::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

SUMMARY: The only descendants of Pres. James Madison, Father of the U.S. Constitution, are Black. One of them,  Dr. Betty Kearse, a retired pediatrician and geneticist unravels her family history in the book, "The Other Madisons: The Lost History of A President's Black Family."  She talks about life and the expectations that were imposed on her as a Black descendant of Madison, who was married to Dolly Madision and thought to be impotent.  The lineage addressed in this book suggests he was not and had several children with a slave. Kearse recounts the stories of her family history passed down by oral tradition. Dr. Kearse is the narrator and central character in  a memoir that is desribed as "part personal quest, part testimony, part historical correction." This hidden story is also documented in the film  The Other Madisons which opens up the story into the history of African Americnas as a whole is also available in documentary form. 

buzzz worthy. . . My 15-year-old and a friend saw "Selma" together.   When they returne from the moviee I asked, "What was the main take away from the film?"  It was emotionally draining for her:    "They went through so much for us.  I cried because I knew it was real,"   she said of the impact of the cinematic portrayal of one of the darkest hours in American History.  Overall, the triumph over injustice resonated the most.  "At the end," she said, "it was beautiful."  Indeed, the "beauty" of any struggle is progress. I wanted to embrace her and  talk of the coming of better days, but dcided to have "the talk."   The struggle for equality and justice remains real today, voting rights are still under attack 50 years after the voting rights act they were fighting to establish in the movie was written into lae.as in 2015 the 50th Anniversary f the Voting Rights act. What little African American  history tha...