Sharpton descended from Thurmond relative’s slave
NEW YORK – The Rev. Al Sharpton, the prominent civil rights activist, is descended from a slave owned by relatives of the late senator, and one-time segregationist, Strom Thurmond, a genealogical study released Sunday reported.
“It was probably the most shocking thing of my life,” Sharpton said of learning the findings, which were requested and published Sunday by the New York Daily News. He called a news conference to respond publicly to the report. “I couldn’t describe to you the emotions I have had … everything from anger to outrage to reflection to some pride and glory.”
Sharpton, 52, said he had suspected his forebears might have been slaves but he had never attempted to confirm that or find out any details.
The newfound knowledge that his great-grandfather was a slave, Sharpton added, gave him a new perspective on his life.
“You think about the distance that you’ve come; you think about how brutal it was; you think about how life must have been like for him. And then you start wondering whether or not he would be proud or disappointed in what we have done,” Sharpton said with his eldest daughter Dominique, 20, at his side.
The revelation was particularly stunning in light of the two men’s public lives.
Sharpton, known for his fiery rhetoric and a tendency to intervene in racially charged incidents, ran for president in 2004 on a ticket promoting racial justice. Thurmond made a bid for the presidency in 1948, promising to preserve racial segregation. In 1957, he filibustered for more than 24 hours against a civil rights bill.
After his death in 2003, though, it became clear that Thurmond had a complicated history with issues of race when a 78-year-old retired schoolteacher, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, revealed she was the daughter of his extramarital relationship with his family’s black housekeeper.
“In the story of the Thurmonds and the Sharptons is the story of the shame and the glory of America,” Sharpton said Sunday.
The genealogy study was produced by researchers for the Web site Ancestry.com. Daily News reporter Austin Fenner initially asked them to research his roots. He then approached Sharpton and asked if he would permit an investigation of his family history for use in a story. Sharpton agreed.
The research was led by chief Ancestry.com genealogist Megan Smolenyak, who has authored several books on the subject, and assisted by researchers including Tony Burroughs, who has been honored by the National Genealogical Society. Over a three-week period, they used documents including census, marriage, death and military records to examine Sharpton’s family roots.
They found Sharpton’s great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was given as a gift to Julia Thurmond Sharpton, whose grandfather was the late senator’s great-great-grandfather, said Mike Ward, a spokesman for Ances-try.com. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.