Former president Barack Obama, who has become increasingly vocal in his demands for reparations for black Americans, was just informed by a Reuters investigation that he is descended from slaveholders.
Former President Obama said earlier this week that the case for reparations for Black Americans is “justified,” but claimed that the “politics of white resistance and resentment” made the prospect of pursuing the issue during his presidency a “non-starter.”
“There’s not much question that the wealth of this country, the power of this country was built in significant part — not exclusively, maybe not even the majority of it — but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves,” Obama continued.
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Obama didn’t mention that his own relatives were slaveholders who owned and controlled vast numbers of slaves.
The Reuters investigation found that every living former president except for Donald Trump is a descendant of slaveholders. Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama were all found to have slaveholding ancestors.
Obama’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Washington Overall owned slaves in Kentucky including a 15-year-old girl. He also found out that Obama’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Duvall, also owned slaves listed in an 1850 census record. In fact, the Duvalls were a wealthy family whose members were descended from a major landowner, Maureen Duvall, whose estate owned at least 18 slaves in the 17th century.
Census records viewed by Reuters revealed that Joe Biden’s great-great-great grandfather “enslaved a 14-year-old” in 1850. Politico found that another 3rd great grandfather, Jesse Robinett, enslaved people in Maryland’s Allegany County, according to an 1800 census.
The examination also found that Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, 11 governors, and 100 legislators from the 117th Congress are descendants of slaveholders.
Lawmakers who descended from slaves include Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and James Lankford, as well as Democrats, Elizabeth Warren (who notoriously identifies as American Indian), Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen, and Maggie Hassan.
