When Bettye Kearse’s mother went to her in 1990 carrying a box of carefully preserved memorabilia that showed her family’s connection to the U.S.
presidency, Kearse was concerned. “I worried that my mother was ill or something,” says the geneticist and retired pediatric physician.
Kearse was relieved to learn the real reason her mom was finally handing over the box. “She said, ‘I wanted to make sure you had plenty of time to write the book,’ ” Kearse recalls.
In that work, The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $28), Kearse sets down what she’s known since she was 5 years old—that her family is descended from an enslaved cook named Coreen and one of America’s founding fathers,
Read more on essence.com