LILLIE MCCAIN
If your ancestry could be traced back to a family that owned African-American relatives of yours as slaves, would you consider that family to be YOUR BLOOD RELATIVES? Not to mention, this family is Caucasian and includes a very prominent member, John McCain!
Meet Lillie McCain! Lillie McCain's family is descended from two slaves, named Isom and Lettie. She is their great-great granddaughter. They remained closely entwined with the white family for decades after the Civil War, taking its surname and living close by on land rented from their former owners.
The black McCains of today were raised to believe that they were blood relatives of the white McCains, dating back to slavery times. White McCains say they're unaware of any biological connection between the families.
Lillie McCain remembers seeing Martin Luther King Jr. speak from the back of a flatbed truck in nearby Greenwood. In the late 1960s, black McCain children were among those who integrated the previously all-white schools in the county seat, Carrollton. In 1969, Lillie McCain was one of the first two African-Americans to graduate from the integrated high school. Four of the six McCain children in her family served in the military and all six earned college degrees.
What great history and accomplishment the black McCains were and still are a part of. I believe her father said it best as quoted by her sister Mary McCain Fluker, "You are no better than anybody, but you're just as good as anybody."
Lillie McCain holds a doctorate in psychology and teaches at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan.
For the full article, visit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419511761942501.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Meet Lillie McCain! Lillie McCain's family is descended from two slaves, named Isom and Lettie. She is their great-great granddaughter. They remained closely entwined with the white family for decades after the Civil War, taking its surname and living close by on land rented from their former owners.
The black McCains of today were raised to believe that they were blood relatives of the white McCains, dating back to slavery times. White McCains say they're unaware of any biological connection between the families.
Lillie McCain remembers seeing Martin Luther King Jr. speak from the back of a flatbed truck in nearby Greenwood. In the late 1960s, black McCain children were among those who integrated the previously all-white schools in the county seat, Carrollton. In 1969, Lillie McCain was one of the first two African-Americans to graduate from the integrated high school. Four of the six McCain children in her family served in the military and all six earned college degrees.
What great history and accomplishment the black McCains were and still are a part of. I believe her father said it best as quoted by her sister Mary McCain Fluker, "You are no better than anybody, but you're just as good as anybody."
Lillie McCain holds a doctorate in psychology and teaches at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan.
For the full article, visit: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419511761942501.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Latrice, Interesting facts, I haven't considered before any racial integration within my family other than my Indian ancestry (which goes as far back as my great-grandparents which is as far back as my knowledge of my ancestors go.
It's important however, In order to know where we're going to know where we came from.
Excellent topic.
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