amna: Although America declared
its Independence on this day in
1776, it would take nearly 90
years for black people enslaved
in this country to obtain their
freedom.
A new reporting project from
reuters found that some of the
most powerful people in the
country today are direct
descendants of powerful
slave-owning early Americans.
I recently spoke with Tom
lassater, an editor who worked
on the reuters project.
While he was seeking responses
from Republicans and Democrats
alike about his team's findings,
he, too, was reckoning with new
details about his own family's
ties to slavery.
Tom Lasseter, welcome to the
"Newshour."
Thanks for being here.
Tom: Thanks for having me.
Amna: So, you spent years and
years overseas as a foreign
correspondent.
When you came back to the U.S.
In 2020, you decided you wanted
to focus on the legacy of
slavery in America.
Why?
What drew you to that?
Tom: Well, we moved to
Washington shortly after the
killing of George Floyd, and
sitting there in a corporate
apartment in D.C. Watching the
coverage of the protests which
followed, watching also sort of
the protest and debate about the
removal of confederate statues,
confederate monuments, as sort
of an outsider to my own
country, sort of watching these
things, it just it occurred to
me America was having a moment
of reckoning and that part of
that, at least, was the question
of whether we've sort of fully
explored the legacy of slavery
in America.
Amna: You sought to look into
the family histories of our
political and institutional
leaders.
There's a number of details in
your full report, but some of
the findings -- I want to hit
the highlights here -- are eye
opening.
Among the 536 members of the
last sitting congress, 100 and
had ancestors who enslaved
people, that includes 28
senators.
You're talking about both
Republicans and Democrats.
President Joe Biden, every
living former U.S. President
except for former president
trump, whose ancestors came to
the U.S. After slavery was
abolished.
Did the results surprise you?
Tom: Well, I would say first of
all, that was a very much an at
least number.
Those were the cases in which we
could reach a high degree of
confidence that the family tree
that we had built for that sort
of American political notable
was from the very first rung
being the member of congress or
a member of supreme court, goes
back to the ancestor that we
identified as having been an
enslaver, and then that ancestor
had actually enslaved someone.
So, there were, you know, a
great many other cases where we
thought we had probably linked
it, but just couldn't reach that
degree of confidence.
Amna: You've reached out to a
number of members of congress
and these other leaders as well
for responses.
Did everyone respond?
Tom: The majority of them did
not.
The majority of them did not
respond with either a statement
or an interview.
But we did, we reached out to
each of the 118 people that
we've named in this report.
Amna: I wanted to ask yououbout
one response in particular.
This was from former
representative Mo brooks of
Alabama.
He said, quote, hopefully
everybody in America is smart
enough to know that slavery is
abhorrent.
So the question then becomes, if
everybody already knows it's
abhorrent, what more can you
teach from that?
What did you make of that
response?
And was that similar to other
responses you got?
Tom: Well, I spoke with former
representative brooks on the
phone a couple of times, and his
response was sort of a sort of a
type.
Certainly, some people responded
that, of course, the institution
of slavery is a stain upon
American history.
It was morally wrong.
Everyone agrees about that.
But it does not have anything to
do with the present day.
It does not have anything to do
with me, the person speaking.
And so, why look at ititwhy sort
of ask these questions about it?
Amna: You got a different
response from the likes of
someone like S sator Tammy
Duckworth, for example.
How did she respond?
Tom: Senator duckworor, met with
in her senate offices.
She said, you know, look, I part
of my part of my ancestry, this
is from her father's side, which
is from Virginia, fought in the
American revolution.
And if I'm going to talk about
that publicly, if I'm going to
claim that part of my heritage
and be proud of that heritage,
then I also have to look
squarely at the fact that some
of my ancestors enslaved people.
In her case, it was two separate
ancestors, which she had not
known before.
Amna: Tom, you uncovered your
own family history as part of
your reporting and discovered
that your ancestors had also
enslaved black people.
What was that like to make that
discovery?
Tom: It started with a memory
as a teenager, going walking
across a farm my family used to
own in Forsyth county, Georgia,
and walking past a water well.
And my grandfather just sort of
gesturing at it in an offhand
way and saying, the slaves built
that.
And I, sort of in a way that I
think is typical for some white
families in the south, sort of
knew but didn't know.
Had this memory, this piece of
information, chose to do nothing
with it for my adult life.
So I say that I did not realize
I had ancestors who enslaved
people, but also, it was
something that I could have
explored and had sort of found
out in any of those intervening
years.
But yes, I have at least five
ancestors who enslaved people in
three different counties in
Georgia.
Amna: As part of your work, too,
you met with a woman whose
ancestors were enslaved by
yours.
What was that meeting like?
What did you say to her?
What did she say back?
Tom: We met a couple of times.
You know, I wanted to sort of
have something sort of to show,
I guess.
And I had a packet of
genealogical information tracing
out her family tree and then
tracing out where her family
tree intersected with my family.
And it named two of those
enslaved people.
And I had been following those
people forward.
And they were her ancestors.
Amna: When you began this, you
mentioned your editors raised
the question, you know, by
looking into our leaders' family
histories, what can you learn
about how they lead today?
What does their past, in other
words, mean for America's
future?
Do you feel like you could
answer that question now?
Tom: Well, I think America right
now, both in terms of
legislation, debate, and just
public sort of conversation, is
grappling with a number of
issues that in one way or the
other, touch on the legacy of
slavery in America.
I mean, most directly, there's
reparations.
There's also, of course, a fair
amount of debate about how this
history should be taught.
We want to inform that debate
with an establishment of a basic
set of facts.
And from the beginning of this
project, to me, the fact that
I've grappled with both
personally and more broadly is,
slavery didn't just happen.
There were people who enslaved
other people.
And to me, the question was,
well, who?
Who enslaved them?
What did it mean for those
families?
What did it mean for the
enslaved, and what did it mean
for the descendants of the
enslaved?
And just to start out with
again, just an establishment of
a basic set of facts.
Amna: It's a stunning piece of
work.
It's available to read online.
And the journalist is Tom
Lasseter of reuters.
Tom, thank you for being here
and speaking with us about your
work.
Tom: Thank you for having me.
♪♪