Virginia Berthy
I come from the combination of an old Alabama-Mississippi family and an old Virginia Family. I do not to my knowledge have an ancestor that did not own slaves before it was outlawed. I am told in back rooms of random family discussion that my great-great-great grandfather was the first white sheriff of Bolliver Co. Mississippi after reconstruction, and that he was the Grand Dragon of the original, pre-reconstruction KKK. How does one bear this?
I was groomed for a life in the white upper class but fled overseas for nearly a decade in order to be able to define my own life. Now I am back, trying to define my relationship to my community and my country and to raise my children to be healers and bridge builders.
I live my life in the spirit of restitution, but often ask myself what I really have to offer.
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