Terrence Franklin had been a trust and estate litigator, handling disputes including will contests for a quarter century, when he discovered a will contest from the 1840s that challenged the will done by his fourth great-grandfather that emancipated Terrence’s fourth great-grandmother and her children and grandchildren. This discovery led Terrence to define his mission, “To Bend the Arc of History Towards Justice” by sharing the story of his ancestors and other stories like them. In this presentation, Terrence recounts the riveting story of his ancestor Lucy Sutton and her fight in the probate courts to uphold the last will and testament, and he also profiles several other black women, contemporaries of Lucy, who also had to struggle with probate courts for their rights, and who just may have helped Lucy and her family make it to freedom.
