SMALL WORLD DEPT. New York newspapers are abuzz today with the revelation that the Rev. Al Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton Snr., was a slave owned by Sen. Strom Thurmond's relative Julia Ann Thurmond, with whom the late senator shared a great-great-grandfather. After the initial shock of the news -- the story was pushed forward by The New York Daily News and the sleuthing of Ancestry.com -- Sharpton decided to push further and is calling for DNA tests to see if he's related to the Thurmonds. At first glance, it seems a little unlikely, in that Sharpton's ancestor who was owned by the female Thurmond relative was male. Generally speaking, it was white masters who imposed themselves sexually on female black slaves, not white mistresses. Still, it's possible that Sharpton is related to the white, slave-owning Sharpton family from which he received his surname, or that a female partner of Coleman Sharpton was raped or sexually coerced by a male Thurmond relative. (Strom Thurmond himself had a sexual relationship with an African-American maid when he was 22, resulting in a daughter whom he kept secret for decades.)
If Sharpton goes ahead with the testing, I'd be extremely surprised if he doesn't find some white relatives or ancestors. A substantial minority of African-Americans are part European genetically, with about 30 pecent finding that they have European genes descended from a white male ancestor, and a smaller fraction of white Americans have African genetic markers, as well. Indeed, the new availability of genetic testing has led to some surprising findings for those looking to learn about their African roots and mixed race ancestry. African-American studies professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., for example, went looking for proof of the white male patriarch believed to have fathered children with one of his slave ancestors -- and found instead that his mitochodrial (maternal) DNA led back to a white female Ashkenazi Jew, an experience he detailed in the squib "My Yiddishe Mama".
The most interesting DNA history in America, though, has got to be that of America's unofficial "first black president", Bill Clinton. Given his Southern origins, it's entirely possible that he's got some African genetic ancestry, too. And boy would revelations of that add an interesting twist into the Hillary-Obama race.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
