“We’re excited to announce this cohort of companies, all of whom are providing their customers with an array of climate adaptation solutions across Africa and Asia,” said Brian Parham, ASAP Program Director at Lightsmith. During the ASAP accelerator program, the 16 companies will work with industry experts, investors, and ecosystem partners to develop the networks and tools they need to attract investment, grow their businesses, and increase their climate adaptation impacts. The 16 startups were selected from more than 300 applicants and have developed technologies in water, agriculture, risk analytics, supply chain, infrastructure, and insurance that can support adaptation and resilience to climate change.ĪSAP seeks to build a global ecosystem for small- to medium-sized companies in emerging markets that have technologies, products, and services that can be used to adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. NEW YORK, NEW YORK & WASHINGTON, D.C., 12 April 2022 – The Lightsmith Group (“Lightsmith”) and Village Capital announced today that 16 startups were selected to participate in a new environmental accelerator called “ ASAP”, or the Adaptation SME Accelerator Project, focused on innovative climate adaptation ventures in Asia and Africa. The “You Are My Sunshine” singer passed away in 2003, and his first wife died not long after in 2005.Accelerator Partnership Program will accelerate 16 startups that are providing climate adaptation and resilience solutions in Asia and Africa. Vivian filed for divorce in 1967, and Johnny went on to marry singer June Carter Cash. In addition to Rosanne, Vivian and Johnny welcomed three other daughters: Cindy, Kathy and Tara. They soon fell in love and tied the knot in 1954. Johnny was a 19-year-old Air Force radio operator when he met Vivian, then 17 years old, at a skating rink in San Antonio, Texas (where she grew up) in the summer of 1951. Henry’s research also led him to discover a census from 1870, which revealed that Rosanne’s great-great grandfather - a man named Lafayette Robsinson - was “mixed-race.” Upon learning this, Rosanne recalled the long-running rumors of her mother’s background and said, “So, it was, at least, a small part true.”Ī throwback photo of Rosanne Cash with her dad, Johnny Cash, in 1978. “That’s likely why to this day, many of her direct descendants have no idea that they have any African American ancestry,” historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., who hosts Finding Your Roots, explained to Rosanne. This led Sarah to marry a white man, and their children and descendants “were listed as white” during a time when the racist Jim Crow laws were enforced in the Southern U.S. How did Rosanne go for so long without knowing this part of her family history? Well, the father of Sarah (Vivian’s great-great grandmother) was white and gave his daughter and her eight siblings freedom in 1848, according to The Washington Post. Articles Trending NowĪ photograph taken in 1958 of Vivian Liberto Cash and Johnny Cash with their daughters (Kathy, Rosanne and Cindy) in Encino, California. At one point, Johnny even told the KKK in a statement that Vivian was white. “My dad got into a public battle with the KKK and so I knew about that, and it was scary,” Rosanne said during the PBS special. However, in the ’60s amid the Civil Rights Movement, Vivian had been the target of attention from white supremacists since they believed she looked Black. At the time, only Vivian’s European background had been known, and this discovery in her ancestry resurfaced thanks to a profile on Johnny’s first wife in The Washington Poston May 16.īefore the PBS episode, the world only knew that Vivian was reported to be of Sicilian heritage on her dad’s side, and German/Irish on her mother’s side. This ancestor was Vivian’s maternal great-great grandmother, a Black woman named Sarah Shields, whom Rosanne learned about for the first time ever during an episode of the PBS show Finding Your Roots that aired in Feb. “It feels heartbreaking,” Rosanne Cash admitted through tears after finding out that an ancestor of her mother, Vivian Liberto Cash - the first wife of singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, who both received threats from the KKK - was enslaved. Search Hollywood Life Search Trending Navigation Trending Latest Hollywood Celebrity & Entertainment News Primary Menu Menu Close Menu

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