Susan Svrluga Mara Reinstein The Washington Post

When Tamara Lanier was a little girl, she said, her mother would often tell her stories about her great-great-great-grandfather, whom she called Papa Renty. He was from Congo, enslaved on a plantation in South Carolina, Lanier said, and her mother was especially proud he taught other enslaved people to read with a blue-backed spelling book. He woul...

When Tamara Lanier was a little girl, she said, her mother would often tell her stories about her great-great-great-grandfather, whom she called Papa Renty. He was from Congo, enslaved on a plantation in South Carolina, Lanier said, and her mother was especially proud he taught other enslaved people to read with a blue-backed spelling book. He woul...