Betsy Biesenbach is doing the work of anti-racism as member of the Roanoke Universalist Unitarian Church and as a resident of Raleigh Court. Title searches led her to uncover the names of enslaved people who once lived on the land, and as a result has written a book for grades 3 and up to help parents teach a fuller history of the place to their children.
In this conversation we discuss Say My Name: The Story of Amanda Jeffers, Roanoke, 1864, the Roanoke River, the Kirk Family YMCA, and Betsy’s hope for further acknowledgement of the lives of enslaved people in Roanoke, Virginia.
Biesenbach is a Roanoke freelance writer, title examiner and author of “Bits O’ Betsy Biesenbach.”
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