Even as a baby: observing carefully and holding fast

SANKOFA Take from the past to build for the future

y father's maternal grandparents, Albert and Caroline King, had been slaves. The ancestor of Albert King, who came over from Africa on a slave ship, was said to have been a king from the Ashante Kingdom in West Africa, so he was given "King" as a slave name.

My father says that his grandfather Albert was "precocious." He believed that one day slaves would be freed, so he paid an old Irishman 50 cents a week to teach him to read and write.

During the Civil War, Albert ran away from the Stribling Plantation in Front Royal, Virginia. His master knew Albert would return to get his family and waited many nights on the front porch with a shotgun.

Undeterred, Albert returned, eluded his master, and got his wife, Caroline, their two children and two other children, who had been abandoned by their parents. They set off, headed for freedom in Alexandria, Virginia.

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