Yesterday, Reverend Al Sharpton was joined by the Reverend Jesse Jackson to encourage to african-Americans to trace their roots through family trees. Last week, the Daily News revealed that Ancestry.com genealogists had traced Sharpton's history and found that his great-grandfather was a slave that had been owned by an ancestor of Strom Thurmond's. Sharpton even appeared on the Daily Show (after a segment about the news, titled "Ebony and Irony") to discuss the news - see the video here. more ›

After yesterday's "shocking" revelation that his ancestors were slaves owned by ancestors of Senator Strom Thurmond, the Reverend Al Sharpton held a press conference to discuss the news. It turns out that a Daily News reporter asked Sharpton if he'd like research his family history with genealogy website Ancestry.com - the NY Times reports that Ancestry.com "approached the Daily News seeking to publicize its African-American ancestry database" and the ball got rolling from there. At the Daily News offices, Sharpton told reporters:

"It's important for America, because in the story of the Thurmonds and the Sharptons, there's the story of the shame and the glory of America. The shame is that people were owned as property, and the shame is that every time I write my name now, I will think about how I got that name. The shame is that I am the heir of those who were property to the Thurmond family. more ›

What a way to end Black History Month! While researching the Reverend Al Sharpton's family history, it turns out that some ancestors of the civil rights leader were slaves of Strom Thurmond's ancestors. more ›