I really found this article at CNN.com fascinating:
Professional genealogists, who work for Ancestry.com, found that [Reverend Al] 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.
…
His [Thurmond's] 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 is requesting a DNA test to see if he is at all related to the Thurmond family. For those who are not politically aware and miss the irony, Strom Thurmond ran for President in 1948 as a segregationist, he opposed civil rights legislation, and he served in the Senate until he died at 100 years old. Reverend Al Sharpton is considered a civil rights leader to many.
Technorati Tags Al Sharpton, Strom Thurmond
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