[waves crashing] [gulls cawing] - All right.

So, I’m j-- what's the question?

Ask the question.

No, I’m not ready yet.

'Cause I’m, like, frustrated and cold now.

[sighs] ♪♪ I think personality-wise, I’m very pessimistic.

I’m don't-- I, um, I'm the type that doesn't believe anyone or anything until I have proof of it, you know?

I think a lot of it has to do with my childhood, I just don't get my hopes up, I just don't.

♪♪ I’ve come to learn that when you expect a lot and you don't get it, there's always a degree of disappointment, so that way, when not much happens, which is usually the case, I’m not surprised at all.

I started living in foster care probably when I was about 13, 14 years old, and actually where we are now is one of the places I spent the most time, here in Far Rockaway.

♪♪ Lise: Lakia Holmes grew up in foster care, and because of that, she never really got to know her extended family.

But a few years ago, she got the chance to live with her grandmother, Anna Pearl Perry, for just a month, and in that time, she heard inspiring stories about her great-grandmother, whom everyone knew simply as Mom.

But then, Lakia's grandma passed away, and with her death, the window on that world closed and left Lakia wanting more.

♪♪ Lakia: I think the main reason I wanna know more about the life of my great-grandmother is because I feel that there is a part of her that was a very optimistic person, and me being the pessimistic person that I am, I want to be able to kind of connect with her and identify with her and hopefully change a lot of my pessimistic ways.

Lise: There are lots of reasons to learn about our ancestors.

Their stories can tell us something about ourselves.

But maybe more powerfully than that, sometimes, they can inspire us to change even the most fundamental parts of ourselves.

Well, from the studios of BYU Television in Provo, Utah, this is The Generations Project.

♪♪ Hi, everyone, I’m Lise Simms, and each week on our program, we bring you the story of someone who wants to connect with an ancestor, or an entire generation of their family tree, and we help them do just that.

We're an ongoing project connecting people across generations, and today, that person is Lakia Holmes.

Hi, Lakia.

- Hi, how are you?

- I’m good.

You say you're a pessimist, how are you?

- Uh, well, it depends on the day.

Lise: Give me examples of your pessimistic side.

Lakia: Um, I think I just, I just have, like, a lot of doubts, a lot of fears, insecurities, and so, I always think of the worst possible thing to happen.

Lise: Oh, really?

Does this happen in relationships, in work?

Lakia: It happens in relationships, at work, definitely, school.

- Can you give me an example?

- Uh, most recently, with work, I just-- I was handed an opportunity, um, for a job and I, I wasn't sure if I should take it because I just didn't think that I was qualified enough to do it, I didn't think that I would be good enough to do it.

And I took, I mean, I took a chance and I said, Okay, I’ll, I'll do it, but even going up to, like, my very first day on the job, I was just freaking out 'cause I was just, like, I’m going to suck, I’m not gonna be able to do this, and I just kind of got it stuck in my head that I wasn't going to be successful at it and-- Lise: How did it go?

- I think it didn't go well, but everyone was telling me that I did good for my first time, you know, actually doing it.

And so-- but I, and I, and-- you know, they would tell me that and I’d sit back and I would be like, did you, did you see it, though?

Did you watch?

Were-- was I-- w-were we looking at the same thing, because I don't think we-- I don't-- you know?

- Is that pretty common that even when others say, Wow, great job, Lakia, I really appreciate the way you did that, you really handled it beautifully, that you don't take it in?

Lakia: Yeah.

Lise: Interesting, does that-- where does that come from?

Were you born that way?

Was it something you think was taught to you?

- I think a lot of it had to do with my upbringing.

Um, a lot of disappointments that I faced growing up.

And so, I think it just became part of my personality just to not expect much so that way, when it doesn't live up to the expectations, I’m not sad, I’m not down about it, I’m just like, oh, well.

Lise: Self-preservation.

Lakia: Yeah.

- So, let's talk about your childhood a little bit, it was difficult.

You didn't have the opportunity to grow up with both sides of your family.

Why?

Lakia: Uh, my mom and my dad broke up not too long after I was born.

They never married, but they lived together, um, for a little while after I was born, and then, for some reason, they decided to go their separate ways.

And even though I grew up in Manhattan and my dad lived in the Bronx and, literally, I lived within about a fifteen-minute walk from his house, I just never really had the opportunity to just kind of go over and just, you know, see him, hang out with him.

Lise: Did you want to?

- Um, there would be times where I would want to, but I don't think...

I think for the most part, I just didn't really pay much attention to it.

Lise: So, you're looking into your past now hoping that you'll gain some insight from past generations that will change this instinct in you to look at the dark side.

Who is it in your history that, that is different than you are that you're looking towards?

- Um, I was looking towards my great-grandmother on my father's side, um, just because, I-I mean, I barely had a relationship with my father which meant I had, you know, even less of a relationship with her.

And I lived, you know, just right down the hill from where she lived, but I can probably say I only saw her, you know, probably about three, four times.

Lise: Well, what did you find out about her that intrigued you?

Lakia: Um, just finding out that-- well, I knew that my dad's side of the family was from Alabama, and so, I always wondered, well, okay, well, why did they move from Alabama to New York City of all places, like, what was the reasoning behind it?

And the few times I did, um, interact with her, I could remember, you know, a few stories about her talking about, you know, certain things.

And, you know, like, I remember her cooking and stuff like that, but I was so young that I just never had the chance to really connect with her.

Lise: And are you looking to her to find optimism, hope?

Lakia: Um, I think so.

- And was there something you'd heard about her or experienced with her that made you think she had something you didn't have?

- Um, she was always happy.

- A-ha.

- She was always very cheerful.

I've never-- I had never saw her mad or anything, and so, I was wondering, you know, does she ever have a bad day?

Was she ever in a bad mood or-- but I never saw that side of her.

Lise: Interesting.

So, we always say it's beneficial to start close to home.

We end up sending you to meet Yvonne.

This is a relative you've never met before-- Lakia: Mm-mm.

- --at this point in time.

Did you know she existed?

- No, I had no idea.

- That comes up a few times in your story.

I also want to mention to our viewers that there are some... there is some content ahead, some experiences that you, Lakia, had that will be very difficult to watch, and I want to put out a warning for those that may want to make a choice not to.

It was difficult for you to go through it.

There was a reason for it, and we will talk about that, because of your family's history and the things you wanted to know further about them, and there were some very interesting things that came out of your experience there.

So, let's watch what happens when you meet Yvonne.

♪♪ ♪♪ [music fades away] [knocking echoes] [door clicking] - Hi, Yvonne?

- Hi, yes!

Lakia: How are you?

- I’m fine, how are you?

Lakia: Good.

- So nice to see you.

Lakia: Good to see you.

- And you are... - Lakia.

- Lakia, yeah, you look something like your grandmother.

- So, you are my aunt?

- No, I am your cousin.

- Cousin, okay.

- I think I’m your third cousin.

- Okay, so-- - Because your great-grandmother, Annie Mae, and her mother and my grandmother were sisters.

- This is a complicated family tree.

- [laughs] Is that halfway clear?

Lakia: Okay.

- Now you know.

This is your great-grandmother.

Lakia: Mm-hm.

A lot of people say that I don't really look like anything from my father's side of the family, I look more like-- - Well, look at her, do you think you do?

Lakia: Yeah.

We have some of the same features, yeah.

Yvonne: And look at me, do you think you do?

- Yeah.

Yvonne: The family used to send us south in the summertime to get us outta the city.

And when I first went south, that's when I first met your grandmother.

She was a young girl, maybe 17 years old when I first met her, and she was a lovely person, and she was that way till God closed her eyes.

- Yeah.

♪♪ Yvonne: Your great-grandmother and grandfather lived on a big farm, and they had the main house which belonged to their employers, and they had their house in the back.

So, she used to go out every morning real early, off to work to the big house and she worked there all day, and then, she'd come home in the evening, and, you know, make the dinner.

Then she'd have to get up real early to cook for the men because they went and worked on that farm.

She was a excellent cook.

Her specialty was like a caramel cake that would just melt in your mouth.

Both: [chuckle] - Used to go raid the watermelon patches and steal watermelons.

Lakia: [chuckles] - Bust 'em in the road and sit down and eat 'em.

So, I had a lotta fun that I, I, I could not have in the city.

Lakia: Right.

- So, I’m very grateful for the memories that our family gave me.

Lakia: So, this is just kind of overwhelming.

- The beginning?

- Yeah, just because, I mean...

I mean, I never even met you before, but yet, you and my grandmother and my great-grandmother were, you know, so, you know, close, and, you know, you showed me pictures of these family reunions and stuff, and I’m just, I mean, I'm just kinda taken back 'cause it's like, I was, [emotional] I was part of the family, but... - Aw, don't cry...

So, now, you found the family.

- Now that grandma dear is gone and my great-grandmother is gone, I mean, I don't really see my father that much and I don't really-- Yvonne: Well, look, now you met me.

You got me.

My place is not elaborate, it's not that large.

- So now, it looks like I’ll be making some trips to Brooklyn.

- Yes, you will.

So now, you have another branch of your family.

See, God is good to you.

I don't know how all of this came about, but I guess you wanted to know more about your family and your family tree, but see, that's a way that God has you to keep in touch with the rest of your family.

Lakia: Meeting Yvonne was, it was really fun, it was really good to know that I have another relative from my father's side of the family here in the city.

It seems like we really bonded immediately, and she had a lot of information.

She had a lot of really vivid memories, which was really nice, and especially, like, seeing that picture of my great-grandmother, because I don't have any pictures.

I found out her name, which was nice, because we all would just call my great-grandmother Mom, so it was good to attach a name to the face, a name other than my great-grandmother's nickname.

♪♪ I’m excited to see what other things happen, like, what other information I find because right now, I’ve just-- spending a short amount of time with her, I’ve already learned so much, so, it, it'll be interesting to see what else happens.

♪♪ [subway rumbles] [birds chirping] Lise: Lakia was able to secure a copy of her grandmother's birth certificate and is opening it for the first time.

She hopes to learn any vital statistics about her great-grandparents, specifically where they lived.

Lakia: Okay, certificate of birth, Annie Jackson... Wilcox County, Alabama.

In the city of Camden, Alabama.

Hm!

I’m, I'm excited.

I, I have a feeling it's a really small town.

Like, really small.

Ridiculously small.

♪♪ Lise: Lakia is on her way to Camden, Alabama, where her great-grandmother, Annie Mae Jackson, was born in 1912, and lived during her childhood and teen years.

♪♪ ♪♪ To more fully appreciate her great-grandmother's life, Lakia has researched her family tree as far as she can and has found that her great-great- great-grandparents, Riley and Elsie Matthews, were born into slavery in the middle of the Civil War.

♪♪ On her way to Camden, Alabama, Lakia's first stopping at the Slavery and Civil War Museum in Selma, Alabama, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.

The marches and demonstrations for voting rights that took place in Selma would go on to represent the political highpoint of the Civil Rights' Movement and catalyze it into action.

♪♪ In order to better understand what her ancestor's lives would have been like, Lakia is visiting the Slavery and Civil War Museum where she'll immerse herself in the unique and challenging experience of being treated as if she were a slave.

A tiny reflection of the ordeal her ancestors had to endure.

Museum tour guide, Afriye We-Kandodis, takes on the role of slave master.

[door creaks, closes] Afriye: Can you imagine after marching hundreds of miles from the inner part of Africa, you are now standing in the dungeons, waiting, not knowing what the next moment would bring you?

Here in the dungeons is where they begin to strip your people not only of their culture and their identity, in some cases, their dignity.

Go through the door of no return, hurry, hurry.

Go through the door of no return.

[loud creaking] You got one minute to get on that boat.

Move it!

[shouting] Hurry up, get on that boat!

On the boat!

[heavy thud] [creaking] Can you imagine being on the Middle Passage anywhere from five and a half weeks to three to six months or maybe even more?

There are cases when they would kill strong Black men and chop up their bodies and force the others to eat them.

But can you imagine being treated in such a way all because of the color of your skin?

And to justify their madness, they said it was because you were a godless people.

But your people were never godless.

♪♪ ♪♪ For a short amount of time, you connected with your ancestors.

You felt them, you feel them now.

And that's why you're able to cry those tears.

Because you know.

You know the responsibility that you have.

Lakia: [sniffles] It wasn't anything I was expecting.

There were parts where I just wanted to be like, stop, this is too much, where I just wanted to just break down and just be like, I, I can't go any further 'cause it was just too, just, like...

I just, I just didn't think I could go on, it was just too much for me to handle.

But every time I thought to myself, okay, stop, like, I can't do this, I realized that they didn't have that option.

It's just-- [sighs] [emotional] it makes me have a... a different perspective of just life in general-- [sniffles] and just, um... not taking this life for granted and just being really grateful and appreciative of everything that they went through.

♪♪ Lise: Lakia's next stop on her way to Camden is 30 miles south of Selma at Gee's Bend, an African American enclave located on a u-shaped peninsula just five mile across and seven miles long, surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River, where several of Lakia's ancestors lived.

At the heart of Gee's Bend is the Gee's Bend Quilting Collective.

Lakia hopes to learn what life was like for African Americans in that part of Alabama in the early part of the 20th century.

Woman 1: Ruth Kennedy.

Lakia: Hi.

Lakia, nice to meet you.

Woman 1: This is Bettie Seltzer.

Lakia: Hi.

Nice to meet you.

- And this is Ritta Mae Pettyway.

♪♪ Lise: Over the decades after the end of slavery, the town's women developed a unique and rustic quilting style that has become world-renowned.

♪♪ The women of the community have passed down their skills and stories of hardship throughout the generations.

♪♪ Lakia: So, tell me a little bit more about, um, what life was like for you growing up here.

Bettie: Girl, I don't even want to talk about it.

- For, like, your parents and-- - Tell you the truth; I don't want to talk about it.

Where was you at-- it was rough going when I was comin' to it.

We had to go in the field.

Haul, pick corn, pull corn, strap corn, dig sweet potatoes, pick peas, do this, that, and the other thing.

We had the most go to school barefooted and your foot be cracked up walking at down that cold ground and the ice is still.

And when you go home to wash 'em in the evening to go to bed, it hurt so bad.

Rough life, you never know nothing about that, girl.

- Mm-mm.

[quiet rustling] I can't get it.

[chuckles] - It go down like that.

They carry it all the way down to the bottom and then they'll bring it up like that.

Girl, you can't thread a needle?

- No.

Oh, I got it.

I got it on the first try.

- Well, that's good, then.

Lakia: I just learned that, you know, they, they didn't have much.

They didn't have anything, really, you know, except for, um, like, the things that they made by hand.

♪♪ Instead of being in the classroom, they were out working in the fields, picking cotton and picking sweet potatoes and things like that, and even though slavery was over by the time my great-grandmother was born, you know, they were still doing the things that the slaves were doing.

♪♪ When it comes to my great-grandmother, I just wanna learn, you know, more about, like, did she go to school when she moved, you know, out of Alabama, like, what kind of a education did she leave with?

Lise: As Anna Mae reached school age, her family would have been experiencing extremely harsh conditions brought on by the Jim Crow laws of segregation as well as the crushing effects of the Great Depression.

At one point, the wealthiest county in Alabama when cotton was the cash crop, Wilcox County had become the poorest county in the state.

As a result to these horrible conditions and intractable segregation laws, beginning in the 1880s, the Freedmen’s Board of the United Presbyterian Church of North America began establishing mission schools and churches in Wilcox County to provide education and Bible training for African American children.

Founded in 1896, the Canton Bend Mission School was one of those schools and was where Anna Mae Jackson studied until the ninth grade.

♪♪ Lakia is meeting with Lucy Ephraim and Connie Sanders, former students of the Presbyterian Mission school system.

They're meeting at the Prairie Mission School, the only original building still standing.

Woman 2: The bell would ring and then all of us would gather and come inside, like this building right here would be the chapel, and we would have devotion and everything, and then you would go to your different rooms.

At ten o'clock, that was recess time, and we all were just overjoyed when recess came because that was the time that you went outside and then you had free play.

And there were more girls than boys because this was a farmin' area, and, of course, the boys were really the ones that did the field work.

Uh, later on, they had what they call, um, adult classes, and a bunch of 'em, in fact, most of them could not read and write.

There were a privileged few.

My grandfather could, now, but see, as I said, my grandmother could not read nor write, and she was the happiest thing when she learned how to write her name.

♪♪ Lise: It wasn't until 1954 with the landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education that the Supreme Court ruled segregated schools to be unequal.

One year later, amidst intense controversy, the first Black student graduated from a public high school in Wilcox County.

♪♪ In the late 1970s, the last of the Wilcox County mission schools closed.

These schools and many others like them gave young African Americans the opportunity to escape illiteracy and became a source of strength and hope in their communities.

♪♪ Lakia: I was glad to know that my great-grandmother made it to the ninth grade.

Um, I could see her as being someone who would just like to learn as much as she could about many different things, I think that a lot of that started out here in her early schooling years.

She finished school, ninth grade, you know, what happened to, you know, 10th grade and beyond?

Lise: In 1930, when Anna Mae was 18 years old, she gave birth to her daughter, Lakia's grandmother, Anna Pearl.

A few years later, she married Ed Wright, and they moved from Camden to Jackson, Alabama, to work for the Malcolm White Smith family, one of the most established and prosperous families in the region.

Lakia is following their path to Jackson.

♪♪ Does it make you happy to know that your great-grandmother received an education?

Lakia: Yes, it does.

Lise: What was that like to hear about her?

Well, and to be in the school, you know?

- I-- that, I wasn't expecting at all, you know, to be in, you know, the actual room where she, you know, uh, had schooling and, um, it was nice to know that she had a little bit of education, um, 'cause considering, I mean, at that time, a lot of people didn't even have that much, you know.

Lise: And I think ninth grade is a considerable education.

- Yeah, exactly, but, I mean, I-- just like I said in the, in the tape, you know, what happened to 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, you know?

'Cause there is just so much that you learn just in, you know, those few years, but something's better than nothing.

Lise: Absolutely.

Did, did going through these experiences, like being in the places that she had been, do you feel like it helped you get to know her better?

Lakia: It did, um, you know, getting to kind of go down and see, you know, where she, where she grew up, where she lived.

Um, I definitely did feel a connection, which was nice, and it was my first time in the South and-- Lise: What was that like?

- It was, it was interesting, um, 'cause, you know, you hear stories, you know, and, and I've ha-- I have, you know, other relatives who spent time in the South, so, you know, getting to hear some of their stories and talk about what life was like growing up, um, for them, but it was actually good to kind of see where it happens, um, and that was really nice, um, and I love the South, I love Southern culture, um, but to actually, you know, be able to experience it was-- it was really good.

I’m, I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to be able to do that because I think it helped put things in a even greater perspective for me.

Lise: Well, I love that you're saying this because it's the difference between researching something, reading about something.

And I was going to ask you, does it do something for you beneficial to walk the steps, to take the physical journey-- so it made it completely... - Yeah, because when you're actually, like, taking those steps, you kind of think to yourself, I wonder if, you know, they actually walked this same path.

Lise: Well, exactly, speaking of which, you went to the Slavery and Civil War Museum.

Talk about a place to retrace the path of your ancestors.

Um, tell me about that experience, Lakia.

Lakia: That was, I can honestly say, that was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.

And, I mean, I grew up, you know, I went to school, and, you know, learning about slavery in, like, history classes and things like that, but, but I think-- and when I found out I was going to the museum, I was just expecting, you know, you're in a room, you look at some pictures, you walk around, you know, look at some murals or something, you know, typical museum stuff.

- But you had a purpose for going to that museum because it was your ancestors Riley Matthews and Elsie Matthews, his wife, that had been slaves, so you had a purpose to go, you wanted to know their experience, so go on.

- And so, first of all, just finding out that I had relatives that were ens-- that were, um, slaves, um, that was-- I mean, of course, you know, being African American, knowing your family's from the South, you kind of expect it, but to actually be able to have, like, names to go along with it, and then, on top of that, going to the museum and kind of getting a firsthand experience kind of of what life was like, 'cause it, it was very, you know, interactive, I guess you would say, um, and that just-- it was, it was one of those experiences that also changed my perspective of, of slavery and just everything that the slaves went through.

Um, I knew that life was difficult, but to, to be there and to, you know, just hear and have, like, ha-- hear the things that she said and, and see the images and, you know, it... it was, it was kind of an sur-- it was kind of a surreal experience for me.

Lise: Well, you said it, it literally gave you a different perspective.

I mean, that's quite a shift.

Lakia: Yeah.

- To say I had this experience and it changed my perspective, and you said I feel gratitude and appreciation.

That's a far cry from pessimism.

- Yeah, it is, because, I mean, if we, if... just thinking about, you know, the things that, you know, they sacrificed, you know, not just, you know, my ancestors who were slaves, but just, you know, all the slaves in general, I mean, they, they sacrificed a lot and they went through a lot, and, I mean, I can sit here and think that, you know, life is so hard, like, ugh, I can't believe I have to go through this.

But what I realize that what I’m going through is nothing like what they went through.

So, I was like, who am I to complain, in some ways?

And so, for that, I do feel I have a lot of gratitude because, you know, them going through their experiences, you know, has enabled me to have what I have now.

But it's still hard to, to go through and to, to have that experience.

- How could it not be?

- Yeah.

- I, I, I see it changing you at that point in the journey.

Did you feel that you were changed by that experience?

Lakia: I felt I was changed a little bit, um, just because I wasn't expecting it at all.

It was a total shock and surprise, and so, um, just to, to, like I said, have that, you know, kind of, like, firsthand experience, I was just, I was taken back by it, but it, like I said before, it did change my perspective and-- - And yet, you still don't have all the answers you're looking for.

Because you still wanted to know why your grandmother Annie Mae moved from Alabama to New York, and that's sort of the next leg of this journey.

Why was that so important for you to find out?

Why did that have meaning for you, her move to New York?

- Um, well, because you, you hear stories about people growing up in the South and how, you know, life is, you know, easier and, you know, great, and, you know, they talk about all these things that they miss.

Lise: Yvonne talked about all of these wonderful memories.

- Yeah, exactly, so it's like, okay, well, you miss it so much, well, why did you move in the first place, then?

You know, well, okay, you moved to New York, but you could've moved back or-- you know?

Just, just kind of-- I just wanted to understand, like, why.

Lise: And we should remind everyone, you're a New Yorker.

Lakia: Yeah.

- So, you have a direct connection to that city.

Well, you have the opportunity next to meet a family member that you had never met before.

Tell me who we're about to meet.

- [chuckles] We're about to meet my grandpa.

Lise: And his name?

- Jimmy, Jimmy Perry.

Lise: Jimmy Perry, and you had never met him.

Why had you never met him?

- Um, well, I didn't-- first of all, I didn't even know he, you know, was alive until maybe about a year or two, uh, before, and I-- at that time, I just-- all I knew about him was that him and my grandmother had broken up and he somehow made it to California and he had gotten remarried and had kids, and that was it.

Lise: That's what you knew.

- He didn't have any other connection to... Lise: So, how did you feel going to meet your grandfather?

Before you met him, what was happening for you?

- Before I met him, I felt a lot of anger towards him.

Lise: Because?

- 'Cause I was-- I wanted to know, you know, how he could just, you know, up and leave my grandmother with five kids and just kind of go on and, you know, start this brand-new life for himself and not even, you know, look back, you know, come back to us or, you know... Lise: Any relationship there between your parents putting you in the foster system and being sort of left behind?

- Yeah.

Oh, for sure, because it's like I could see a pattern.

Lise: Right, interesting.

Well, I think we should share with our viewers what happened next when you meet your grandfather Jimmy Perry.

Let's watch.

Lakia: [on film] I feel nervous going to meet my grandfather for the first time because for most of my life, I didn't even know he existed.

I mean, part of me is a little angry at him for not being in my life, but once I get talk to him and, you know, understand why, then who knows how I’ll feel.

There definitely will be a lot of questions.

We'll have a lot of explaining to do.

♪♪ [door clicks, squeaks] ♪♪ [music fades away] [phone rings] [ringing stops] Grandpa?

Jimmy: Yeah!

Hello, how are you?

- [sobbing] - Yeah, I know.

I know, take it easy.

Take it easy, take it easy.

I know.

- I didn't even know you existed for-- until, like... You look just like Uncle Gene.

- Yeah?

Uh-huh.

Both: [chuckle] ♪♪ Lise: Though Jimmy Perry did eventually follow his young bride, Anna Pearl, to New York City, he quickly found that city life was not for him.

Within a few years, he returned to Jackson, but Anna Pearl remained behind and eventually asked for a divorce.

Jimmy consented and later remarried and moved to California.

♪♪ Lakia and her grandfather are heading to the White Smith farm estate where Anna Mae, Ed Wright, and their daughter, Anna Pearl, once lived and worked.

Lakia hopes to gain more insight into what their lives would have been like working in the home and on the surrounding farm.

- A little weed in the road up out here.

- [chuckles] Oh!

Lotta of cotton over there, that-- golly, look-- [chuckles] Is this the house here, ain't it?

Looks like they'll have a big one, that one.

♪♪ All this was cotton most of the time, and I don't know exactly what else he raised, but I’d betcha it been about 40, 45 year or more years since I’ve been out here, yeah, so-- - So, my, so, my great-grandmother worked in the kitchen-- - In the kitchen.

- For-- - Cookin'.

- --for White Smith.

- Yeah.

- So, these houses over here, so, this was the White Smith and his family.

Um, where did, um, my great-grandmother and my great-grandfather... - Live at?

- Live?

Jimmy: Yeah, that was the back house, the back house there.

Lakia: So, its house, like, right over here?

Jimmy: Yeah, right over there, yeah.

They lived in the front house, the big white house, yeah, that's where they lived at, yeah, mm-hm.

The big house was just like a mansion, you know, everything was so nice, but in the back house, it was just common beds, a stove and, you know, stuff like that.

Lise: Lakia still has lingering questions about why her great-grandparents moved so abruptly to New York City and why her grandfather, Jimmy, didn't accompany them.

- Did, did they move because they didn't like the way-- like, the conditions down here, they just wanted-- - They were mistreated, yeah, that's what I say.

Yeah, really, they had to be misused some kinda way or another.

- Because they just, like, all of a sudden, just picked up and-- 'cause did they ever talk about moving prior?

- No, that's, I mean, I was so surprised, see, I didn't, I didn't know, and they had been here, and then-- Lakia: So, did my great-grandfather move with them?

- Yeah.

Lakia: Or he stayed down-- - Uh-uh.

- --here or-- - He didn't have to go.

- So, it was my great-grandfather and my great-grandmother and grandma-- - Yeah.

- --and they all just-- - All of 'em just jumped up and left, mm-hm.

- But why?

- Just, well-- 'cause somebody was abused, so they tell me.

She abused, but they couldn't tell me who it was, but they was so afraid, you know, and that's why they wanted to leave and leave in a hurry.

‘Course, I didn't know that until way, way after, you know?

Way after, yeah.

Lise: It wasn't until much later that Jimmy would find out that it was actually his young bride, Anna Pearl, who had been abused by one of the powerful men in town.

Knowing the fatal consequences of her husband confronting such a powerful man, Annie Mae Jackson quickly packed up her family and moved them to New York City.

- So, when my great- grandfather Ed found out, what was his reaction, like, what did he do?

- Well, you know, I didn't even see him then, but they tell you how mean that, that he wanted to go to the-- to his boss man, and that would be the, uh, Smith.

And one of the Smiths, I don't, uh, I don't know which one he done said.

- And so, he wanted to confront them?

- Yeah.

And, uh, his wife, [indistinct] told him don't because she wanted to leave, and that's when they told me that they had to go d-- they were going and they asked me, was I going?

and I told them that I couldn't go 'cause I didn't have no money.

♪♪ ♪♪ Lise: Lakia is following her great-grandparents' steps to New York City and has contacted her Uncle Eugene Perry in North Carolina via video chat in order to ask him what he knows about her great-grandparents' early days in the city.

Lakia: So, where did my great-grandmother work when she got here to the city?

Eugene: Well, when she got to New York, uh, she worked at the hotel New Yorker, uh, as a maid for a period of time.

Lakia: Really?

- And uh, and then, yeah.

Lakia: I’ve, like, walked past that hotel fifty billion times ‘cause I’ve lived in this city my whole life and-- but I’d never knew that she worked there.

Eugene: Yeah, it's, it's funny ‘cause she always talked about it, and, and just like you, I’ve walked past that, that hotel so many times, it's, it's practically a landmark in the city.

Lakia: When he was talking about my great-grandmother, he, he said that she was a very courageous woman, and, and that's true, and I never really thought of her that way.

I mean, for one thing, I would just want to know what it was like to be a female in the work force in the 1950s.

♪♪ Lakia: Lakia is headed to the New Yorker Hotel.

She hopes to learn what the hotel was like in the late 1940s and what her great-grandmother's job would have been like as a maid.

♪♪ She's meeting with the hotel's senior project engineer, Joseph Kenny.

[music fades away] Joseph: The New Yorker Hotel had a very famous night spot at the time called The Terrace Room.

And all the famous bands, the Big Band era, Swing, all the famous bands played there, and we have pictures of all the famous stars of those days.

And so, all these pictures, the original pictures that were autographed by these stars-- and these were the top stars of the day.

This would be the A-class Hollywood people.

Lakia: My great-grandmother spent so much time here, worked here, and my uncle said that she always spoke very highly of the time that she spent here.

She loved working here and she felt a sense of accomplishment in working here.

Joseph: Well, this may be of interest to you because here in the nine-- New Yorker Hotel, 1956, when your gran-- great-grandmother probably worked here, there was a 21st annual luncheon meeting of the Negro Business Women's Association.

Lakia: Wow!

I didn't even know this had even existed back then.

Joseph: I mean, you have to think, this-- during this time in the United States, segregation was still legal.

Yet these women were forming their own businesses, becoming leaders in business and community and in finance.

The New Yorker's proud that we were, you know, having these kind of events here in ‘52 when your, when your gran-- great-grandmother was here.

Lakia: Seeing something like this really helps me understand why a lot of people from the South migrated up to the North to places like New York City.

Joseph: I’d like to show you the type of uniform that your great-grandmother would have worn.

- Oh, wow.

So, this is from the same, around the same time period.

- Yeah.

As you can see, it's just very simple cotton.

It's the original logo.

There you go.

- Like this?

Joseph: Mm-hm.

♪♪ Lise: When the New Yorker Hotel opened its doors in 1930 at the beginning of the Great Depression, it was the largest hotel in Manhattan with 2,500 rooms.

At the time, the hotel had a laundry staff of 150 employees that washed 350,000 items daily.

♪♪ Lakia is taking a behind the scenes tour of the hotel to see what it would have been like for her great-grandmother to be one of the many housekeeping staff.

♪♪ [machine whirs] ♪♪ [machine whirs] To cap off her tour, Lakia is getting an exclusive view of the city from the roof of the New Yorker.

♪♪ Lakia: I can see Central Park, I can see the George Washington Bridge, which is near my house, and down there, you can see the Statue of Liberty, and can you see the ferry boats going to Staten Island.

I mean, you don't, you don't get to see these things every day, and so, just, after finding out that my great-grandmother worked here, after seeing what, you know, the day-to-day aspects of running a hotel are like, and for someone like my great-grandmother who was a maid here.

I mean, it's just, I would have never imagined all of that from just one building.

Who knows, like, my great-grandmother might have stood on this roof for some reason back in the day, and, and now I’m here, and it's just...

I mean, like, words can't describe.

It's a great feeling right now.

[city din] ♪♪ - In the late 1970s, Lakia's great-grandfather, Ed Wright, passed away.

Annie Mae went on to remarry and become a preacher's wife before her own death on July 21, 1999.

Lakia is on her way to the Mount Holiness Memorial Park in New Jersey to find their graves.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Lakia: Time will only tell if I will change my pessimistic ways.

I think right now, it might be too early for me to say if I’ve completely switched over to the optimistic side.

But hearing experiences that my great-grandparents went through, it helps me put the experiences that I go through in different perspective.

♪♪ So, I just have to take the knowledge that I’ve gained to help keep their memory alive.

♪♪ I would just constantly say “I love you” and constantly say “thank you” because I just never got to do that.

♪♪ - Lakia, how did it feel to see your city, Manhattan, through the eyes of your ancestors?

Lakia: It was different.

Lise: How?

- I mean...

I, I mean, I spent my whole life in New York City.

Like, when I tell people that I’m from New York City, they're like, Oh my gosh, that's so amazing!

And I’m just like, it’s okay, whatever.

- But now?

- But now, I think I do have a greater appreciation for this city, and, um... New York is not a easy place to live in.

Lise: I’ve lived there, I know exactly what you're talking about.

- Okay, so, exactly, you, you know, you-- you know, a lot of people have, you know, hopes and dreams to make it there, and then, a lot of times, people get there and they're just like, Whoa, I can't take it.

But, you know, she-- my, my family, they... they did, you know, they... Lise: They succeeded.

- They succeeded, they went up there, and, you know, they, they prospered.

Lise: And likely, that's why you're there.

Lakia: Yeah, that's why I’m still there.

- So, the whole reason we went to New York is because you had this question.

What took them from Alabama to New York?

And you do find the story.

Your grandfather has the story, as it turns out, and it's not a happy story.

- No.

- Um, the hard times that they went through.

But that your great-grandfather would have the cour-- would have the want to confront a man who abused his daughter is profound, particularly in the history that we're talking about, in these years that we're talking about.

Have you thought about that further?

- I have.

Um, I think about it quite often, actually.

Lise: Really?

- Yeah, because, I mean, of course, you know, if someone does something like that to one of your relatives, of course, like, your natural inclination is, you know, confront them, stand up to them, you know, you know, just do the honorable thing.

Lise: Right.

- But he couldn't do that, which... Lise: He, he would have been killed.

Lakia: Yeah, exactly, and it's crazy to think that, you know, he could've faced some, like, severe, um, repercussions because of it-- b-- just because of his color, you know, because of the color of his skin.

And I just think, I mean, I think about it and I’m like, that's crazy, like, that's insane, it shouldn't be that way, but at the time, that's how it was.

And he knew what the consequences would be if he did something like that, but he was willing to just be like, psh, I don't care.

I’m gonna do it anyway, and so-- - Do you see yourself in that anywhere?

Or does it help you?

Lakia: I, I do see myself that way a lot of times.

Lise: That's good, that's not a pessimism!

- I, I’m that type of person, like, I’m, I'm take charge, take a stand, I’m gonna say what I want, I don't care.

Lise: Has some of this come about since this journey, or do you feel like that's been heightened in you?

- Um, it has been heightened in me to a certain extent.

Um, I’m, I'm...

I mean, I'm a quiet person to a certain degree, but I’m very, I'm also very outspoken and I’ll say what I want when I want and I’ll let you know how I feel.

Lise: Apparently, that comes from your great-granddad.

- Yeah, which I learned.

- I wanna talk about your granddad.

Lakia: Yeah.

Oh, Grandpa.

- Jimmy Perry.

You get emotional even when you say grandpa.

Why?

- [sighs] ‘Cause that's my grandpa.

That's my grandpa, you know?

He was the, he was the grandpa I, I wish, you know, would've been there for me for so long, but... Lise: Well, what was interesting in watching you have the experience is that in the car, even-- you talked about how you felt going to see him.

He had some explaining to do was your feeling.

You were feeling, what, anger?

Lakia: Anger, a bit of resentment.

I was, I was full-on ready to, like, see him and just rip into him and just be like, how could you, how dare you, just-- I was just ready to go off.

I just had it set in my mind that that's what was going to happen, and just-- because, I mean, I had questions, you know, that I wanted answered.

Lise: But it changed.

- Yeah, it did.

- What happened then?

- Um, so, walking, walking through the door, I was still, you know, this, like, I w-- dem-demanding answers, and I walked in and I saw him, and I saw his face, and he looked just like my Uncle Gene, and that's, and that-- I, I don't know, like, I, I can't describe what happened, but just seeing his face and seeing how much he looks like my uncle, I was like, whoa, this really is my grandpa, like, this is, like, flesh and blood.

Lise: It looked to me like you almost became a little girl, you know?

You turned, you cried, you couldn't even go in the room, and it was so beautiful how he held you, and was that time with him worth the whole journey?

Lakia: Yeah, it was because who-- I-- there was a very, there was a very good chance that I, I mean, if it wasn't for this experience, I might've never met him.

- Well, now, we have to get to today.

Has this changed you?

- It has in some ways.

Lise: What ways has it changed you?

- Well, I’m definitely more grateful, um, I-- for my ancestors and everything that they, you know, have done, um, and did to help, just, me get to where I’m at right now.

Um, but I’m still, I'm still a work in progress, I still have my moments of... Lise: Still a pessimist?

- Yeah, I still have my moments.

But it's, it's a day-to-day process, it's, it's a learning experience, for sure.

Lise: So, a journey like this can possibly change fundamental aspects of our life with time.

Lakia: With time, yeah.

But I would say from, you know, day one of the experience to now, I’ve changed a lot.

But like I said, it's, it's a day-to-day.

It's a day-to-day process.

Lise: It is for all of us, I’m so glad you shared this story with us, Lakia.

It was a, it was a good one.

Good luck.

Lakia: Thank you.

- Thanks again.

Thank you for watching, please join us next time for the Generations Project.

♪♪