1 side owned slaves. The other side started Black History Month. How a family heals

There are many things from childhood that Brett Woodson Bailey doesn't remember. Maybe it has to do with his cancer diagnosis at 4-years-old, living in the hospital for almost two years, undergoing intense courses of radiation and chemotherapy. He thinks that plays a part in why so much of his childhood is "hazy."

Forgetting after all, is a side effect of trauma.

But one moment he remembers clearly is his mother, Adele, sitting him down when he was in middle school, telling him that he was the descendent of a...