Didn't Chavis, who changed his name to Chavis Muhammad, get a Divinity Degree from Duke, and is currently a Nation of Islam guy?
Bio of Ben Chavis (Chavis Muhammad)
From bio: "His great-great-grandfather, John Chavis, is considered to be the first black graduate of Princeton University, because he graduated from a New Jersey seminary (religious school) that later became the university. John Chavis, according to Benjamin, was killed in 1838 for teaching slave children to read and write.--end snip
Was his grandfather JOHN CHAVIS: John Chavis, a free blackman, educated at Princeton, teacher to Willie Mangum's Children].
More Snips:
He numbered among his pupils some who became distinguished in the next generation. Among those who are known to have attended his school were Priestly H. Mangum, brother of Senator Mangum and himself a lawyer of distinction; Charles Manly, Governor of North Carolina; Abram Rencher, minister to Portugal and Governor of New Mexico; Mr. James H. Horner, founder of the Horner School; as well as others of less distinction. His school served as a high school and academy for the section in which it was located. One of the extracts already quoted gives us some idea of his scholarship and it seems that he prepared some of his pupils for the University of North Carolina.
His abilities as preacher and teacher and his high character brought him an acquaintance with the leading citizens of that section of the state, by whom he was treated with every mark of respect. We have a very pleasing account of this from Mr. Paul C. Cameron, who wrote in 1883:
"In my boyhood life at my father's [Judge Cameron's] home I often saw John Chavis, a venerable old Negro man, recognized as a free man and as a preacher or clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. As such he was received by my father and treated with kindness and consideration, and respected as a man of education, good sense, and most estimable character. He seemed familiar with the proprieties of social life, yet modest and unassuming, and sober in his language and opinions. He was polite, yes, courtly, but it was from his heart and not affectation. I remember him as a man without guile. His conversation indicated that he lived free from all evil or suspicion, seeking the good opinion of the public by the simplicity of his life and the integrity of his conduct. If he had any vanity, he most successfully concealed it. He conversed with ease on the topics that interested him, seeking to make no sort of display, simple and natural, free from what is so common to his race in coloring and diction. . . . I write of him as I remember him and as he was appreciated by my superiors, whose respect he enjoyed."
>***end snip
**************PtBofR -- do you think there is a relationship between Ben Chavis and John, Crystal Mangum and Senator Mangum?
Find anything?
I think the connection is not so much blood DNA as an historical connection.
John Chavis was a free black, educated at Princeton. He came South and taught children, black and white. He was a member of the Presbytery. He taught the children of the long dead Willie Mangum.
He died in 1838.
Benjamin Franklin Chavis is his great-(maybe 2nd great-)grandson. Born in Oxford, NC. His parents are said to be activists. He is said to have joined the NAACP at 12.
Scandal in not new to him.
As stated earlier, he was one of the Wilmington 10. He spoke at a commemoration of the Greensboro Massacre in 1980:
"I want to send a message to Jimmy Carter. There ain't going to be no reinstatement of the draft. We 're not going to fight no more wars for capitalism; we 're not going to fight no more wars for imperialism. We 're going to be drafted into the freedom struggle. We're going to march; we 're going to march! We 're going to tear this system down! We must blot out capitalism and imperialism once and for all!"