The Bitter & the Sweet

The Bitter and the Sweet is a personal story of five generations of an American family intertwined with the history of race relations in America. Curtis Estes traces his ancestry back to 1835. His great-grandfather was a slave holder and his great-grandmother a slave. His family story has its origin in Texas at the time of the Battle of the Alamo, continues through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow South, and extends to the present. This memoir is an affirmation that, despite persistent racism, it is possible to build a better life through education and a focus on the future.