Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

Chapter 1: A Conspiracy of Love. This is all about his family, and how they raised him right. "If I was doing a shoddy job of cleaning out the garage, my mother would give it to me about working with the right attitude, about a commitment to excellence.

I would hear echoes of the civil rights movement in her lectures about personal responsibility, complete with Dr. Martin Luther King quotes tailored to the chore." (Not making that up.)

His family kept him from being too full of himself, he says in a slightly full-of-himself way. But I like his description of his father telling him that he's the product of a conspiracy of love.

By which he meant that his son was alive because "of the relentless actions of humble people who will never make it to the history books but define the character of this country."

His grandparents loved him a lot. They drove him across the country in their mobile home, which they called "The Green Dream." All while modeling virtue, kindness, and compassion. (You get the idea yet? Nice people.)

Henry Louis Gates did DNA analysis on him. His team found he was 47% African, 45% European, 7 % native American. He's the great-great-great grandson of a white man who fought in the 1836 Creek War. Great-great-great grandson of many slaves.

He's also the great-great-great grandson of a corporal for the Confederate Army. Then the big reveal: Dr. Stephen Henry Brown, born in 1873 in Catahoula Parish, was his great-grandfather.

Anyway, readers' digest version: Turns out he's related to everyone. He's probably related to you. "My conception of the word 'family' forever expanded that day."

It dawns on him that his great-great-great grandfathers *owned* his great-great-great grandmothers, and he tries to get his head around that.

Okay, so skipping a bit ... his father was one of the top IBM salesmen in the world. He was promoted,

and the family moves to the Franklin Lakes area in New Jersey and begins looking for a new house. Bet you can guess what happens next.

Fair Housing Council. Sting operation. Large Doberman pinscher. "At this point the real estate agent stood up and punched Marty in the face, then grabbed his paperwork, trying to yank it away and destroy the evidence."

"Still, my father never complained to me in telling this story. He even told it with humor. "We moved into Harrington Park and became four raisins in a tub of sweet vanilla ice cream."

His parents used this as an example of the conspiracy of love--not the bigots, but the lawyers and volunteers, Lee Porter at the Fair Housing Council, and their new neighbors, who turned out to be okay.

His mom went on to work for the Fair Housing Council. And that's the end of the chapter. I guess it was an okay chapter.