New York Times reporter Rachel Swarns worked with a geneologist to trace Michelle Obama's ancestors back to Georgia. (photo courtesy wikimedia commons)
The First Lady’s great, great, great grandmother Melvinia Shields was a slave on a small farm near Jonesboro south of Atlanta.
As a young teenager she had her first child by an unknown white father.
It’s through that child, Henry Shields, that New York Times Washington Correspondent Rachel Swarns and her colleagues traced Michelle Obama’s American lineage.
Rickey Bevington recently spoke to Swarns about her report on the First Lady’s family tree.
