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Hello and welcome to the excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Sunday, December 22nd, 2024.

For years, Wanda Tucker has used her family's story to encourage others to explore and preserve their family history. Tucker has traced her history from Virginia and a ship called The White Lion to the shores of present-day Angola.

Earlier this month when President Joe Biden became the first U.S. President to visit

Angola, Wanda Tucker traveled there as his guest.

Why has Wanda Tucker and other members of the Tucker family remain open to confronting a painful past?

What do they hope others take away from their journey?

For more on that, we're joined now by USA Today,

national correspondent Deborah Burrfield-Berry,

who traveled to Angola for this story.

Welcome back. It's good to have you here, Deb.

Thank you for having me.

First, who are the Tucker's of Hampton, Virginia, and what is the Tucker family tie to Angola?

The truckers are generations of a family that lived in the Hampton, Virginia area still live there, actually.

They've been there for generations.

They've lived the life.

They've talked about their family heritage there for years.

Their ties,

they believe they are the descendants of some Angolanes who were brought to the English colony there in 1619. Anthony and Isabel were brought off that ship, and they had a child named William. And they

...