Dr. Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins

Yeah, absolutely.

So she was born on June the 30th, 1917, to what was a middle class black family.

Her father, Edwin, was kind of a Renaissance man.

He spoke six languages.

He owned a restaurant and a hotel, but eventually he got caught up in gambling.

Her mother, Edna, was an actress.

However, her parents separated when she was three and she went to live with her paternal grandparents.

Lena's grandmother, Cora, was an amazing character.

She was an early feminist.

She was a community activist.

And she took Lena to organising events and meetings alongside her schooling.

She was very restrictive about Lena's original education.

And Lena remembered that as the period of sort of stability and comfort during her childhood living with her grandparents.

Edwin didn't really like working and he discovered gambling.

So this is it.

Sometimes he was extremely successful and sometimes he was extremely not successful.

And he was not closely connected with her grandparents.

So when her grandmother died, she was forced to go back to living with her mother and her new stepfather, Mike.

And she said that she couldn't really relate to this white man that her mother had married.

And they fell on fairly hard times.