(soft music) - [Bea] Take a walk with me as we listen to a man who holds a very special place in his community of cable in Westchester County.

His name is Billy Powell.

In the African tradition, he would be called a grio, one who tells the history of his people.

And for him, his community has many stories to tell.

- Anybody that says nothing has changed since slavery probably need to go back and do a little more homework, a little more research.

- [Bea] The boy whose family members were sharecroppers grew to be a man who went off to serve his country during the Korean War, yet knew of the discrimination at home.

- I saw segregation, discrimination.

(soft orchestral music) I was under, marching under the American flag in the United States Army when Emmett Till was lynched.

So, I saw that area.

- If you look at the different chapters in his life, this beautiful story says exactly why he's a grio to our community, the storyteller.

His life is telling the story of us all.

- [Bea] Angela Douglas is a lifelong activist and community leader in Chester County.

She counts Powell as a mentor and friend.

As a former elected official, the political science lecturer says Powell's life has played a key role in impacting generations.

- Having someone that you can actually look at, who has not been just a hell raiser, but has gotten so much done from civil rights to feeding your family, Mr. Powell has that story.

- [Bea] And he knows the history of enslaved people taking the names of former owners, of how people of color bought land at the turn of the century, and why the whites sold it to them.

- The plantation owners before then sold it to them for a dollar fifty cent a acre because they wanted to get it off of their tax record, wouldn't have to pay tax on it.

They discovered, your ancestors and mine, realized that it wouldn't grow cotton.

- [Bea] As a young boy, Powell would cross this plantation property with his mother.

The house was built by the Osbornes in 1853, plantation owners and the owner of a grist mill before the Civil War.

Now, more than eight decades after taking those walks... - I own this house.

I own this land that I saw sharecroppers work.

- [Bea] That's right, he now owns the plantation house.

And more than 300 acres.

But he says one of his most prized possessions, a letter from the Civil War.

- This gentleman who built this house, he owned two slaves when emancipation came.

And I have one document that is precious, that a federal marshal had him to sign, saying that he would release the slaves.

- [Bea] Inside the house, pictures from the past, and Powell answers the questions for those who ask, why keep up pictures of previous white owners?

His answer, history.

- Those people built this house.

True history is they, this is where they live.

And true history is that my mother is biracial, and some members of my family are just plain black, and we occupy the house at will now.

And so, our pictures are in there also.

- [Bea] During the early part of the century, a black man by the name of Jehu and his two brothers bought this house and 46 acres, a house the white planters built for the overseer.

Powell now owns that house as well.

He points out facts show many who were enslaved here had marketable skills.

- According to that trade was what they did.

So, a lot of slaves here didn't pick cotton, they would help to shape stones and load them on wagons and ship 'em to Chester.

That little short section of the main street in Chester stands to courthouse.

That beautiful work, stone work that leads up in the balcony was cut right down on this place.

- [Bea] And now at 92, he has some sage words of advice for us all.

- I'm talking about everybody that had a hand in building this country.

My great-grandfather, Frank Giles, for an example, was born a slave.

he helped build this country.

You understand what I'm talking about?

So, black folk and white folks built this country.

- [Bea] It's more than a statement, it is American history.

For Carolina Impact, I'm Bea Thompson.