Family Ties Sharpton to Strom ThurmondNew York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Strom's kin stunned
By JOSE MARTINEZ in Edgefield, S.C.
and JONATHAN LEMIRE and TRACY CONNOR in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond greeted news of the family's shocking connection to the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday with some nervous chuckles and one outright denial.
"That's a bunch of baloney," said Barry Bishop, the son of one of Thurmond's sisters.
"I've never heard anything about it," said Bishop, of Greenville, S.C.
"Well, have you seen documents?" he asked.
When told that genealogists from Ancestry.com had located historic documents that confirmed that Sharpton's great-grandfather Coleman Sharpton was enslaved by Thurmond relatives in the 1800s, Bishop responded, "Since I don't know anything about it, I'm afraid I can't comment."
The senator's niece Ellen Senter, 61, said she had never heard of the link to Sharpton either, but questioned its relevance.
"If you go that far back in history, you're going to find lots of people connected to each other from different walks of life," said Senter, of Columbia, S.C. "In fact, I doubt you can find many native South Carolinians today whose family, if you traced them back far enough, didn't own slaves.
"My uncle was a wonderful person who was loving and very devoted to his family," said Senter, adding she would speak to Sharpton if the civil rights leader wanted. "And it is wonderful that [Sharpton] was able to become what he is in spite of what his forefather was."
Paul Thurmond, the youngest son of the late senator, said, "I have no comment."
Asked if he had ever heard any mention of the connection between his family and the minister's, Thurmond said, "Of course not. How would I?"
The late senator's eldest son, Strom Thurmond Jr., a former U.S. attorney for South Carolina, could not be reached for comment.
Sen. Strom Thurmond, who was born in Edgefield, S.C., became a legendary political figure in the South for his support of segregation. He died at the age of 100 in June 2003.
Six months later, a retired teacher, Essie Mae Washington Williams, then 78, revealed that she was the love child of the late senator and his family's black maid. Williams' nephew said she was traveling yesterday and unavailable to comment.
Strom Thurmond remains an extremely popular figure in Edgefield. A local high school is named after him, and his statue stands on the town green.
"If they were to change the name of the town, it would be Strom Thurmond, South Carolina," said one local resident, Lorrie Miller, 31.
"They owned the slaves that produced Al Sharpton?" asked another, Vince Russo, 55. "That whole story sounds made up."
But Tonya Browder, a genealogist and director of the Tompkins Memorial Library in Edgefield, was thrilled to learn of the connection.
"Who would have thought it? I never would have guessed of a connection between Al Sharpton and Strom Thurmond. But it's very intriguing," she said. "That connection is just awesome."
Edgefield was also the home of Alexander Sharpton, a wealthy slave owner who in 1861 sent the Rev. Al Sharpton's great-grandfather Coleman Sharpton and three other slaves to Florida, where they were forced to work for Julia Thurmond. Julia Thurmond's grandfather is Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather, the genealogists said.
Alexander Sharpton is buried in a grave behind the Red Oak Baptist Church in Edgefield. The cemetery also includes the graves of several other members of both the Sharpton and Thurmond families.
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