Pazetta shares oral history about growing up in Boyce, Louisiana on a former plantation, living in the caretaker’s home with slave cabins on the property; her Choctaw Indian great grandmother Milly being traded by an Indian chief, possibly her father, for a horse as a child; her great grandfather, Revolutionary War patriot descendant Captain Henry Newton Berryman, and his first wife, Helena, a white woman, raising Milly then, him having an affair with her, resulting in a child, Many, neither being slaves; her grandfather Many's warm relationship with Helena; Capt. Henry also having children with an enslaved woman, graduating from West Point in 1817, protecting a black boy from being lynched, giving his enslaved blacks his Natchitoches, Louisiana plantation; Helena protecting slaves; her Choctaw Indian and white father and black mother both from Natchitoches; her father and his brothers marrying black since it was unacceptable for a white woman to marry a mixed race man but his sisters marrying white; her father selling high value paper shell pecans as a farmer; WWII soldiers on family farm for maneuvers, having a lonely soldier at the table every night wanting to talk; attending a four room schoolhouse; being the darkest in family; her father accepted in Creole community as "the old Indian"; being bullied in Marshall, Texas because black kids were jealous she had hair to her waist; relation to Sir Isaac Newton; earning a gold medal in the Texas AAA division public speaking contest and graduating in the top ten in high school, voted Best All-Around Girl by faculty; attending Wiley College, majoring in mathematics, voted Most Beautiful, a Kappa Alpha Psi Sweetheart, joining Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, selected as Miss Junior, Homecoming Queen, graduating Cum Laude; her Creole mother in-law wearing a black dress to wedding in mourning because her son was with a chocolate girl; sister in-law being bothered by her being accepted into the DAR; deciding to identify as black; keeping her Native American heritage a secret; working as a research assistant at Penn State Physics Dept; working at Tennessee State University teaching math and in the Computer Center; her daughter born with club feet, placing them in casts, enrolling her in ballet, resulting in her studying at the School of American Ballet and dancing with Dance Theater of Harlem all over the world; giving talks about the effect of nutrition on disabilities; hunters gathering wild deer, rabbits, squirrel and turkeys for her daughter's dietary needs; giving talks about the contributions and culture of Native Americans; lifting weights five times a week; her maternal ancestors enslaved on George Washington's plantation; feeling a sense of pride discovering her Revolutionary War patriot William Berryman serving in Virginia; for those who suggest we go back to Africa "my lineage was here before you arrived and we fought for the freedom of this country"; father saying to maintain the race, marry someone darker skinned so the descendants can have an identity and be accepted by blacks; tracing oral history by writing a sheriff in Texas who delivered her letter to a white cousin who in turn recommended she join the DAR, then her children's pediatrician's wife, also a DAR member, suggesting she join; giving DAR a try despite the society's history of racism, joining to be a part of what she was entitled to; serving as chapter regent in Nashville, Tennessee, a couple of members transferring out because she was black but the rest embracing her; seeing more blacks in the society and members used to seeing them; "Blacks, Whites and Native Americans, we are all a part of this and we have to work together if we want to make a difference".

Read Pazetta's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters

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Leslie talks about Theodosia, who ran off with cousin and Leslie’s Revolutionary War patriot, William Dula (Dooley) of Irish descent, leaving her first husband, Revolutionary War patriot John Patrick McMullan, and their children without divorcing; the McMullan family being told that Theodosia died; learning her long-time white friend and colleague descended from McMullan and they are both Theodosia’s 4th great granddaughters, then joining the same DAR chapter; William’s grandson James “Alfred” Dula having eight black children with great-great-grandmother Harriet Harshaw who was enslaved by him and kidnapped by his family; and a white Daughters of the American Revolution Dula descendant attending black Dula family reunions and suggesting Leslie join the DAR. Leslie discusses growing up in Lenoir, North Carolina; framing her mother's letter denying her a teaching job since she was Negro and hanging it beside her own doctorate degree; earning a bachelor's in Criminal Justice from UNC; completing a master's and doctorate in education over 12 years while working full time and raising a family; journey from working as a paralegal to becoming an instructor at Appalachian State and Lenoir-Rhyne University; teaching educators how to be more inclusive and leadership philosophy; impact of going from segregated to integrated schools as a child; bringing more diversity into positions of leadership; working as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultant; giving a TEDx talk on gRaCE (Growing Racial and Cultural Empathy); serving as a commissioner of the NC African American Heritage Commission; singing in an award winning gospel recording group; Alfred having six white children with his first wife who died, leaving all of his 2,000 acres- “Dulatown”- to his black children with Harriet, and leaving homes to his white sons; her father becoming the historian for both black and white Dulas after white cousin James Dula died; the “Dulatown” documentary; the annual Theodosia descendants' day at her gravesite with white and black descendants embracing each other but other relatives not wanting to hear it; reconciling slave owning ancestry and Harriet's French father Jacob Harshaw's reputation for being cruel to slaves; father encouraging her to write a family book; Harriet's child with a black man outside of her connection with Alfred, who ran the man off with a shotgun, and the child dying in infancy; Harriet's two children from prior slave master coming with her to Alfred’s, leaving a third behind as "property"; Alfred's family kidnapping Harriet because she was living in the house with him; William being the cousin of the infamous "Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley", executed for the murder of Laura Foster; having measured pride knowing her ancestor fought for American freedom since slavery was a component of the Revolutionary War; being  totally against joining the DAR until a chapter reached out and encouraged her to join;  joining to make a path for cousins to join DAR; serving as chapter vice regent; the DAR still being open and welcoming despite the recent climate in community; being “proud to open a door for other women like me to have access to the DAR... as a point of progress for a group of women who have been marginalized in the past”.  Read Leslie’s biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters

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Karen discusses being admitted to the DAR in 1977 as the first known black member by defying resistance within the society; inquiring about admission to the DAR by writing local chapters, upon the suggestion of archivist and friend Margaret Ward; not knowing if there were other black members, reaching out to two Detroit, Michigan chapters, sharing that she was black, but never hearing back; being unable to meet the requirement of attaining the sponsorship of two members since no one would invite her to a chapter; help from James Dent Walker, African-American, head of genealogical services at the National Archives; becoming aware that she was the first known black to apply but would not be the first genetically black member since some white members discovered that their patriots were of color; being the first to say "I am black, I am eligible, I would like to apply”, then President General Baylies reaching out to chapters to ask who would accept her, encouraging that they "would do a great service to the national society"; the Ezra Parker chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan offering to sponsor her; appearing on the front cover of the New York Times, and in over 230 publications in stories about her admission; a California chapter requesting to review her application, not believing a black could be eligible to the join DAR; Mrs. Baylies protecting her by putting the application documents in her desk and closing the file; Mrs. Baylies being recognized, in her obituary, for admitting the first black member; smiling at the portrait of Mrs. Baylies in the DAR headquarters with each visit, "it took a village to get me there and she was part of that village"; learning decades later about having been blackballed by a chapter who voted against sponsoring her, then transferring to that chapter to heal from their rejection and serving as the Regent (leader); Peggy Anderson's 1974 The Daughters account of race in DAR; initiating her application because "I could" and it was a logical conclusion to finding her white Revolutionary War ancestor William Hood, in ten months, a patriot who had never been established with DAR; feeling uncomfortable as the only person of color at her first Continental Congress, her breath being taken away and feeling really American when the flag unfurled from the ceiling in DAR Constitution Hall; being the subject of a Jeopardy television game show final clue; her family joining the DAR; Alex Haley’s Roots, published four months into her research, serving as a major incentive to keep going; later meeting Haley and learning that he was a fan of hers; not being able to find an African forebearer; misconceptions that researchers will never get through slavery to get to a black person's patriot; not all black ancestry traces back to slavery; serving as National Vice Chair of Lineage Research for African American Patriots and Research; Real Daughter Eunice Russ Ames Davis, daughter of African descent Prince Ames, joining the DAR in the 1800's; reconciling the Marian Anderson incident; regretting going inactive for ten years, not finding how DAR was relevant in her life and how she was relevant in the society; "as a black woman, I felt I had to leave myself at the door"; feeling DAR as an organization, "we have made progress but we still have more progress to make"; feeling troubled by the state of racism in America; identifying the opportunity for DAR to educate members about diversity to continue moving forward as a society; rejecting the notion that racism is “political"; the growing number of black members; the need for DAR to be more attractive for black members; "DAR means a sisterhood, a love for history, and being an American".

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Karen talks about discovering her white Revolutionary War patriot William Hood, who earned her place as the first black woman to be admitted to the DAR; her white maternal great grandmother Jennie Daisy Hood marrying black Prince Albert Weaver, in 1889 Ohio; Jennie’s mother not allowing her to bring her children with her to visit because they were showing their colored heritage; her paternal ancestor Isaiah Parker buying enslaved Charity Ann from his father's estate, living with her, and purchasing some of the 17 children he had with her, in Harris County, Georgia; Charity Ann being referred to as Mrs. Parker although they were not legally allowed to marry; Isaiah having no relationship with a white woman; her feelings about having slave owning ancestry; oral history passed down from her grandmother about Charity Ann being bought by her third great grandfather in Virginia, taken away in a wagon with two black horses; Charity's mother running after wagon saying "Bye bye my babies, I will see you in the by-and-by"; grandmother "Gram" (Beatrice Parker) being estranged from her father Thomas, son of Charity Ann and Isaiah, who is lost after the 1900 census, leaving his black wife and kids and possibly changing his name to pass for white; Gram's stories about growing up in Georgia always ending with "I saw colored folks hanging from a tree"; Gram marrying at fifteen with only an eighth grade education and not attending her own graduation because she didn't have money for a white dress which girls were wearing for the ceremony; mother not talking about her maternal family because the white side did not want anything to do with them and forging relationships with white relatives later in life; her mother's black father Frederick, of Bermuda, who in 1917 married Hazel, daughter of Jennie and Prince Albert, who lost her U.S. citizenship because of her marrying an “alien"; discovering mother's unknown half siblings while on a family vacation to Bermuda when she was twelve; Jennie meeting and deciding to marry Prince Albert in 1889; Jennie teaching Prince to read and him building a house for them; discovering Prince Albert's mother Cornelia, a free woman of color in 1860, and father Nathaniel, a U.S. Colored Troops soldier, both in Washington, D.C.; her lineage through Jennie to patriot William Hood; William arriving on a rescue mission at Fort Freeland, which was under attack by British and American Indians near the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, unaware that the settlers had surrendered and surviving the ensuing battle; William later marrying Rebecca Lee and settling in New York; visiting the house Prince Albert built in 1810, having present-day occupants allowing her inside, the locals remembering Jennie, and her white cousins being accepting; feeling incredulous when she discovered that she had a Revolutionary War ancestor who helped fight for the America we hold dear today since she always felt “a little short of American” because of the color of her skin; feeling sad that Aunt Clara passed just prior to the patriot discovery and not being able to share in joining the DAR together so Aunt Clara could feel accepted instead of rejected because of heritage.

This is the second in a series of three episodes.

In the first episode, Karen shares stories about how her childhood shaped her into a pioneer.
 
In the next episode, Karen discusses being admitted to the DAR in 1977 as the first black member.

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Karen shares stories about how her childhood shaped her into a pioneer having the courage and resilience to defeat opposition she faced when applying to become the first black member of the DAR; her parents being fervent civil rights activists and requiring her to ride a bus one and a half hours each way to integrate a school "because somebody has to", describing it as the “worst year of my life”; being shaped by growing up in Detroit, Michigan in the 1950's and 60's; growing up reading books about the black struggle in her home library; exploring commercial art, attending operas, visiting museums, learning violin, and being in Campfire Girls as a youth; reluctantly being a debutante and her father founding The Cotillion Club and presenting young black women to society; her father ending up in a convalescent home as a kid from a leg injury going untreated due to lack of access to a doctor; her father reinjuring his leg in the Detroit race riots, as a student, and him deciding to amputate to not let it stand in the way of graduating medical school; keeping her father's poem by Emerson on her wall; her father becoming a doctor and her mother working as a teacher; majoring in anthropology at Fisk University; graduating from Oakland University with a bachelor's in psychology; completing Wayne State University law school as a single mom; going into law to apply research skills developed from doing genealogy; working as a litigator, in-house counsel, and a lobbyist; knitting to honor the practice of ancestors; participating in colonial period reenactments to carry out her interest in living history; her membership in the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches and her ancestors being hung and accused of witchcraft; her membership in and being eligible for numerous New England hereditary societies and feeling "more American than apple pie".

This is the first in a series of three episodes.

In the second episode, Karen talks about her pioneering genealogical research which led to discovering her white Revolutionary War patriot William Hood and shares her family oral history about what happened when Jennie Daisy Hood, her white maternal great grandmother, married a black man, Prince Albert Weaver,  in 1889; and her enslaved paternal great-great-grandmother Charity Ann being torn away, as a child, from her mother who ran after the wagon that carried her off, crying out goodbyes.

In the third episode, Karen discusses being admitted to the DAR in 1977 as the first known black member by defying resistance within the society; being unable to meet the requirement of attaining the sponsorship of two members since no one would invite her to a chapter; then President General Baylies reaching out to chapters to ask who would accept her; being blackballed by a chapter who voted against sponsoring her; the Ezra Parker chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan who finally sponsored her; a California chapter contesting her application; and Mrs. Baylies protecting her by putting the application documents in her desk and closing the file for years. 

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Starting off Black History Month with the first black member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Karen Batchelor, Daughter Dialogues returns for season two on the first Thursday of February! Learn what to expect to hear from Karen and from other black members of the DAR who descend from men and women who fought for the independence of the United States of America. New episodes are released every Thursday.
 
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Announcing the end of season one, Daughter Dialogues will return on the 1st Thursday of February at the start of Black History Month. This episode includes observations in review of season one, listener comments and shout outs to social media followers, podcast statistics, announcements of live virtual events to interact with the Daughters and the official acceptance of Daughter Dialogues for deposit into a Harvard library, and a season two preview. Hear the reasons behind the decision to break the series into seasons and how it is not a podcast but instead a research project; how the oral histories shift our thinking about how this nation was formed and to view black people in the United States as more than simply victims of slavery but instead provide a richer narrative to American History; common shared experiences among the Dialogues: feeling the pain of ancestors, painful rejection or denial by white descendants of ancestors, friendships formed with white descendants of ancestors and their enslavers, setting the record straight in their family history, complex struggles with racial identity because of color of skin and the context behind decision to pass for white, white men with black women who were often enslaved in 1700s and 1800s providing a different narrative of how white men took care of their black families and passed down their property to them, white women with black men in the 1800's, people of color owning slaves, free people of color who were pioneers and prominent members of society starting their own schools and churches, descending from and family impact on historical figures, Daughters making history in their own right and accomplishing things not necessarily associated with black women, and Daughters as survivors; media coverage received during season one including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, African Ancestry, and WTOP- Washington D.C.'s top news radio interviews; a breakdown of listener groups; comments from white DAR listeners: "widen the lens through which I view the world", "these stories move me to tears…this is the kind of history I want told", "I want to be a part of the work to explode negative stereotypes with unexpected stories", despite their past family history of slavery "these ladies hit the ball out of the ballpark"; comments from non-DAR member black listeners: "these are stories people need to hear’, "there's so much more to them than their patriot", "I like to hear the generational perspectives from the women in their 20s to 90s"; "it’s not just you alone but others have shared experiences"; shout outs to social media followers for the top number of shares of Daughter Dialogues posts; geeking out on numbers: Daughter Dialogues episodes have been downloaded a total of 8,000 times over past 4 months and placing it in top 40% of podcasts among 30+ million episodes available; top cities and countries in which listeners are located; the launch of live events in January during which listeners will be able to meet the Daughters and ask questions live; announcement: Daughter Dialogues has been officially accepted for deposit at Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, arguably the world’s largest archive devoted to history of both individual women and women’s organizations; season two preview: meet the very first recognized black member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Karen Batchelor, who joined in 1977 and was also the subject of a final Jeopardy! clue!

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Charlotte shares stories about her white great-great-great-grandmother who had a child with a black man and descended from Revolutionary War patriot William Lindsey Durham whose grandson is the namesake of the city in North Carolina; and her Welsh ancestry, descending from free people of color of Chatham County, North Carolina who trace back to patriarch Moses Myrick of Wales. She talks about growing up in the small close-knit community of Pittsboro, North Carolina; dropping out of NC A&T and enrolling in a pharmacy technician program at Durham Technical Community College; joining the U.S. Navy where she learned air traffic control; the strain of being in the military on her marriage; earning a bachelor's in Computer Information Systems; her career in clinical trials working as an associate director at a major pharmaceutical firm managing reported adverse events; meeting her second husband in the Navy; traveling to Anglesey, Wales with white American genetic cousins, after having only met online, that descend from Moses Myrick; Welsch townspeople assuming her white husband was a Myrick instead of her; visiting Bodorgan Hall, where the Welsh hosted a garden party for descendants at the Myrick estate; wanting to know more about her European H1 haplogroup and her hair since she was always questioned about her unusual combination of having brown skin with long silky hair; discovering three Revolutionary War patriots starting with her great-great-grandmother Luevinia’s death certificate, that named her mother Mary Pendergrass, who was white, and father Abe Horton, who was black; Mary's mother Martha Durham, descendant of Revolutionary War patriot William Lindsey Durham; not learning in school that there were free people of color prior to the American Revolution and instead only learning about slavery and the Civil Rights movement; joining DAR to document her family history; her patriots Matthew Durham (William's father) and “Chatham John” Pendergrass, ancestor of Mary's father; her frustration due to the individual submitting her DAR application not including her supporting documentation explaining the nuances of being a black applicant with the unusual circumstance of Luevinia being the child of a white woman and a black man, causing a delay in approval; Luevinia marrying a black man Rob and the couple residing on Pendergrass property in Orange County, North Carolina; Rob holding a great deal of land; enjoying DAR's outreach to veterans; the importance of representing people of color to which DAR is also of service; accepting DAR amends with Marian Anderson; her DAR membership providing validation since her family was here before the American Revolution, “I cannot be told to go back to Africa, our history is messy but that's what makes us Americans"; serving as a chapter officer; having a different outlook knowing she descends from a white woman; having a "Reese Witherspoon chin" like Luevinia; connecting with a white Pendergrass relative but descendants of Luevinia's white half siblings not being interested; searching for Luevinia's black brother Madison; "it's funny how we are at each other's throat with the unrest...we are all related".  Read Charlotte's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters

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Bianca talks about leading schools in the Middle East; and her Creole culture in which cousins intermarried to remain fair complexioned and preserve their culture, her grandmother deciding to passe blanc (pass for white), being adamant about not being African, and being shunned by her family because she had less European features than her siblings and associated with blacks; and her family's Creole social status and wealth attained in the Cane River, Louisiana community by former slave Marie Therese Coincoin who owned land and slaves resulting from a plaçage relationship with Frenchman Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer.  She shares stories about growing up in Bedford Heights and Cleveland, Ohio; not knowing that she was black; not being in the same social class as her peers due to parents’ divorce; earning a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education/French and master’s in Instructional Technology from the University of Akron; her interest in developing the minds of students to explore other cultures; her independent study in France; earning a master’s in education law to protect rights of special needs students; working in Saudi Arabia as a resource teacher for students with special needs, relating to classism in their society, and not being seen as an American; working as a principal in Kuwait; frustration with U.S. schools not being equipped to address the social and emotional needs of disadvantaged students; serving as the principal of an Indian American school in New Mexico; her mother not identifying as black but instead American and her father's family preferring that he would have married a white woman; always knowing her grandmother, Lucy Couty, as white in contrast to her Negro certificate; family sending her grandmother to a Negro school apart from her siblings, who had European features, because of her more black features; family pressure on her grandmother to marry white but her instead having relationships with black men; defining Creole as the food, the Catholic church, and consanguinity; the Creole Native American, African, German, Spanish, French, and Jewish peoples creating a mixed-race group of people who lived peacefully within their isolated community while under French and Spanish rule; the Creole class hierarchy dictating that whites sit behind them in church; dating dark skinned black men in defiance of her family’s directive to not marry a black; Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer’s Revolutionary War service; her family's history not being the traditional negative narrative of slavery; joining the DAR to preserve her grandmother's legacy after she had been rejected by both blacks and whites; embracing her African, European and American Indian heritage;  "I am American before I am anything but even before I am American I am Christian"; feeling the DAR is a beautiful organization; “being American isn't about race but where you were born"; the necessity to identify with other black DAR members. Read Bianca’s biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters

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Sharri talks about her family’s effect on Abraham Lincoln’s assassin during an intertwined story concerning the Fugitive Slave Act, negotiated by her maternal relative U.S. Senator Henry Clay, inciting the Christiana Riot in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where her paternal ancestors were protecting fugitive slaves; Frederick Douglass assisting her ancestors to reach the Elgin Settlement in Canada on the Underground Railroad; growing up on a dairy farm in Lapeer, Michigan, living in an 1846 farmhouse; being the only black student in her one room schoolhouse; relative Phyllis Marshall, a black Canadian TV personality and jazz singer; traveling in Europe as a soprano with the Southern Michigan Youth Chorale; competing in the Miss America franchise; earning a bachelor's in economics from Oakland University; her thirty year career at General Motors; going back to complete her law degree at Michigan State; attending a two week immersion class in Germany in her fifties to achieve her dream of becoming fluent in a second language; founding a law practice in the areas of Child Welfare, Juvenile Delinquency, and Probate Law at the age of 55; being instructed by her grandmother as a child to not talk about her ancestry because no one would believe it; her Revolutionary War patriot Green Clay who was the largest landholder and largest slaveholder in Kentucky; the impact of the free labor of slaves in creating the wealth of America; presenting "My Journey to DAR" at the Elgin settlement for former and self-emancipated slaves, in Ontario, Canada, annual "Homecoming" event; the 1851 Christiana Riot battle at the home of her paternal great-great-grandparents William and Eliza Parker, self-emancipated slaves from Maryland and abolitionists, resulting in the demise of slave master Edward Gorsuch who attempted to reclaim slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 which was negotiated by her maternal relative U.S. Senator Henry Clay; the killing of Gorsuch fueling John Wilkes Booth to assassinate president Abraham Lincoln; ancestor Christopher "Kit" Clay’s relationship with servant of African descent Matilda Tillman and their daughter Loutisha Clay’s relationship with a white man whose fear of financial ruin prevented their legal marriage; Cassius Clay inspired to be an abolitionist by Green Clay's African descent servant Mary, condemned to hang for murdering her overseer who was plotting to kill her; Cassius suggesting Mary is Green Clay's daughter; joining the DAR to preserve lineage with a long lasting institution and to provide enrichment about the formation of the U.S.; questioning about lineage during application process triggering trauma from suffering due to experiencing ancestors' lives while researching genealogy; objecting to people trying to eject citizens from America, “I'm putting my stakes in the ground.” Read Sharri’s biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters

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