WEBVTT - I Am a Colorless Bishop 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:06.640 So daddie is one of those words in cape Verdian 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:11.399 creole that doesn't have a direct English translation. Roughly, it 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:16.400 means missing someone or something, but it's deeper than that. 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.360 It's a longing that feels more like a whole, like 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.560 a part of your soul is gone. There are many 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.160 songs written about this, the most famous, of course, being 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:32.839 by Sesadia Avora, the queen of cape Verdian music. Anyone 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.720 can have this feeling of sodad, but for those of 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.199 us in the cape Verdian diaspora, it takes on a 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.800 very specific meaning because no matter where you live now 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.600 or where you were born, all cape Verdians have this 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:50.400 nostalgic feeling. It's a yearning to be in capleverd or 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.720 to be with the people who have left, or with 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.720 who you've left behind. I'm cape Verdian and on my 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.200 dad's side, he has a huge family, but for simplicity's sake, 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:07.280 they're two branches, the Graces and the Dapinas. My great grandfather, 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.360 Manuel Grace immigrated to America around the same time as 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.400 Daddy Grace, which was the beginning of the twentieth century. 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.080 I never met him. He died long before I was born, 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.760 but I did know my dad's mother, Lydia Grace Depina, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.680 and his father, Jonathan Depina Senior, who I called Papa. 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.920 I adored him. He and my Nana often took care 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.880 of me when my parents were working, and I spent 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.200 hours with them, happily tagging along behind Papa when he 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.840 bent his chickens or helping Nana plant perfect rows of beans, 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.720 cal and carrots. I still remember Papa saying to Kenya, 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.920 the most important thing in this country is to have 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.600 your own land and to pass it on to your children. 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.440 I was a curious child, and one of my favorite 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.160 things to do with him was to take long walks 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.280 and ask him questions about his life back in Cablevere. 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.520 He came to the US when he was six on 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.240 a schooner named the Volante. I loved hearing about his 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.320 childhood back in Cablevert the way the mountains of Fontana's 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.840 always sat shrouded in clouds, or the beauty of the 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:23.200 flowers and the people. Listening to these stories made me 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.560 feel transported, my own imagination filling in the gaps of 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.480 what his life had been like. To me, Cableverd was 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.640 a place of wonder, a place I felt so connected to, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:38.840 a place I could not wait to experience myself. But 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.960 within all of that, what I most remember was a 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.000 feeling of my papa's mixed emotions, because within his stories 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.720 about life on Bravo, I heard a tinge of sadness 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:53.280 in his voice. And when I'd asked my Papa if 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.000 he missed Cablvert and if he wanted to go back, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.840 he'd look at me and say, for what, I'm mercy 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.960 to Pena and from iHeart podcasts enforce the media group, 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:07.720 this is sweet, Daddy, Grace. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.480 You're glad, you're being happy. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.160 Bow, thank, You're glad. 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:46.320 Ahead and they laugh against happy brown and crying, we're. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:49.920 O b ing. 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.480 Daddy immigrated to the United States from Kabovid, just like 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.560 my grandfather. It was a country that both then and now, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:12.680 not many Americans outside the diaspora know much about. But 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.800 to get to know Bishop Grace, you have to know 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.599 where he came from. The Kapoveti Islands are located about 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.359 three hundred and fifty miles off the coast of Senegal 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:27.920 in the Atlantic Ocean. In Portuguese, Kabovid means green cape, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.520 which is quite a bit of a misnomer, as the 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.760 country is not particularly green. The islands are situated in 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:38.960 the crossroads of two of the driest trade winds in 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.440 the world, so there is very little rain, and several 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.560 of the islands are basically deserts. Capplevedy is made up 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:50.000 of ten islands, nine of which are inhabited, and while 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.400 they are proudly connected as one country, each is a 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.320 little different. Each speaks its own dialect of Creole, for example, 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:00.760 and the cultures are a little different too. The people 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.400 of Santiago, the largest island, are known for the music 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.600 of batucu, a form of drumming and dancing that is 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:13.760 primarily done by women. Sanvicentz is known for its carnival, 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.560 but it is also deeply influenced by the British, who 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.680 used the island as a coal refueling station in the 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:28.160 early eighteen hundreds. Embravo, where my family is from, is 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:33.720 the smallest island, known for its hospitality nationally revered poet 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:39.080 Eugenio Tavars, as well as its waterfalls and flowers. We 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.599 are most united, perhaps by the fact that at its 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.760 very essence, to be Cape Verdean means to have roots 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:51.720 from around the globe, because before Portuguese explorers landed there 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:57.320 in the mid fifteenth century, the Caboverti Islands were actually uninhabited, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.920 and as was the case during this time period, the 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:07.000 Portuguese government was interested in two things, producing sugar and 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.320 enslaving Africans to do it. But the land was so 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:16.680 dry the sugar crops failed, and the Portuguese realized that 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.480 their new colony was actually much more useful as a 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:26.000 port in their slave trade, which was quickly expanding. Many 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.360 Africans brought to Kabulvid were sent on slave ships to 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:33.920 the Americas, but many also stayed. Some were enslaved to 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.440 work for Portuguese landholders, and others escaped into the mountains 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.640 where they formed their own communities, which still exists today. 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:48.680 So Cape Verdean Creole culture developed. As these populations African 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:57.839 European Middle Eastern intermingled to become something very much its own. Economically, however, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.159 Kablevid was turning into a tough acquisition for the Portuguese. 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:06.040 After around a century of colonization, the land could no 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.440 longer grow much like the indigo they had used to 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:14.360 trade for enslaved Africans, and by the late eighteen hundreds, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:19.560 the slave trade itself had ended, so the colonizers abandoned 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.800 the islands and left the people of Kabove to fend 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:29.720 for themselves. Many people suffered horribly. They were literally dying 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:36.000 of starvation and dehydration. The islands experienced chronic droughts, where 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:40.800 sometimes fifty percent of the population would die. Many Cape 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.640 Verdians were forced to leave, trying to make whatever money 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.080 they could to send back home to feed their families. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:57.840 Many never returned. The main way out was on railing ships. 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.600 The eighteen hundreds were at height of the whaling industry, 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.360 and Cape Verdians played a big part as crews on 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:10.200 the American owned boats. They were known for their courage, work, ethic, 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:14.880 and maritime skills. Remember Moby Dick. It was published in 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.480 eighteen fifty one and one of the harpooners on board 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:23.320 Dago is thought to be Cape Verdian. But eventually the 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:24.640 work dried up. 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:30.360 When whaling went into decline in the United States, was 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:35.199 harder to get young Yankees to serve as crew on 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:36.240 whaling vessels. 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.360 That's my stepmom. Marilyn Halter again, scholar of Cape Verdian 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:46.160 American history and professor emerita at Boston University. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.280 So when they would stop in the Cape Verde Islands. 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:54.040 By the late nineteenth century, they were eager to find 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.040 people to man these ships. 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.760 Cape Verdian men bought old whaling boats, prepared and started 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:04.360 what was called the packet trade. Now Cape Verdian owned 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:10.079 and operated ships would crisscross the Atlantic, bringing supplies from 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.480 the United States back to Cobblevid and bringing immigrants to 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.760 New Bedford, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. Because of this, 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:23.920 the first voluntary African immigrants to America were Cape Verdeans. 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.800 This ended up giving them an advantage when they arrived, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.080 they still had community. 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:36.079 Really, unlike any immigrant group, white or black, they were 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:41.520 the only population to actually have control over their means 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.559 of passage to this country. And when you contrast that 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:52.439 with the other African immigrants who came here involuntarily, the 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:57.199 slave population, who had absolutely no control over anything in 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:02.680 their lives. There was a lot of cultural and community support. 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.440 Part of that support meant access to work, though often 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.880 the kind of jobs available were the ones no one 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:11.600 else wanted. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.760 There was such a racial and ethnic hierarchy that the 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.000 only jobs for them was at the lowest rung of 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.120 the ladder, so the Irish got the best jobs, and 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:29.120 then the Portuguese and the French Canadians, and then you know, 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.800 Cape Verdians were at the bottom of the ladder. There 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.920 was work at the stack textile mills, on the Cranberry brogs, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:44.400 and in maritime related occupations such as longshoremen and cooks 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:46.720 and other kinds of dock workers. 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:53.120 Details are scarce about Daddy Grace's immigration story to the US. 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.559 We know he had come over from the island of 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.959 Brava and landed in New Bedford in nineteen oh four 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.360 on a ship called the Louisa. His parents and at 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:08.280 least seven siblings were already there waiting for him. The 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:13.120 New Bedford Evening Standard wrote about the Louisa's arrival. It 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:18.559 mentioned one passenger who looked quote every inch a dude 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.160 with his trousers carefully pressed in an immaculate shirt front. 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:27.959 I'd like to hope that was our Marcellino. I get 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.079 the feeling he always stood out. He first made his 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:36.040 living in America, like basically all Cape Verdian immigrants did, 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:41.199 working various jobs. He picked Cranberry's in the bogs, a 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.520 job he apparently hated so much he threw down his 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:49.520 wheelbarrow and quit. He also sold patent medicines, ran a 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.559 grocery store, and worked as a cook in a local 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:58.280 restaurant and later on on the railways. My own great grandfather, 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.520 Manuel Grace, the one and I never met, arrived in 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.600 the United States around the same time as Daddy Grace, 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:08.800 and in some ways their stories were similar, including the 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.840 fact that they were both from Brava and both named Grace. 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.520 The way it was explained to me by Uncle Abel 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.440 was that he found out that his father was being promiscuous. 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:24.000 That's my cousin Jonathan. Again from what Jonathan has been told. 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.400 Our great grandfather, who everyone called Nola Locke, left Kabovid 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.360 when he was just seventeen years old. 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:33.000 He had told his mother before he had left and 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.719 gone to school, and I guess during the day she 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.120 confronted him when he was coming home that his father 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.719 was pitching rocks at him, telling him, don't come back 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.280 here no more. One of the times that he was hit, 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.400 he was hitting the head and then he went down 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.400 where there was a whaler stocking up, and that was 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.480 his first time that he had left home. 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.800 My aunt Judy Jonathan's mother picks up the story from there. 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:00.400 He had no money. 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:05.199 He came on a whaling ship working and his destination 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.720 was the United States. However, he jumped ship in Bermuda 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.760 and worked on a sugar plantation there to earn money 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:20.040 to continue to travel. Sailed around South America and went 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:24.599 to Hawaii, and then he went to San Francisco. He 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.839 was there during the nineteen oh six Great Earthquake. 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.400 After the earthquake, my great grandfather got a job on 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.560 the railroads and made his way east across the country. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:40.160 His final destination a small seaside town outside New Bedford 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:45.360 called Mattapoisa, where he had family nearby. Life there suited him. 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.680 He got a job doing manual labor and soon saved 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.920 enough money to buy a small pig farm and a house. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.800 He was around forty old for a bachelor those days, 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.160 and was ready to settle down. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:00.319 Then. 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.480 He was not a young man, and I believed that 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.440 he had an arranged marriage with a Cape Fridian woman 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:08.480 from Brava. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.000 With just a horse and buggy, he started a small 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:16.040 business collecting trash in the neighborhood, and he eventually won 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.120 a contract with the town But when I asked my 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.600 aunt to describe Nola Lock for me, she mostly talked 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.800 about his spirituality, and he was very, very. 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.000 Much into his religion. In our dining room, we had 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.520 a large farmhouse kitchen and we always ate there. I 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.200 don't ever recall eating in the dining room, but what 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.720 I do remember is that was where my grandfather had 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.440 his Bible, and that he sat there and read the Bible. 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:46.760 So food wasn't. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.200 Served there, but the Word of God was served there. 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.400 My aunt Judy stories got me thinking about how similar 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.240 Nola Lock and Daddy Grace's lives must have been in America, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.800 At least at first. They worked the same blue collar 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.920 jobs that all Cape Verdians did. They went to the 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:10.240 same shops. They both married Cape Verdian women and started families. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.560 But where we related. I started asking other family members 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.520 what they knew or who I should talk to. One 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.600 person told me that years before Daddy Grace founded the 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.680 United House of Prayer, he would sometimes preach at the 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:28.600 church that Nola Loc attended, the Portuguese Pentecostal church on 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:33.480 Cape Cod pastored by Joseph de Grace, Daddy Grace's elder brother, 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.640 and that in the early days. They enjoyed discussing the 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.000 Bible together when Daddy Grace would visit Nola Lock's house. 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.720 Nola Lock's house the one he bought with the trash 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:48.720 collection earnings. It yielded another clue. I was on ancestry 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.440 dot Com looking through some old census records from the 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.960 nineteen twenties and thirties. The house that Nola Lock owned 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.520 it was right next to a house owned by Caesar Grace, 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.960 Daddy Grace's older brother. I had heard their families were close, 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.640 that Caesar's daughter and Nola Locke's daughter my Nana called 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:12.080 each other Prima's cousins. This in itself didn't prove anything. 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.680 It's customary for Kate Burdian's to call each other family, 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.280 even if the relationship isn't blood. I still call my parents' 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.800 friends TiO and Tia. But it did help explain what 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:28.200 happened later. When Daddy Grace asked Nola Lock's daughter my 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.360 Nana to go out on the road with him as 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.040 part of his church that man. 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.000 Showed up on the farm thinking he could talk to 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.480 your grandmother. My father would have no part of it, 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.520 and then he would go into speaking creole where he 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.760 would say, showing him the axe and saying, you know 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.480 this is the axe, I'll sharpen it on your head. 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:56.400 Daddy Grace would have been in his mid forties, and 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.360 here he was asking Nola Lock's teenage daughter to leave 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:04.680 home and join his church and travel with him unaccompanied, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:10.480 without even asking permission from her father. Daddy Grace had 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:14.119 to have known that this was not appropriate behavior and 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.920 something Nola Lock would not have liked. No wonder Nola 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.840 Lock was so enraged he threatened Daddy Grace with an axe. 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.160 I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. Why 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:36.800 Nola Lock in Daddy Grace's lives diverged? Why are families diverged? 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:42.320 My great grandfather he was a conservative man. After having 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:46.800 spent years disconnected from his own family, traveling around the globe, 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.560 working and searching for a home, he was happy to 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:55.879 stay in Massachusetts, working his farm, running his businesses, raising 0:17:55.960 --> 0:18:00.960 his children, and living a stable, if modest life. In contrast, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.000 Daddy Grace was always looking outward, far from New Bedford. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.399 He didn't seem interested in settling into the role of 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.720 a family man. He had a burning desire to spread 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:16.399 the gospel far and wide. In nineteen twelve, after just 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.280 a few years of marriage, he left his wife and 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.640 two young children, hit the road and traveled the country 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:28.480 and the world, refining his evangelical message. The decisions he 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.560 made his life must have seemed truly wild to my 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.560 great grandfather. Daddy Grace had his own style, and it 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:41.480 wasn't traditional. It was flamboyant. His hair was long, he 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.080 wore colorful clothes, and he wasn't afraid to show off 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.040 his success. I'm sure that got people talking and that 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.600 he quickly realized that he was outgrowing New Bedford. I 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:58.160 can relate. Growing up in New Bedford. I always felt different. Yeah, 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.640 I hung out on the beach and participate in all 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.120 the traditional Cape Verdian activities, but I would also skip 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.280 school and take the bus to New York City for 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.280 the day to shop and discover the latest music and fashions. 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.240 By this time I got to high school, I knew 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.760 that if I wanted to do anything creative, I need 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.359 to leave. I needed to explore outside of the fish 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.240 bowl of the Cape Verdian American community. Like Daddy Grace, 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:30.639 I needed to find my place in the world among 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.280 the many pieces of Daddy Grace. Material I've collected is 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:38.240 a copy of his nineteen fourteen Declaration of intention to 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:43.480 become an American citizen. I've studied it trying to understand 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:47.240 more about this man from the few details listed, like, 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.520 for example, how at the time he was employed as 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:54.320 a cook, that he renounced any allegiance to the Republic 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.200 of Portugal, that he was thirty one, five foot eight 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.680 and one hundred and sixty six pounds, that his skin 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.840 color was black, but that he had a light complexion. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:10.000 Knowing how complicated identity can be for Cape Verdians in America, 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.359 this last part was especially interesting to me. How Daddy 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:18.040 Grace viewed himself was a big source of controversy around 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.960 him at the time, something both black and white Americans 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.240 had trouble wrapping their heads around. In nineteen fifty two, 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.480 Daddy Grace was featured in a piece in Ebony magazine. 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.200 He told the writer, I am not a Negro. I 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:36.840 am white by race. But he also tells the same reporter, 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:41.560 I am a colorless bishop. Sometimes I'm black, sometimes I'm white. 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.360 I preach to all races. I wonder what Ebony readers, 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.720 who were predominantly black would have made of this statement. 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.280 Did Daddy Grace think that by claiming to be white 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.360 that would take him further? Was he a race denier 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:00.000 or did he just understand the power of a life 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:04.240 little controversy. I can understand why people might have thought 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.880 that when they heard that quote. There were Cape Verdians who, 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.400 thanks to colonialism, were brainwashed to believe that they were Portuguese. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.680 And of course many of us do have Portuguese blood. 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.600 But I don't think that's what Daddy Grace meant. Daddy 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.520 Grace did not consider himself a black American. He considered 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:28.440 himself Cape Verdian because Kabalvid was still a colony of Portugal. 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.560 Daddy Grace came to America on a Portuguese passport, but 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.359 he didn't look like how Americans thought a Portuguese man looked. 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:41.880 He didn't look white, he didn't look European. He had 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.560 curly hair, light brown skin, and he was always dressed 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.400 to the nines with a three piece suit, a ten 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.960 gallon hat and his jewels. He also spoke with an accent, 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.480 which further confused how others perceived him. And because of that, 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:02.520 I think he was misunderstood by temporary Americans whose own 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:08.520 views of race didn't allow much room for nuance. Throughout 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:13.399 his time in America, Daddy Grace's racial categorization changed based 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.840 on whoever was filling out the paperwork. Immigration listed him 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.800 as black African from Portugal on his nineteen oh four arrival. 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.280 On the nineteen ten census, he was listed as Mulatto, 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:32.040 but his nineteen eighteen draft card says Negro, and his 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:37.439 nineteen thirty two marriage license lists him as Caucasian. No wonder, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.160 Daddy Grace said he was colorless. He saw right through 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:45.520 the absurdity of the system and perhaps saw the opportunity 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:51.119 to define himself on his own terms. This seemingly arbitrary 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:56.760 racial categorization imposed by other people was actually quite common, 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:01.600 and so wrestling with identity race was something that he 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.040 and all Cape Verdian immigrants were very familiar with. These 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:10.320 immigrants were escaping a system of white supremacy and colonialism 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:14.320 only to arrive in America and see how Black Americans 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.920 were being violently oppressed through racist Jim Crow laws in 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.879 the horrific terror of lynching, and the people doing the 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.360 lynching didn't care about where you were born or how 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:30.320 you identified In August of nineteen twenty one, it was 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:35.119 reported that a mob threatened to lynch three quote Cape 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:39.560 verd Island negroes on Cape cod who had been charged 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:43.119 with a criminal assault on a white woman. This was 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:45.760 the world they needed to figure out how to position 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:49.680 themselves in to survive and to thrive. 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.320 They were arriving at the height of racial misgenation and 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:58.640 de facto segregation in this country. 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:02.720 That's Marilyn and again, nobody had. 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:07.800 Any interest in recognizing them as Cape Verdians as a 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:11.280 separate identity. All they saw was black or white, and 0:24:11.440 --> 0:24:18.080 so they were treated with the same level of discrimination, prejudice, 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:22.639 and hostility as African Americans or other people of color 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:23.439 in this country. 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:29.000 Other Americans didn't understand Cape Verdians in our rich multi 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.920 ethnic identities. What island you were from, what type of 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:36.639 creole you spoke, what's your family name? That was what 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:39.920 was discussed, not just your skin color. 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:46.480 It was so uncomfortable, even oppressive for Cape Verdeans to 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:53.600 arrive here and just being categorized by other people in 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:58.879 ways that weren't even recognizable to themselves, let alone to 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:01.680 the rest of society. And it's a kind of a 0:25:01.800 --> 0:25:03.600 rature of who you are. 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:08.520 This still feels true to me, a third generation Cape 0:25:08.600 --> 0:25:11.879 Ritian American. Where do you actually fit in? 0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:19.119 Daddy Grace, in his interview in Ebony magazine, said, I 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:23.840 am a colorless man. I am a colorless bishop. And 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:29.200 to me, that's like just so Cape Ridian. He's enhancing 0:25:29.359 --> 0:25:33.960 his black side and his white side, and he's bringing 0:25:33.960 --> 0:25:39.119 it all together. I think that Cape Verdeans were actually 0:25:39.280 --> 0:25:45.720 pioneers of how to navigate the waters of American pluralism. 0:25:46.280 --> 0:25:52.959 They've challenged these notions of race, color, ethnicity, and identity 0:25:53.680 --> 0:25:58.439 well before anyone else, any other population in this country 0:25:58.720 --> 0:25:59.359 that I know of. 0:26:01.800 --> 0:26:05.800 So basically, the intentionality behind why folks would choose to 0:26:05.840 --> 0:26:09.720 call themselves cape Verdian but then not claiming black as 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:13.720 a race or saying that they are Portuguese. Why is that? 0:26:14.280 --> 0:26:17.280 Is it because of the desire to have proximity to 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:21.720 whiteness or wanting to hold on to white supremacist ideals. 0:26:22.400 --> 0:26:26.240 So I always talk about intentionality as it relates to 0:26:26.359 --> 0:26:27.879 identity of our people. 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:32.760 Doctor terzel Minev's is a professor of political science at 0:26:32.840 --> 0:26:38.359 Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and because 0:26:38.440 --> 0:26:42.320 she's also a Cape Verdian immigrant herself. She can give 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:47.640 context to the struggle Cape Verdian's face around identity in America. 0:26:48.359 --> 0:26:54.120 I think that it's an intergenerational conversation controversy or our 0:26:54.200 --> 0:26:58.480 ancestors who arrived here in the late eighteen hundreds or 0:26:58.800 --> 0:27:05.080 early nineteen hundreds and beyond, where segregation racism was just, 0:27:05.480 --> 0:27:09.200 you know, the dominant conversation. Of course, you're going to 0:27:09.400 --> 0:27:14.880 try to separate yourself from the Black American community because 0:27:15.119 --> 0:27:17.879 of this notion. You see how Black Americans are being 0:27:17.960 --> 0:27:23.000 treated and you're trying to distance yourself from that. But 0:27:23.240 --> 0:27:26.480 then you know you're not white, and the other white 0:27:27.119 --> 0:27:30.359 groups don't see you as being white. Not quite Black 0:27:30.400 --> 0:27:35.640 American by choice and by force, but you're not Portuguese 0:27:36.400 --> 0:27:39.359 or white. So then you stick to what you know 0:27:39.840 --> 0:27:42.280 and you begin to rely on each other. And so 0:27:42.440 --> 0:27:45.119 that's not to say it's wrong or right, it's just 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:46.360 what happened. 0:27:48.280 --> 0:27:50.960 Times have changed since Daddy Grace and other elders came 0:27:51.000 --> 0:27:55.600 to the United States, and Tarsa experienced the transformation of 0:27:55.680 --> 0:28:00.119 her own identity within the racial construct of America. She 0:28:00.240 --> 0:28:02.920 says much of this was thanks to the professors and 0:28:03.080 --> 0:28:07.000 peers she was surrounded by at Clark Atlanta University. 0:28:07.920 --> 0:28:11.160 I'm very specific about saying that I'm a Black African woman. 0:28:11.960 --> 0:28:15.120 That's how I see myself, and that is all due 0:28:15.200 --> 0:28:19.400