Supervisor Keith Carson’s Youth Ancestral Project. The photo is from a trip to the Family History Center at the Mormon Temple in Oakland on May 5, 2011. The group is from Lamont Snaer’s class at Berkeley Technology Academy. Carson, (inset at lower left) at that time said, “The idea, was for the students to discover “that they are as big as the world in terms of who they are, that they’re not just West Oakland, Berkeley or East Oakland. If nothing else, I hope that it stimulates them having a longer conversation with their families … to learn that life is a little bit bigger than the spot we occupy at this time.” Author John Collins (below) urges youth to continue researching their geneological connection to the Freedman’s Bank records because one third of all Blacks now alive can trace their roots to those bank deposit records. New DNA research, slaveship records and computers enables youth to have an Alex Haley-type experience. “An understanding of black history can motivate them to be high achievers.” Photo courtesy of Keith Carson’s office.