It was revealed by Ancestry.com that Rev. Al Sharpton’s great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was also Strom Thurmond’s great-great-grandfather. The discovery came after the website asked a Daily News reporter if he would like to have his family tree traced for a story. After agreeing to have his ancestry uncovered, the reporter then asked Sharpton if he would also like to participate. Sharpton told the paper, “Go for it.”

The connection between the civil rights activist and the once prominent defender of segregation “was probably the most shocking thing in my life,” Sharpton said. Some of Thurmond’s relatives said the relation was also a surprise to them, admitting to know very little of the descendants of the slaves their ancestors once owned.

Strom Thurmond was a senator representing South Carolina who had run for the presidency in 1948 as a segregationist. Thurmond conducted the longest filibuster ever conducted by a US senator for 24 hours in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 2002, the Minority Leader at the time, Trent Lott commented on Thurmond’s 100th birthday that, “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either.” Shortly after Thurmond’s death in June of 2003, it was publicly revealed that he had an illegitimate daughter who was half black.

Julia Thurmond apparently freed Coleman Sharpton later in life. Al Sharpton said he had only met Strom Thurmond once in 1991, and said the meeting was “awkward.”

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