Hmm...

    Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday.

More, here.

3 thoughts on “Hmm...

  1. CharleyCarp

    I would think that we’ll see a lot more stories of this type in the coming years, as it has become easier to trace ancestry. And this story is just a male line story. Figure that Sharpton has altogether 400 different ancestors who lived in slavery, many will have had different ownership. And if each of the owners has, say, 300 living descendants, we’re talking several thousand living people descended from someone who owned a Sharpton ancestor. Multiply this times all the public African-American figures, and it’s a pretty big set of people.

  2. CharleyCarp

    Having had time to collect himself, Sharpton really steps up:

    “I think of my grandfather, the son of a slave, the son of a man who was bought and sold in that horrific manner, and my grandfather opened up a grocery store and took care of his family and raised 17 children,” Sharpton said.

    “That’s what his generation did. Now what are we going to do? Are we a generation that wants to be defined by nothing more than using the n-word and having all this gangster attitude? This information doesn’t just put the responsibility on society, it puts the responsibility on me. On us.”

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