Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Denied black relative urges McCain to accept ancestry

On Monday morning's CNN Newsroom, reporter Kyra Phillips talked with Wall Street Journal's Atlanta Bureau Chief Douglas Blackmon and Lillie McCain, a black relative of John McCain.

"We've had the pleasure of meeting Joe McCain," explained Lillie. "He attends the reunions at Teoc [Mississippi] ... I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Senator McCain."

"Do you think it could make a difference with regard to diversity issues, issues of race, if John McCain did participate [in the reunions]?" asked Phillips.

"I think it probably could," said Ms. McCain. "It would give him an opportunity to know us. I e-mailed him back in 2000 to remind him of his ties to Teoc, Mississippi.

"I heard him say on, I believe it was Meet the Press, that his ancestors owned no slaves. Well, I certainly have carried the name McCain from the beginning of my life, and I've known the ties to John McCain, and have tried to get him to communicate with me about that, but he has been unwilling at least to date."

"The McCain campaign told me, when I talked to them about this, that he hasn't been to any of the family reunions simply because of scheduling conflicts," said Blackmon. "There's not a decision not to do that."

Lillie McCain urged John McCain to "acknowledge the reality of the relationship that we hold."

Read on.

1 comment:

airJackie said...

No need for a DNA test with this matter. McCain can say he doesn't have black relatives but he will have some explaining to do with those Family Reunions every two years. It's so funny when McCain's other white Family members go to enjoy the company of the black relatives while McCain is in denial. John and Cindy lucked out with Megan being white. Test show in the third generation develops the black line. Now Megan was born white but her child or her childs child would bring out the black genes.