THE GRANDSON OF A SLAVE
A TEAM MEMBER CHANGING AMERICAN HISTORY
Lillian's cousin, Atty. George E.C. Hayes, is pictured (on the left) standing on the steps of the Supreme Court with Thurgood Marshall (center) and James Nesbitt (on the right) after winning the Brown v Board of Education case in 1954. Lillian's maternal great-grandmother, Henrietta Hayes, is the grandmother of Atty. Hayes.
Henrietta Hayes, aka 'Grandma Rhetta' was a slave who was freed by President Abraham Lincoln. Henrietta's mother was a slave taken from Madagascar, and sold (along with all of her children) on the auction block in Richmond, Virginia.
Grandma Rhetta was bought by a gentleman who gave her to his daughter as a birthday gift. She grew up with the little girl in a house in Richmond, and never saw her family members again. Henrietta's son, the father of Atty. Hayes, also became a lawyer - Atty. George Hayes, Sr. - as was the son of the little white girl she was given to as a gift.
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