[ifinnegan]

I remember decades ago, when I was a kid, hearing Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy use that term - a n-—— in the wood pile.

I didn’t know what the term meant then and I still don’t.

Now I see this Suess cartoon that uses the term. So it must have been an at least somewhat common term and had a meaning.

Anybody know what it was supposed to mean?

[Cicero]

It meant something embarrassing that was kept secret. For instance, suspicious ancestry.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nigger+in+the+woodpile&defid=1028291

[Vigilanteman]

Anybody know what it was supposed to mean?

Proper use of the archaic term is an old reference to unknown ancestry or ancestral traits which may show up in later generations dating back to the days of slavery (and even afterward) when interracial affairs were much more common than people liked to believe.

Former S.C. Senator Strom Thurmond admitted siring a child by a black woman in his later years and provided both her and the child support. The woman was classy enough to keep quiet about what would have been a career ender.

[bert]

I recall it being common when I grew up

it means something is not right

it is similar to “something is rotten in Denmark”

I don’t ever remember it referring to a multiracial bastard child

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

"An Ethiopian in fuel supply", or the equivalent is a dysphemism for "something to hide".

[fella]

The “Woodpile” is a reference to the family tree, if you follow all the branches you soon end up with misch-mass that resembles a pile of wood dumped out of a wagon. And the N-word in the pile is a reference to the idea that if you could trace a family tree back far enough you’d find that we are all related.