My great-great grandfather came over from London as a lawyer.  He defended Native Americans from being removed from their land and married a Cherokee woman.

My great grandfather was a Baptist Minister who was tarred and feathered by the KKK and died from related pneumonia because he allowed Black Americans into his congregation.

My grandfather was a carpenter who could not read or write but he was able to build homes. He was also a sharecropper who worked on land picking cotton alongside disenfranchised Japanese Americans and Black Americans. He lived through the Great Depression.

My father received three purple hearts after being drafted into the military and serving in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

I am humbled by how much easier my life is...