Joe Mozingo

L.A. Times journalist Joe Mozingo's discovery that his last name is African triggered a desire to learn more about his family history. As he contacted other Mozingo researchers, he learned that virtually all of the Mozingos in the U.S. descend from Edward Mozingo, an African indentured servant in mid-17th century Virginia who became a free man after a 28-year indenture. Edward's wife, Margaret, was white, and after a few generations, many of their descendants were identified as white in census records and other documents. The white descendants lost all memory of their African forebear.

Mozingo followed his family's trail from the Northern Neck of Virginia through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky, through southern Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, to California. He read Faulkner's Light in August on his travels, seeing parallels between his mixed race ancestors and Faulkner's Joe Christmas. When Edward still seemed out of his reach, Mozingo realized that he needed to go to Africa to see the place where his ancestor's captivity began.

Although genealogy is at the heart of Mozingo's story, this isn't a standard genealogy/family history. It's part memoir, part a history of slavery, and part a sociology of race. It's a surprising story, and a hopeful story. On one of his trips to Virginia, Mozingo visited a white Mozingo cousin whose grandchildren are all mixed race. Reflecting on this meeting, Mozingo writes:

More than three centuries after whites and blacks were forced to stop mixing in this part of Virginia, they were blithely doing it again. It struck me that America, finally easing away from its cursed preoccupation with race, was looking forward to some grand moment to proclaim the battle was over, when really it might finally just sputter out like this, quietly, family-by-family, with a shrug.… (plus d'informations)