Maya is the daughter of Minnie and her husband/music producer, Richard Rudolph. Maya’s biracial- her mother is African American and her father is Jewish. Although Maya always had the general understanding that we all have about slavery -that our ancestors were slaves in America just a few hundred years ago, she never really got to dig into the cruel details of her family’s history in slavery.
Maya was raised by her Dad after Minnie sadly passed away from breast cancer at the age of 31, just 15 days before Maya’s 7th birthday.
Maya and her brother, Marc, grew up within a loving household and were raised by their Dad, who did the best that he could as a single parent. But they were obviously mostly familiar with their father’s heritage and culture, since that is with whom they lived in the house.
That could have contributed to Maya feeling “orphaned,” as she explained it to People.com, when it came to her biracial heritage. She confessed she didn’t always feel like she belonged with one particular group. So when she appeared on Finding Your Roots, the ancestry TV show that is hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., Maya was finally able to learn a huge chunk of her African American history.
The show traced her roots back to 1827, when Maya learned of two ancestors on her Mother’s side who were born into slavery: her great-great-great grandparents, Manuel Grigsby and Mary Thurman. It wasn’t until Maya read the details about how slave owner, James Warren Grigsby, owned her ancestors, that she truly began to break down. What really broke her heart was seeing the actual slave census listing her great-great-great grandfather, Manuel Grigsby (the given surname of his ‘owner’), as enslaved when he was just 5 years old. Manuel was only listed by gender and age on a list of 32 slaves that his slave master owned.
Maya just couldn’t believe what she was seeing and here is what she said after seeing her relatives listed on the slave census:
“Oh my god, I cannot believe I’m looking at this. That breaks my hear. I just think of my kids. That’s really hard to see. Wow, I just can’t believe what I’m looking at. That poor little boy. That’s insane…you just don’t think of details, because you don’t have them. And then I see five and I think of my daughter. How can you imagine anything like that?”
Below are two video clips of Maya tearing up after she learned of her family’s history and more…
Part 1:
Part 2:
This experience is probably an eye opener for Maya. For a little girl who was left motherless at such a young age and growing up in a society that forced her to choose a side – Black or White, this window into the slavery of her ancestors can bring her clarity into who half of herself actually is. She came from a line of strong relatives, who endured some of the greatest pain imaginable. But yet, today she is here and now building upon their legacies with her four children, Pearl (15), Lucille (11), Jack (9) and Minnie (7) who is named after Maya’s mother, Minnie Riperton.
Props to Maya for sharing her quest for knowledge about her heritage with the world. I’m sure her mama Minnie, would be beaming with pride…just as much as her Pops already is.
Old School Fun Fact:
Minnie Riperton wrote “Loving You” in 1974 (it was released in ’79) for Maya, who was only two years old at the time. If you listen to the song closely, at the end you can hear Minnie singing “Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya, Maya.”
