African American Civil War Museum to Feature Author of Book on Michelle Obama Ancestry
Founders Day at the African American Civil War Memorial Museum will feature award winning Author Rachel Swarns in a Presentation from American Tapestry on the Civil War Relatives of First Lady Michelle Obama.
On Wednesday, May 22, 2013 The African American Civil War Memorial and museum will mark the Sesquicentennial of the establishment of the Bureau of US Colored Troops with a wreath laying ceremony at 11 am followed by a presentation by Rachel Swarns. In her book on First Lady Michelle Obama’s family, Swarns tells the story of the enlistment of Caesar Cohen in the 128th Reg. USCT. Caesar was the great-great-grandfather of Michelle Obama and was about twenty five years old at his time of enlistment.
His name is listed on the Wall of Honor of the African American Civil War Memorial on U Street in Washington DC on Wall D, Plaque 134. Caesar Cohen is from the Robinson side of the Michelle Obama’s family. Audrea Barnes, second cousin to Michele Obama on the Robinson side of the family will also speak on her research on the family tree focusing on the two soldiers in question.
Additionally, running away from a plantation in Alabama was a man named Jerry Sutton/Suter who joined the 55th Regiment USCT. Jerry Sutton/Suter was an adventurous step-father of Michelle Obama’s great grandmother whose name is listed on the Wall of Honor on Wall C Plaque 67. The Michelle Obama relatives are but two of the 209,145 names listed on the Wall of Honor of the Memorial.
The wreath laying ceremony will take place at the monument at 11 AM with the presentation to follow at noon at the African American Civil War Museum. Ms. Swarns will be available to sign copies of her book American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama.
Biography of Rachel L. Swarns
Rachel L. Swarns has been a correspondent for the New York Times since 1995. She has written about domestic policy and national politics, reporting on immigration, the presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008 and First Lady Michelle Obama and her role in the Obama White House.
She has also worked overseas for The New York Times, reporting from Russia, Cuba and Southern Africa where she served as the Johannesburg bureau chief. She currently writes about demographics, social trends and the modern American family. Prior to joining The New York Times, Ms. Swarns worked for The Miami Herald, where she reported from Haiti and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, covered the L.A. riots and the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
She started her journalism career at The St. Petersburg Times. Born in New York City, she received her B.A. in Spanish from Howard University. She received her M.A. in International Relations from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two children. http://rachelswarns.com/
Reviews of American Tapestry
“Extraordinary… No political [book] has ever looked or sounded like this one.”
New York Times Book Review
“Riveting… American Tapestry is not only the remarkable story of the first lady’s family, providing insight into some of the wonderful traits that have been passed down to her, but also a microcosm of this country’s story as well.”
USA Today
“Swarns paints a vivid, intriguing portrait of people whose struggles, losses, and triumphs speak volumes about the pull of family and the power of American endurance.”
Los Angeles Times
“Richly detailed. . . . A lushly layered portrait of the nation itself. . . .Swarns weaves a narrative in which massive social changes (slavery, Reconstruction, the Great Migration) and the microscopic details of DNA play equally important roles.”
Boston Globe
“[A] meticulously researched and eloquently written real-life detective story.”
Essence Magazine
“An engrossing book. . . . Swarns outlines the fascinating journeys taken by various ancestors of First Lady Michelle Obama ‘the people who, across the generations, helped make her who she is today.”
Library Journal
“Completely fascinating. . . . Swarns presents the complicated story of race in the U.S. through the prism of one family¹s history.”
Booklist (starred review)
“The First Family becomes ever more fascinating-and ever more representative of the nation as a whole-in Rachel Swarns’s terrific investigation into the roots of Michelle Obama.”
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University professor and host and
executive producer of PBS’s Finding Your Roots
“Rachel Swarns has not only excavated, with painstaking care, the family tree that is Michelle Obama¹s, but, with great insight and beautiful prose, has revealed the complex, eye-opening, and disconcerting experiences that are America. This is a work of impressive historical imagination and deep cultural significance.”
Steven Hahn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Nation under Our Feet
