"He is denying his black and white relatives in Teoc. I think he may not want the country to know his family's full history, but times have changed and we need to move on, and that's why I'm supporting Obama."– Joyce McCain, 54
Surprise, surprise...
By Elgin Jones / South Florida Times
In the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where the ancestors of Sen. John McCain owned enslaved Africans on a plantation, black, white and mixed-race family members unite every two years for their Coming Home Reunion, on the land where the plantation operated.
Some of McCain’s black family members say they are not sure exactly where they fall on the family tree, but they do know this: They are either descendants of the McCain family slaves, or of children the McCains fathered with their slaves.
White and black members of the McCain family have met on the plantation several times over the last 15 years, but one invited guest has been conspicuously absent: Sen. John Sidney McCain.
“Why he hasn’t come is anybody’s guess,” said Charles McCain Jr., 60, a distant cousin of John McCain who is black. “I think the best I can come up with, is that he doesn’t have time, or he has just distanced himself, or it doesn’t mean that much to him.”
Other relatives are not as generous.
Lillie McCain, 56, another distant cousin of John McCain who is black, said the Republican presidential nominee is trying to hide his past, and refuses to accept the family’s history.
“After hearing him in 2000 claim his family never owned slaves, I sent him an email,” she recalled. “I told him no matter how much he denies it, it will not make it untrue, and he should accept this and embrace it.”
Based on information obtained by the South Florida Times, the senator has numerous black and mixed-raced relatives who were born on, or in, the area of the McCain plantation. The mixed races in the family can be traced back to the rural Teoc community of Carroll County, Miss., where his family owned slaves.
Sen. John McCain’s great, great grandfather, William Alexander McCain (1812-1863), fought for the Confederacy and owned a 2,000-acre plantation named Waverly in Teoc. The family dealt in the slave trade, and, according to official records, held at least 52 slaves on the family’s plantation. The enslaved Africans were likely used as servants, for labor, and for breeding more slaves.
William McCain’s son, and Sen. John McCain’s great grandfather, John Sidney McCain (1851-1934), eventually assumed the duty of running the family’s plantation.
W.A. “Bill” McCain IV, a white McCain cousin, and his wife Edwina, are the current owners of the land. Both told the South Florida Times that they attend the reunions. They also said the McCain campaign had asked them not to speak to the media about the reunions, or about why the senator has never acknowledged the family gatherings.
In addition to distancing himself from his black family members, John McCain has taken several positions on issues that have put him at odds with members of the larger black community.
Read on.
Find more photos like this on Teoc Family Reunion
1 comment:
This is what all Americans have. It's so easy for people to say they know who they are but it's those secrets of the pass that come to light. Many of our former Presidents have black relatives. This country will one day face the facts of it's pass and realize stuff happens. I saw a rich white man/woman have a child darker then my son. The man accused his wife of having a affair. Only to find out his grandmother's Mother was born by a white slave owner and his female slave. The baby from the union looked white so they kept her. Now the man couldn't accept the black child but his ex wife loved her baby. The rich Grand Mother left her wealth to the ex wife and her children. The grandson got a dollar. All this took place in a wealthy area of New Jersey called Rumson.
A doctor told me that all Americans have mixed blood and many whites did of sickle cell but the records will always read unknown to protect the fact they died from something that is common in blacks.
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