By Jacque Day
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-926739.mp3
Murray, Ky. – When NPR's Michele Norris joined her uncle for breakfast during a stopover in Chicago, she learned something about her father that would transform her memory of the man she thought she knew. Years before she was born, he'd been shot by a white police officer in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, during segregation. This discovery prompted Norris to set out on a journey through her family's racial roots and secrets, and the search became the basis of her book The Grace of Silence. Our correspondent Jacque Day spoke with Norris, who realized she couldn't fully understand how other people talked about race until she understood how her own family dealt with it.