==============
Who's YOUR Daddy?
I was not happy to meet him because what he had done all his life," Sharpton said.
Um, Al, you mean when he was a Democrat just like yourself?
Posted on 02/26/2007 9:33:45 AM PST by conservative_2001
NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton said he wants a DNA test to determine whether he is related to former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond through his great-grandfather, a slave owned by an ancestor of the late senator.
"I can't find out anything more shocking than I've already learned," Sharpton told the Daily News, which on Sunday reported the link based on genealogists' findings.
Sharpton's spokesman, Rachel Noerdlinger, confirmed Monday for The Associated Press that Sharpton plans to pursue DNA testing, but had no further details.
Sharpton and Thurmond didn't appear to have much in common: Thurmond ran for president in 1948 as a segregationist. Sharpton ran for president in 2004 calling for racial equality. Last week, Sharpton learned about the connection.
"It was probably the most shocking thing in my life," Sharpton said at a news conference Sunday, the day the Daily News reported the link.
Professional genealogists, who work for Ancestry.com, found that Sharpton's great-grandfather Coleman Sharpton was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.
"Based on the paper trail, it seems pretty evident that the connection is there," said Mike Ward, a genealogist with Ancestry.com, who called the link "amazing."
Ancestry.com's chief family genealogist, Megan Smolenyak, said Sharpton would need to match his DNA with a present-day descendant to see if they are biologically related.
"I think the odds are slim he would match," Smolenyak told the News. "There is no particular evidence to suggest that there is a direct relationship between the two (black and white) Sharpton families to suggest they share a common ancestry. But, given the legacy of plantation society, you can't rule it out."
The revelations surfaced after Ancestry.com contacted a Daily News reporter who agreed to have his own family tree done. The intrigued reporter then asked Sharpton if he wanted to participate. Sharpton said he told the paper, "Go for it."
The genealogists, who were not paid by the newspaper, uncovered the ancestral ties using a variety of documents that included census, marriage and death records.
Strom Thurmond, of South Carolina, was once considered an icon of racial segregation. During his 1948 bid for president he promised to preserve segregation, and in 1957 he filibustered for more than 24 hours against a civil rights bill.
But Thurmond was seen as softening his stance later in his long life. He died in 2003, at 100. One of the longest-serving senators in history, he was originally a Democrat but became a Republican in 1964.
His children have confirmed that he fathered a biracial daughter. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' mother was a housekeeper in the home of Thurmond's parents.
Sharpton said he met Thurmond only once, in 1991, when he visited Washington, D.C., with the late James Brown, who knew Thurmond. Sharpton said the meeting was "awkward."
"I was not happy to meet him because what he had done all his life," Sharpton said.
Sharpton said he hadn't attempted to contact the Thurmond family. As far as he knew, he said, the family hadn't tried to call him, either.
Some of Thurmond's relatives said the nexus also came as a surprise to them. A niece, Ellen Senter, said she would speak with Sharpton if he were interested.
"I doubt you can find many native South Carolinians today whose family, if you traced them back far enough, didn't own slaves," Senter, of Columbia, S.C., told the Daily News.
She added: "And it is wonderful that (Sharpton) was able to become what he is in spite of what his forefather was."
Telephone messages left by The Associated Press for Strom Thurmond Jr. and for an attorney who once represented Thurmond's biracial daughter were not immediately returned Sunday.
There are so many people who would not be happy to meet Mr. Sharpton for the same reason.
I guess he's feeling left out of the news lately ... must drum up something to get the MSM interested in him again.
I'm all for reparations to Al Sharpton, so long as it leads to repatriation. lol
I heard he also got blood from a postal worker named Neuman...
Pay them back in tobacco stock.
==============
Who's YOUR Daddy?
I was not happy to meet him because what he had done all his life," Sharpton said.
Um, Al, you mean when he was a Democrat just like yourself?
I wonder if he will consider himself a white man trapped in a black man's body? Will he seek a procedure (from whatever source Michael Jackson used) to have color-change treatment?
Maybe he is related to slave and plantation owner 7th President Andrew Jackson? Oh wait, Andrew is a founder of the Democrat party who was not for JUST THE RICH, so we must not investigate that.
Translation: "I think I might gots me some INHERITANCE due~!"
LOL.....ahhh that is the connection. Am I the only one that got that?
LOL.....ahhh that is the connection. Am I the only one that got that?
Hey Al, while you are at it why not have a DNA test with Tawana Brawley. Somehow I think you two are related. Or you might do a DNA match with our first black president, Billy Bob Clinton.
Truth is better than fiction and this one is off the chart. I genuinely hope there is a link if only for the weirdness of it all.
Guessing that only a few will understand the comment...
Completely understood!
This news blurb gave me a little laugh. Curious how the name Sharpton came to be instead of the name Thurmond. Personally, I doubt they're blood relative (Strom & Al). Actually, I think geneology is very fascinating (maybe there's a Mormon or 2 in my woodpile). Many times it wasn't the "massa" himself who went to bed with the black women, but the massa's sons or the overseer.
"I gots some free time now! Can I room with you?"
willhe buy some whites sheets?
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