A Shared History Brings Difficult Truths, New Connections

Tennessee author Ann Walling wanted to write a story about her family history. Her relatives in Mississippi had owned slaves, and even when Ann was growing up in the Jim Crow era, the family had black servants who only came in the house through the back door.

Walling's book "Sunday Dinner: Coming of Age in the Segregated South" grapples with her family's attitude toward race and heritage. But as Emily Siner of Here & Now Contributor WPLN in Nashville reports, she recently met a descendant of one of those slaves who would change her perspective even more.