Descendants of General Robert E. Lee and enslaved people unite for change: "We want to move forward"
CBSN
Visitors can return to Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, starting on Tuesday. An extensive overhaul by the National Park Service brought together descendants of both General Lee and enslaved people who once lived and labored on his estate. It was a moment nearly 200 years in the making. But to get to that moment required taking many steps forward.
Inez Parks and Steve Hammond have roots at this historic site. Parks' great-grandfather, James, dug the first graves at Arlington. "There's a people, deserving people. They need their stories told," she told CBS News' Jericka Duncan.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.