Blanche Kelso Bruce was born the son of a house slave, but as the son of the white master, he was also encouraged to learn to read and write, alongside his white half-brother. Josephine Beals Willson was born to a socially prominent black family in Philadelphia and moved to the great abolition state of Ohio after the Civil War. Here, Josephine and Blanche met, fell in love and married, eventually moving to Washington D.C. where they became one of the most glamorous power couples of the late 1800’s. Along the way, they embodied the history of America at the turn of the century; friends with everyone from Frederick Douglass to Ulysses S. Grant, involved in the politics and the business of a transformed country, breaking the color barrier at Harvard, for their son, and then their grandson, they took on major battles against racism. The Bruce dynasty left a legacy, the story of which deserves to be told.