Lotte and I talk a lot about the transformative experience of inserting ancestors into your understanding and viewing of history.

It is the foundation on which I was taught about race, politics, food, education, economics…everything.

Recently, through my position at the Historic Annapolis organization, I was able to have my grandfather be “living history” at our museum. We take visitors on a journey of almost 400 years of history via historical timeline; each room has a different segment of time. To have my grandfather in the civil rights room, bringing to life people, places, and laws — pointing to his own mother, aunts, and cousins in an exhibit — is something I don’t think he ever would have thought would happen. He spent almost three hours chatting with visitors about segregated schools, the “Old Fourth Ward” of Annapolis, performing at different venues with other musicians, being the first Black police officer in our county, and more.

How many of us can say we learned history directly from a 90-year-old?

How many senior citizens can say they spoke to dozens of people who were eager to hear the very details of history many people and places across the country work to erase?

If I have anything to do with it, dozens and dozens more.