Vanessa Williams cries over ancestors

One of her great-great-grandfathers, David Carll, was a freedom fighter who managed to avoid slavery - and then married a white woman in 1870. 'I can't imagine how difficult that would've been,' Williams said in amazement.

Her other great-great-grandfather, William A Fields, had an equally amazing past - being one of the first African American representatives of the state legislature in Tennessee and also a court justice. 'What a noble and pioneering man William A Fields was,' Williams said in awe.

But the emotion became almost too much for her when she read a tribute to Fields in which he was praised for leaving 'a legacy more precious than gold… a spotless name'.