Speaker 1: This is the story of a man who's fascinated me,
Speaker 1: haunted me, really for most of my life. His name
Speaker 1: was Sweet Daddy Grace, and that's a name you don't forget.
Speaker 2: Daddy Grace had seven dollars in his pocket when he.
Speaker 1: Ends grad He was ahead of his time, a Cape
Speaker 1: Ridian immigrant who built a fortune as a black man
Speaker 1: during Jim Crow during the Depression. By the time he
Speaker 1: passed in nineteen sixty, he was worth twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1: That's two hundred and fifty million dollars today.
Speaker 2: He bought huge complex in Manhattan that didn't rent the
Speaker 2: Negro He had a coffee farm in Brazil and egg
Speaker 2: farm in Cuba.
Speaker 1: His funeral procession traveled by train from California to Massachusetts.
Speaker 1: Thousands of mourners turned out to say their final goodbye.
Speaker 1: But today, outside of his church, not too many people
Speaker 1: know about Bishop C. M. Grace, the man affectionately known
Speaker 1: as Sweet Daddy Grace.
Speaker 2: You race sort of wiped out, and I wonder if
Speaker 2: this was done intentionally.
Speaker 1: And there's one more piece of the puzzle, a big
Speaker 1: one for me. My grandmother's a Grace, a Cape Verdie
Speaker 1: and Grace my cousins always said that we were related
Speaker 1: to Daddy Grace. But here's where things get murky. Every
Speaker 1: time I asked the elder members of our family, they
Speaker 1: flatly denied it. Not everyone has fond memories of Daddy Grace.
Speaker 1: My dad kind of looked at him like the devil.
Speaker 1: And I can remember him. Daddy Grace would be on
Speaker 1: TV and he'd say, look at that guy with that
Speaker 1: money suit.
Speaker 2: My mother denied that they were related.
Speaker 1: Nobody wanted to be because the man was out there.
Speaker 1: He's a cult. I'm Marcy Depena. My entire life, Daddy
Speaker 1: Grace has been there. I've always felt this strong connection
Speaker 1: to him. When I went to visit his grave, I
Speaker 1: literally heard him say, tell my story.
Speaker 2: And doing this podcast?
Speaker 1: Is this? Like?
Speaker 2: What is it that you're looking to get out of this?
Speaker 1: It's an extraordinary American story. I think it's a brilliant
Speaker 1: Cape Verdian American story, an African story, and an exceptional
Speaker 1: immigrant story of a man who let his faith lead
Speaker 1: him all the way across the Atlantic into great success.
Speaker 1: And I really do want to know are we connected
Speaker 1: to this man or not? Is there a relation or not?
Speaker 1: Listen to Sweet Daddy Grace starting July nineteenth, on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.