Bonus: before someone else tells it: The Free Man's Line: A Documentary History of the Manley Ray Bell Family
The Free Man's Line: Bell and Franklin Family by Courtney C - Sisi in Brazil
Episode notes
Before someone else tells it — she's telling it herself.
The Free Man's Line is a documentary-grade family history archive spanning 500 years, 185 documented ancestors, and the full sweep of North American history as lived by one Black American family rooted in Oklahoma.
Season 1: The Ancestors — individual deep dives on the people at the root of the line, from 1517 through the colonial era.
Season 2: The Freedmen — the Dawes era, Oklahoma, and the generation that raised Manley Ray Bell.
Season 3: The Living Line — first-hand testimony from family members who remember. Coming when it's ready.
This podcast begins with a question: what happens when you go looking for your family's history and find out they were there for all of it?
Every record, ...