Embracing Your Past To Empower Your Future

National Press Club member Lori Ann LaRocco of CNBC and co-author, Abby Wallace, her daughter and Advanced Placement History Student, will sit down in a fireside chat with Nora Blake Smith, features and entertainment on-air journalist, for Good Day DC, and Fox 5 DC's "Celebrity Dish" on Good Day, to discuss their book “Embracing Your Past to Empower Your Future" at a book event and Q&A in the Zenger Room on Tuesday, June 11 from noon to 1pm Eastern. In Embracing Your Past to Empower Your Future, descendants of four prominent Black families whose ancestors were enslaved tell readers what life was like for their ancestors, and how those experiences shaped and influenced future generations, including their present lives. Families featured in the book are Clotilda survivors and Africatown co-founders Pollee and Rose Allen; descendants of James Madison; the Quanders, one of the oldest Black American Families in US History that can trace their heritage to the 1600’s. They have loved ones enslaved at Mount Vernon, VA and Maryland. The Quanders also had many generations of civil right activists. Also featured is the Brooks Family, the only Black American Family in US History that has three generals in the immediate family (a father and two sons.)The authors also worked with historians from Mount Vernon, Montpelier and Africa town to ensure accuracy

LaRocco, is senior editor of guests and global logistics reporter for CNBC. This is her sixth book. In addition to writing books, LaRocco is also a trade and logistics columnist for American Shipper. Wallace is a senior at West Milford High School in New Jersey and has committed to Clarkson University for the Fall of 2024 enrolled in the Psychology program. Wallace hopes to be a social psychologist. ALL Author royalties go to the "Each One, Teach One" book stipend for descendants of enslaved attending college to apply for monies to offset the cost of college books. Authors will have for attendees to feel the first-ever officially commissioned, 3-D replica of one of the bricks from James Madison's Montpelier home. The handmade bricks contain the fingerprints of the women and children who were enslaved on the plantation. The enslaved men took those bricks and built President James Madison's home which still stands today.