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Sen. John McCain's ancestors were cotton barons who possessed slaves in Mississippi.He knew that they fought in the Civil War. He claimed to have just found out they owned blacks when it was revealed to him by www.salon.com in 2000. Here is an excerpt with the link to that article:
"McCain added at that time: "Personally, I see the battle flag as a symbol of heritage. I have ancestors who have fought for the Confederacy, none of whom owned slaves. I believe they fought honorably."
Mark Salter, McCain's Senate chief of staff and co-author of "Faith of My Fathers," said Tuesday that no one in McCain's family had ever told him that his ancestors had owned slaves. Salter said that McCain simply assumed his family would have shared such information."(END QUOTE)
How could he have known that his ancestors fought for the confederacy without becoming familiar with the fact that they owned slaves? I mean, the story was well-known throughout the rest of the family. Here is another excerpt:
"The writer Elizabeth Spencer, a cousin to John McCain, does mention the family's slaves in her family memoir, "Landscapes of the Heart," -- a book McCain and his co-author Slater both say they have read, though they say not closely enough to have caught her glancing references to the family's slaves." (END QUOTE) Follow this link to read the article in it's entirety:
(http://archive.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/02/15/mccain/print.html)
Mississippi John Hurt is connected to this story as well. He is a very famous blues singer & guitarist that was born in the late part of the nineteenth century. This is his connection to John McCain & McCain's reaction which I took from the same article:
"Tracing the genealogies of slaves is often easy, because slaves frequently adopted the surnames of their owners. In 1876, for example, a Mary J. McCain married Isham Hurt. The two had a son, blues guitarist "Mississippi" John Hurt, in 1892 on Teoc, the plantation community where the McCains owned 2,000 acres.
"Is that right?" McCain asked, after considering his possible connection to the famous bluesman, who died in 1966. "That's fascinating," he said." (END QUOTE)
There is an article about the black McCains in the Wall Street Journal. It tells the tale of a family that rose to prominence & fought for civil rights. America has definitely evolved from the days of slavery. This is a great & interesting read. Here is the link :
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419511761942501.html?mod=article-outset-box)
The fact that he has not renounced the Confederate flag,given his Southern roots,is one of the main reasons I could never consider voting for him! That flag is an offensive reminder of a past that african-americans are still grappling with to this very day. Mississippi is one of the most racist states in the United States. My father is from Greenwood & he never goes back to visit relatives. The pain of the lynchings & hatred shown by whites toward blacks are memories that he wants to suppress. To most black people,the Confederate flag represents oppression and it will forever be tied to slavery. He proclaimed that his family never owned slaves. Will he come out against the Confederate flag since his family did own blacks after all? Everyone's talking about Reverend Jeremiah Wright's association with Barack Obama as proof that Obama is racist. Well, shouldn't John McCain renounce the Confederate flag as a racist symbol? I know that he won't. He is a true son of the south .
