From Emancipation to Africa: Tracing the Golden Lineage of Ambassador June Carter Perry
At Black Ancestries, we believe that every family has a story worth telling, especially those of the African diaspora whose ancestral narratives were long fragmented by slavery. So when Ambassador June Carter Perry, a highly accomplished former U.S. envoy to Sierra Leone and Lesotho, entrusted us with the task of exploring her family roots, we were honored to take on the challenge.
What we uncovered was remarkable: a lineage anchored by perseverance and possibility, and ultimately, a direct connection to Africa through an ancestor she had never known by name, her great-great-grandfather, Thomas Golden.
A Diplomatic Legacy Meets a Hidden Heritage
Ambassador Perry has dedicated her career to building bridges between nations, cultures, and people. A distinguished diplomat, she served as U.S. Ambassador to both Lesotho and Sierra Leone, and as Director of the Office of Social and Humanitarian Affairs overseeing U.S. liaison with United Nations Committees in Geneva and New York at the United Nations. She’s held faculty positions at Howard University, the University of Missouri, and Mount Holyoke College, and she continues to advocate for democracy and public service.
Yet, like many African Americans, Ambassador Perry’s personal ancestry contained gaps, names lost, stories obscured, and lineages left unexplored. Chief among them was the mystery of her great-great-grandfather: the father of her great grandmother Lizzie Golden Johnson, born in Arkansas in 1873, and the husband of a woman only known by her family as “Danny” or “Betty” Golden.
Through a combination of traditional and genetic genealogy research led by Black Ancestries Senior Genetic Genealogist Lisa Fanning, we were able to uncover his identity and illuminate his life story.
The Rediscovery of Thomas Golden
Census records from 1870 and 1880 list Thomas Golden as a farmer living in Christian Township, Independence County, Arkansas. Born around 1822 in Alabama, Thomas was married to Margaret Golden (likely known as Danny or Betty), who was born in Tennessee around 1830. Together, they raised at least ten children, including a daughter named Lizzie, Ambassador Perry’s great-grandmother.
But what makes Thomas extraordinary is not just his survival beyond slavery, it’s what he did after emancipation.
A Life Rebuilt in Freedom
Following the Civil War, Thomas Golden emerges in the historical record not as a passive figure, but as a citizen, voter, and economic actor, boldly shaping his life as a freedman while precariously navigating the harsh terrain of Reconstruction-era Arkansas.
In 1873, he registered to vote in Pulaski County by swearing an oath of allegiance, a courageous act in a state still reeling from conflict. By 1874, he had taken out a deed of trust in Independence County, pledging his growing cotton crop, livestock, household furniture, and wagon as collateral for a loan. That same year, he appears again in Pulaski County records executing land deeds before a notary public in Little Rock.
These scattered but powerful documents tell a story of mobility, resilience, and strategic maneuvering. Within a span of just two years, Thomas Golden was farming in Independence County, borrowing from merchants in Jackson County, and engaging in land transactions in Pulaski County. He was part of a generation of freedmen seizing opportunity, however constrained, to stake their claim in the American experiment.
From Arkansas to Africa
The most extraordinary revelation in this journey came through an 1880 census record. Thomas Golden, born enslaved in Alabama in 1822, was revealed to be a first-generation African American, his father was born in Africa. That means Ambassador Perry descends, on her maternal line, from someone who experienced the Middle Passage firsthand.
This discovery closed a historical loop that spanned continents and centuries. For Ambassador Perry, who was drawn to serve in Africa, Black Ancestries revealed her direct ancestral connection to the continent. Her service in Sierra Leone and Lesotho was more than professional; it was profoundly personal. She had walked the land of her ancestors, and now she has a clearer glimpse of exactly who at least one of those ancestors was.
Reclaiming the Golden Legacy
For Ambassador Perry, learning about Thomas Golden was like discovering a cornerstone of her family’s foundation. He was a man who emerged from bondage to become a landholder, voter, and patriarch. And though his name was nearly lost to history, it now shines again illuminating the path he carved for his descendants to follow.
At Black Ancestries, it is our mission to help families like the Perrys uncover, celebrate, and preserve these powerful stories. Because in tracing one ancestor, we often recover a legacy. And in doing so, we remind ourselves, and the world, that Black history is American history.
And it matters.
Andre Kearns is the Founder & CEO of Black Ancestries. To learn more, visit blackancestries.com.
