Op-Ed: Is John McCain Denying His Other Family History?

The subject of Race in this election cycle elicited some interesting conversations about the complexity of race relations in America with regards to Barack Obama. I have found an interesting story of race about John McCain.

Elgin Jones of the South Florida Times, recently visited Carroll County, MS., where John McCain's great-great grandfather William Alexander McCain owned a plantation, and later died during the Civil War as a soldier for the Mississippi cavalry. Back in 2000 during the primaries, John McCain denied that the aristocratic Southerners from whom he was descended were slaveholders. But it really became impossible for McCain to deny their existence after a 2000 Salon.com report that showed him photographs and birth records in person and he had to concede to their existence. The reaction to how the Arizona Senator has responded to the story ever since it surfaced, has been as varied as his campaign messages. One account, In the South Florida Times, describes how McCain has handled the connection publicly and privately:

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.

CNN's Kyra Phillips interviewed Lillie McCain and discussee the matter further: PHILLIPS: Do you think it could make a difference with regard to diversity issues, issues of race, if John McCain did participate?

L. MCCAIN: I think it probably could. It would give him an opportunity to know us.

I e-mailed him back in 2000 to remind him of his ties to Tiak, Mississippi. I heard him say on I believe it was "Meet the Press," that his ancestors owned no slaves. Well, I certainly have carried the name McCain from the beginning of my whole life, and I've known of the ties to John McCain and tried to get him to communicate with me about that, but he has been unwilling, at least, to date.

PHILLIPS: Well he found out in 2000, to be fair to the senator there, and he did come forward and gave this quote -- "How the Tiak descendants have served their community and, by extension, to their country, is a testament to the power of family, love, compassion, and the human spirit." And then he added in the statement, "an example for all citizens." John McCain has made the most out of this campaign by leaning towards Richard Nixon and his Southern Strategy and its legacy within the GOP. He's hoping that this strategy will be enough to persuade moderate voters to back him. I don't see that occurring in mass numbers if McCain continues to deny his family legacy. Some of the McCain slavery descendants have already indicated that they will be voting for Barack Obama.