the former owner I speculated that she may have bequeathed him this land this
20:33shows the complexity of slavery and that when you are living with people no matter the power dynamics
20:40that there's a close familiarity such that she obviously feels as though she wants to leave
20:47something for him it doesn't necessarily mean that those feelings are reciprocal amen so it's to have
20:57and enjoy but not to own there you have it what's up with that so basically she's so whatever relationship
21:08she has with Bolin after she dies she wants him to have access to her land to enjoy as long
21:14as he
21:14cultivates it but he has no ownership correct Virginia I was rooting for you Virginia Matthews I was rooting
21:23for you girl wow wow then this is separate from the land he somehow came to own correct but I
21:35do think
21:35while this may not be as sort of optimistic and hopeful there's a way to think about Bolin and to
21:41look at his
21:41life and to think about how he does assert his voice and his agency what we see with Bolin is
21:48that he has land
21:50he is doing his very best to provide for his family to move forward he's making good on his debts
21:55and I have another document that I'd like to share with you
22:01names of voters names of voters oh my goodness this is a voter registration the Bolin vote
22:10registered in precinct Cahava County of Dallas in the state of Alabama okay we have
22:21and there he is Bolin banks that's exciting wow 1867 whoa so that's two years after emancipation so he
22:36registered immediately I mean voting is everything you know for a dude who couldn't read or write Bolin
22:44through all of this documentation seemed to exercise a tremendous amount of agency that feels very
22:50exciting and it reminds us once again that he is involved and attempting to vote as a black man in
22:57the 1860s was no small feat there were many people who did not want him to yeah and so the
23:05violence that we start to see was a deterrent for many
23:09to vote this is the moment where we see the birth of organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and other
23:16white terrorist
23:17organizations that really wanted to prohibit black men from voting yeah I'll draw your attention to the location
23:27maybe it's at Dallas County but it says in Cahaba I have no idea what significance that would be have
23:35so Cahaba was an area about 20 miles I believe from where Bolin lived and it was actually known as
23:44the sort
23:44of hotbed of black political activism during the era of reconstruction and so it's interesting that he
23:52goes to register to vote there which is a political act what's deep to me too is thinking about particularly
24:01Cahaba it's a precinct in Dallas County which is in Selma Alabama Selma obviously played a huge role in the
24:08civil rights struggle in the 60s and my grandmother she was engaged in registering black people to vote and
24:15so here Bolin banks has registered to vote almost a hundred years before that right yeah I think the
24:23generational thing is important I'd like to give you one last document now this is a voter registration in
24:30the precinct of Athens there he is my three times great grandfather Bolin banks and this is in
24:471875 Willis banks oh and Willis banks is his son so his son is now registered to vote that's wonderful
24:59for me it's very clear that I mean Bolin took his son to register to vote my mother took me
25:05so there's something in our in our family that you must go and register to vote as soon as possible
25:09and you must be politically engaged
25:11yeah that's that's dope what a man Bolin banks was my goodness right now Cahaba is actually an active
25:24um archaeological site and um I think you might find it interesting to pay a visit to the location where
25:34Bolin actually registered to vote yes girl okay oh my god yes that sounds intense epic and absolutely
25:44something I would love to do wonderful thank you so much Erica this has been really incredible
25:50so I've asked my mom to come with me to Cahaba tomorrow to go to the site where my three
25:57times
25:57great-grandfather Bolin registered to vote
26:00great-grandfather Bolin
26:24all righty
26:27this is the site where the old Cahaba courthouse was and this site is particularly important because lots of black
26:35people registered to vote right here Cahaba became this hotbed of revolutionary activity for freed black folks
26:44yeah going on this journey it was for my mother as much as it was for me and maybe even
26:52more so
26:52and my three times great-grandfather a guide by the name of Bolin banks have you heard of Bolin banks
26:59never me neither so he will be my great
27:02he'll be your two times great-grandfather who was born into slavery and in 1867 right after the emancipation of
27:11the slaves right after the Civil War
27:14there's documentation that he registered to vote in this location
27:19it really makes me feel wonderful to know that generations before me were fighting just as hard as I've been
27:26doing and as hard as my mother's fault
27:28it's so overwhelming yeah it's been overwhelming
27:31as a black transgender woman
27:34as a black transgender woman I have certainly fought to be seen and heard
27:38and then again that connection with Bolin banks
27:42he insisted that black people
27:45they had a right to be counted
27:48I'm crying Laverne
27:54I've been shaped by my mother and her mother and her mother's mother
27:59knowing that it goes back further is deeply affirming of who I am who I've become who I've always been
28:08my family's history feels so profoundly American
28:12I can be descended from slaves and living the life that I'm living now is only possible in America
28:20and that's something that my ancestors fought for and lived and died for for me to carve a new space
28:25for myself
28:30connection is why I'm here
28:34Bolin banks I love you baby
28:39yeah I love him