Posted on 02/25/2007 4:21:09 PM PST by lightman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prominent black activist Al Sharpton has learned he is descended from a slave who was owned by ancestors of the one-time segregationist U.S. senator, the late Strom Thurmond, the Daily News reported on Sunday.
The series of revelations came to light after the newspaper offered Sharpton a chance to delve into his family history with the help of genealogy experts from Ancestry.com.
Sharpton learned of the connection this week, and told the News that "nothing -- nothing -- could prepare me for this."
According to the genealogists' research, Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave in South Carolina, who along with a woman and two children -- believed to be his wife and children -- were given as a gift to Julia Thurmond and forced to move to Florida.
Julia Thurmond's grandfather was the great-great-grandfather of Strom Thurmond, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1948 on a program of keeping the races in the Deep South segregated.
The researchers were led by Megan Smolenyak, an ancestry scholar who has written four books and was the lead researcher for the PBS "Ancestors" series, the newspaper said.
Among unearthed documents was an 1861 slave contract that confirmed that Coleman Sharpton was sent from Edgefield County, South Carolina, to Liberty County, Florida, where he would work until given his freedom at the end of the Civil War.
"You know for real that you are three generations away from slavery," Sharpton said after being told of his history. Informed by the paper of the Thurmond connection, he wondered aloud: "Strom Thurmond's family owned my family."
"It's chilling," he said. "It's amazing," before adding "Maybe I'm the revenge of Coleman." On a more serious note he reflected his past "gives you a sense of obligation."
Sharpton became known in New York in 1985 when he demanded a stiff sentence for a white man, Bernhard Goetz, who shot some black youths on a New York subway. Sharpton's activism continued over the next two decades and he made a brief run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.
Relatives of Thurmond, who after his death was revealed to have fathered a black child, reacted with skepticism or resignation to the findings. Thurmond's son Paul had "no comment," while Thurmond's nephew Barry Bishop said it was "a bunch of baloney."
Shown the evidence, he said he knew nothing about it and could not comment.
But a niece, Ellen Senter, told the News that going back far enough in history would turn up "lots of people connected to each other from different walks of life."
"It is wonderful that (Sharpton) was able to become what he is in spite of what his forefather was," she said.
Thurmond was elected to the Senate in 1954 and led the fight over the next decade against civil rights legislation. He eventually changed his views and kept being re-elected until he was more than 100 years old. He left the Senate in 2003 as its longest serving member and died at short time later.
15 paraqgraphs and no mention that Thurmond was a Democrat segregationist who changed and became a Republican.
I am amazed..... well not really.
I'm just waiting for someone to pay for just who the ancestors are that were owned by Al Gore Sr, Fritz Hollings, and Robert KKK Byrd...
The Thurmonds did not own much.
Actually, Sharpton should be grateful that his relatives were slaves. Today, Sharpton claims to be a Christian Minister. That would not have happened had his ancestors been left on the shores of Africa, worshiping false gods in idolatry. God very well may have been judging those people by enslaving them, just as Israel was enslaved to the Babylonians for the soul purpose of judgment of sin, followed up by a restoration of the heart back to God.
I'm not saying that the early American slave owners were right and justified in their treatment of the slaves, (the Babylonians were a wicked people but God used them anyway to rebuke Israel), but they did end up being led to salvation of the soul here in America.
For that, Rev. Al should be grateful.
Obviously my opinion will not be a popular one since the term slavery in American has a very bad connotation. But in reality 'slavery' is very popular. Many of us are 'slaves' to these computers. Or to the TV's. In the Mosaic Law, if a person committed a crime and got caught, his punishment was that he had to pay 'restitution' to the offended. This usually was more than the actual value of the crime. Sometimes it was twice the value, sometimes seven fold. If the offender did not have the means to pay the fine, he became the 'servant' (slave) of the victim until his debt was paid off. This was God ordained as a punishment for sin. The offender was to be treated fairly and all his physical needs met. God even had a provision that if a slave had purchased back their freedom but enjoyed being a servant to their master, the master could enter a contract with the slave to keep the relationship going. The slave would have a mark placed on the earlobe with an awl signifying the contract.
Try teaching that in a public school during Black History Month.
I forget who it was, but some noteworthy black person said something to the effect that he was glad that his ancestors were slaves in the old South - because otherwise he would never have had the opportunity to become what he is.
I have to wonder if they are insinuating with this, that if Strom's ancestors were like he was that Sharpton and Strom might be related by blood.
Seems I was right:
Feb. 26, 2007 – The Rev. Al Sharpton is asking for a DNA test after learning that he is a descendant of a slave owned by the relatives of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond (R), once a hardcore defender of segregation.
I have laughed and laughed over this story.
I have Winfrey ancestors and I assume they were slave owners. I've always thought that if my ancestors owned Oprah's ancestors, then they got the last laugh through Oprah. I'm not an Oprah fan, but she's earned her money in the American ssytem and she's a lot wealthier than all my descendents will most probably be for decades to come all put together.
And before he was a Republican, he was a Dixiecrat - a party he formed because of the mainstream Democratic opposition to segregation.
If you're going to go that far back - it's important to distinguish between Southern Democrats and the rest of the Democratic party. Most Republican politicians today are in the vain of the Southern Democrat, and quite a few Republican politicians came to be as Democrats (Rick Perry - here in Texas).
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