Family is the basic social unit of human beings, but what happens when you feel like a piece of that unit is missing? Paula Williams Madison, former executive vice president of Diversity for NBC Universal, who was also the Vice President of the General Electric company, tells that story in her new book “Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem.”
Despite all of her successes, there was one unanswered question that plagued Madison throughout her life: What happened to her maternal grandfather Samuel Lowe?
Lowe was a Chinese immigrant who came to Jamaica to for business opportunities. He owned a dry goods store in Kingston where he met Madison’s grandmother. The couple had her mother and lived in the apartment above the shop.
But when her mother was 3 years old, Lowe left Jamaica to return to China where he was to get married to a Chinese woman and have a “proper family.” Request to bring the small child with him were denied and the two never saw each other again.
Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Madison about her journey to trace her roots and find her people.
Guest
- Paula Williams Madison, author of “Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem.”
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