Dolphus

Because you traveled down to Birmingham, Alabama to speak with a woman named Bobby Holt (ph), who was raised by Dolphus Shields ...

CNN Transcript Oct 8, 2009 2009

ROBERTS: Well, let's talk a little bit about Dolphus Shields then.

CNN Transcript Oct 8, 2009 2009

Dolphus later married and became a successful carpenter and businessman in Birmingham, Alabama.

CNN Transcript Oct 10, 2009 2009

All we know is that in 1870, after emancipation, Melvinia is listed with a 9-year-old boy, Dolphus, who is described as mulatto in the census.

CNN Transcript Oct 8, 2009 2009

All we know is that in 1870, after emancipation, Melvinia is listed with a nine-year-old boy, Dolphus, who is described as "mulatto" in the census.

CNN Transcript Oct 10, 2009 2009

But Dolphus 'story gains a special resonance with that of his direct descendant: the same country that looked upon Melvinia's slavery as legal now looks up to her great-great-great granddaughter as its First Lady.

Marlene H. Phillips: Michelle Obama Descended From Young Slave Girl and White Owner 2009

Bobbie Holt, a 73-year-old woman raised by Dolphus and his wife who was interviewed for the article, said that despite the pain in Dolphus 'own family history, he was always hopeful there would one day be equality.

Marlene H. Phillips: Michelle Obama Descended From Young Slave Girl and White Owner 2009

Melvinia's oldest son, the First Lady's great-great grandfather Dolphus, was said by those who remembered him to have been a light skinned, literate, church-going man.

Marlene H. Phillips: Michelle Obama Descended From Young Slave Girl and White Owner 2009

In an extraordinary linking of the past and future, Dolphus was heavily involved in the founding of two churches that figured in the history of the U.S. civil rights movement; he was co-founder of Trinity Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. and ran the Sunday school program at First Ebenezer Baptist Church of Birmingham.

Marlene H. Phillips: Michelle Obama Descended From Young Slave Girl and White Owner 2009

Dolphus later married and became a successful carpenter and businessman in Birmingham, Alabama.

CNN Transcript Oct 8, 2009 2009