Rich!-The Thurmond-Sharpton Connection

[Ralph]

Genealogists: Thurmond's family owned Sharpton's kin
Story Highlights

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendant of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond -- a discovery the civil rights activist called "shocking" on Sunday.

Sharpton learned of his connection to Thurmond, once a prominent defender of segregation, last week through the Daily News, which asked genealogists to trace his roots.

"It was probably the most shocking thing in my life," Sharpton said at a news conference Sunday, the same day the tabloid revealed the story.

Some of Thurmond's relatives said the nexus also came as a surprise to them. Doris Strom Costner, a distant cousin who said she knew the late senator all her life, said Sunday she "never heard of such a thing."

"My momma never would talk to me about nothing like that," Costner said of ancestors who owned slaves. "She only talked to me about good things."

The revelations surfaced after Ancestry.com contacted a Daily News reporter who agreed to have his own family tree done. The intrigued reporter then turned around and 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.

They 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.

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.

Sharpton, who ran for president in 2004 on a ticket of racial justice, said he met Thurmond only once in 1991 when he visited Washington, D.C., with the late soul singer 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.

Thurmond was seen as softening his segregation stance later in his life. He died in 2003, at 100. The long-serving senator was originally a Democrat but became a Republican in 1964.

Thurmond's children have acknowledged that Thurmond fathered a biracial daughter -- Essie Mae Washington-Williams' -- whose mother was a housekeeper in the home of Thurmond's parents.

Telephone message left by The Associated Press on Sunday for Strom Thurmond Jr. and an attorney who once represented Washington-Williams, were not returned.

[Corlyss_D]

I can't think of two people who more deserved to have each other as relatives.

[jbuck919]

When the story was led into on the news last night, I was hoping they had discovered that that Thurmond's daughter and Sharpton had a common ancestor (maybe they do--it's worth a look by the genealogists, don't you think?).

[Ralph]

When the story was led into on the news last night, I was hoping they had discovered that that Thurmond's daughter and Sharpton had a common ancestor (maybe they do--it's worth a look by the genealogists, don't you think?).

*****

Sharpton is asking for a DNA test.

[Teresa B]

I suspect this isn't all that surprising! I bet if you calculate the probabilities, taking into consideration the geographic proximity of the two men's ancestors, you would find some fairly good chance of one ancestor being the slave of another. There are quite a lot of ancestors once you get into great-great-greats.

Teresa

[Daisy]

I think this is hilarious, and yes they do deserve each other.

Actually, although I'm a native of New Orleans, I've lived for the past 20 years in a suburb of Aiken SC, Thurmond's hometown. Most local people have forgiven the old boy for his past positions and indiscretions because he cleaned up his act considerably in the last half of his life, and even had a lot of black support. But some sins are never forgiven by public opinion.

Personally, I think it would be hilarious if some of Thurmond's relatives called Sharpton on the phone and said, "Hi, Cousin, why don't you come to the next family reuniuon?" Well, guess what? There are family reunions all over the South that include the families of former slaves and former masters, and there's a lot of group-hugging sort of stuff. But I don't think Sharpton's pride would let him do that.