|
Some of McCain's black relatives support Obama |
|
|
|
|
Written by ELGIN JONES
|
|
Friday, 17 October 2008 |
 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.”
She said the senator never responded to her email.
Although Charles is uncertain who will get his vote for president,
several of John McCain’s black and white relatives are supporting his
Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.
“I am absolutely supporting Obama, and it’s not because he’s black.
It’s because he is the best person at this time in our history,” said
Lillie McCain, a professor of psychology at Mott Community College in
Flint, Michigan.
“We simply need to look at the economy, and McCain’s campaign does not
take us there,” said Joyce McCain, Lillie’s sister, a retired
engineering manager with General Motors who lives in Grand Blanc,
Michigan. “He is my cousin, but we are in dire times right now and
people are hurting. Sen. Obama is clearly the best choice to be
president.’’
Charles McCain and his wife, Theresa, who still live in Teoc, started
the reunions over a decade ago. Charles is the deacon of Mitchell
Springs Baptist Church, the only black house of worship in the area.
When Theresa McCain started the family reunions in the late 1980s or
early ‘90s (neither he nor his wife is sure of the exact starting
date), only black family members attended. But as word spread about the
gatherings, white members of the McCain family got involved. Today, the
reunion has expanded to the point where it is becoming a community
event.
The reunion’s website, teocfamilyreunion.ning.com, has pictures,
postings and other information about the family gatherings. While Sen.
McCain’s brother, Joe, and many of his other white relatives attend the
reunions, family members say Sen. McCain has never acknowledged them,
or even responded to their invitations.
“Well, a lot of the people who had moved away and were living up north,
would send money to help us maintain the church,” said Theresa McCain,
62. “Myself and others began inviting them back home for picnics, just
to show our appreciation.”
The McCain campaign did not respond to repeated questions about John
McCain’s black relatives, or about his relatives of both races who
support Obama. Pablo Carrillo, a media liaison with the McCain
campaign, said the senator was aware of his African-American relatives,
but asked the reporter to put his questions into writing, and that
someone would get back to him.
After the reporter sent questions in writing, and made repeated
follow-up phone calls, neither Sen. McCain nor anyone else from the
campaign responded.
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.
While running for the Republican Party nomination in 2000, he sided
with protesters who were calling for the rebel battle flag to be
removed from the South Carolina statehouse, only to alter that position
later.
"Some view it as a symbol of slavery. Others view it as a symbol of
heritage,” John McCain said of the flag. "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.’’
Novelist Elizabeth Spencer, another white cousin of John McCain, noted
the slaves the family owned in the family’s memoirs, Landscapes of the
Heart. Sen. McCain has acknowledged reading the book, but claims to
have only glossed over entries about their slaves.
“That’s crazy,” said Spencer, who also attends the reunions in Teoc.
“No one had to tell us, because we all knew about the slaves. I may not
vote, because I don’t want anyone to think that I have an issue with
John, but I don’t want to see him become president because I think
Obama is entirely adequate, and it’s time for a Democrat.’’
Spencer acknowledged donating money to the Obama campaign and to what she called “Democratic causes.”
Sen. John McCain was born in 1936 at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station, a
segregated military installation in the Panama Canal, where his father
was stationed in the U.S. Navy. His family returned to the states
shortly after his birth; where he went on to attend segregated schools
in the Teoc community and elsewhere around the country.
He served in the Navy, where he was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, before being released and eventually running for Congress.
After he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982,
McCain voted against the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday in
1983. When he arrived in the U.S. Senate in 1986, he joined North
Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms in opposing the holiday again, and voted in
1994 to cut funding to the commission that marketed it.
John McCain also aligned himself with former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham.
Mecham was the governor in McCain’s home state of Arizona from January
1987 to April 1988, when he was impeached and removed from office for
campaign finance violations. As a state senator and governor, Mecham
publicly used racial slurs against black people and other minorities.
He was also a member of the John Birch Society, which opposes civil
rights legislation. In 1986, Mecham campaigned for governor on a
promise to rescind the state’s recognition of the Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. holiday, which he did in 1987.
Earlier this year, during the 40th anniversary recognition of King’s
assassination, McCain, by this time a presidential candidate, said he
was wrong for opposing the national King holiday.
Politics in America has long been steeped in the dynamics of the
country’s myriad cultures, diverse ethnicities, and varying religious
beliefs. Several of Sen. McCain’s black relatives say Obama’s candidacy
represents progress.
“He is denying his black and white relatives in Teoc,” said Joyce
McCain, 54. “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.”
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Photo: Lillie McCain, left, and her husband, Jack Vickers, right, pose
with Joe McCain, center, during this year’s family reunion.
 |
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed