Daughter Dialogues season two: Preview

02/01/21 • 6 min

Starting off Black History Month with the first black member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Karen Batchelor, Daughter Dialogues returns for season two on the first Thursday of February! Learn what to expect to hear from Karen and from other black members of the DAR who descend from men and women who fought for the independence of the United States of America. New episodes are released every Thursday.
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Previous Episode

Daughter Dialogues season one: Reflection

Announcing the end of season one, Daughter Dialogues will return on the 1st Thursday of February at the start of Black History Month. This episode includes observations in review of season one, listener comments and shout outs to social media followers, podcast statistics, announcements of live virtual events to interact with the Daughters and the official acceptance of Daughter Dialogues for deposit into a Harvard library, and a season two preview. Hear the reasons behind the decision to break the series into seasons and how it is not a podcast but instead a research project; how the oral histories shift our thinking about how this nation was formed and to view black people in the United States as more than simply victims of slavery but instead provide a richer narrative to American History; common shared experiences among the Dialogues: feeling the pain of ancestors, painful rejection or denial by white descendants of ancestors, friendships formed with white descendants of ancestors and their enslavers, setting the record straight in their family history, complex struggles with racial identity because of color of skin and the context behind decision to pass for white, white men with black women who were often enslaved in 1700s and 1800s providing a different narrative of how white men took care of their black families and passed down their property to them, white women with black men in the 1800's, people of color owning slaves, free people of color who were pioneers and prominent members of society starting their own schools and churches, descending from and family impact on historical figures, Daughters making history in their own right and accomplishing things not necessarily associated with black women, and Daughters as survivors; media coverage received during season one including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, African Ancestry, and WTOP- Washington D.C.'s top news radio interviews; a breakdown of listener groups; comments from white DAR listeners: "widen the lens through which I view the world", "these stories move me to tears...this is the kind of history I want told", "I want to be a part of the work to explode negative stereotypes with unexpected stories", despite their past family history of slavery "these ladies hit the ball out of the ballpark"; comments from non-DAR member black listeners: "these are stories people need to hear’, "there's so much more to them than their patriot", "I like to hear the generational perspectives from the women in their 20s to 90s"; "it’s not just you alone but others have shared experiences"; shout outs to social media followers for the top number of shares of Daughter Dialogues posts; geeking out on numbers: Daughter Dialogues episodes have been downloaded a total of 8,000 times over past 4 months and placing it in top 40% of podcasts among 30+ million episodes available; top cities and countries in which listeners are located; the launch of live events in January during which listeners will be able to meet the Daughters and ask questions live; announcement: Daughter Dialogues has been officially accepted for deposit at Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, arguably the world’s largest archive devoted to history of both individual women and women’s organizations; season two preview: meet the very first recognized black member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Karen Batchelor, who joined in 1977 and was also the subject of a final Jeopardy! clue!
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Next Episode

Karen Batchelor: First black DAR member. Somebody has to.

Karen shares stories about how her childhood shaped her into a pioneer having the courage and resilience to defeat opposition she faced when applying to become the first black member of the DAR; her parents being fervent civil rights activists and requiring her to ride a bus one and a half hours each way to integrate a school "because somebody has to", describing it as the “worst year of my life”; being shaped by growing up in Detroit, Michigan in the 1950's and 60's; growing up reading books about the black struggle in her home library; exploring commercial art, attending operas, visiting museums, learning violin, and being in Campfire Girls as a youth; reluctantly being a debutante and her father founding The Cotillion Club and presenting young black women to society; her father ending up in a convalescent home as a kid from a leg injury going untreated due to lack of access to a doctor; her father reinjuring his leg in the Detroit race riots, as a student, and him deciding to amputate to not let it stand in the way of graduating medical school; keeping her father's poem by Emerson on her wall; her father becoming a doctor and her mother working as a teacher; majoring in anthropology at Fisk University; graduating from Oakland University with a bachelor's in psychology; completing Wayne State University law school as a single mom; going into law to apply research skills developed from doing genealogy; working as a litigator, in-house counsel, and a lobbyist; knitting to honor the practice of ancestors; participating in colonial period reenactments to carry out her interest in living history; her membership in the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches and her ancestors being hung and accused of witchcraft; her membership in and being eligible for numerous New England hereditary societies and feeling "more American than apple pie".
This is the first in a series of three episodes.
In the second episode, Karen talks about her pioneering genealogical research which led to discovering her white Revolutionary War patriot William Hood and shares her family oral history about what happened when Jennie Daisy Hood, her white maternal great grandmother, married a black man, Prince Albert Weaver, in 1889; and her enslaved paternal great-great-grandmother Charity Ann being torn away, as a child, from her mother who ran after the wagon that carried her off, crying out goodbyes.
In the third episode, Karen discusses being admitted to the DAR in 1977 as the first known black member by defying resistance within the society; being unable to meet the requirement of attaining the sponsorship of two members since no one would invite her to a chapter; then President General Baylies reaching out to chapters to ask who would accept her; being blackballed by a chapter who voted against sponsoring her; the Ezra Parker chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan who finally sponsored her; a California chapter contesting her application; and Mrs. Baylies protecting her by putting the application documents in her desk and closing the file for years.
Read Karen's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
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