Grandma's Middle Finger

Jeri Mills' interest in family history was sparked by her grandmother's "funny-looking finger."

"One of my grandmother's middle fingers would never bend," Mills said, "and I was curious to learn why it wouldn't."

Mills questions about her grandmother's finger went unanswered for many years, she said.

"She was reluctant to talk about it, but when I got older I asked her again," Mills said.

That was when Mills learned that when her grandmother was a child, she was involved in a train wreck while fleeing the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1800s. [Link]

How to Make a Racist Shut Up

William Hoff, Jr., was a virulent racist, and a leader of the National Socialist Movement. According to his brother Sheldon, he was also part African American.

Around 1995, Sheldon uncovered a bombshell, a gem that could have destroyed Wild Bill's credibility with the Nazis - in the 1910 census, their father's family was listed as black. Sheldon eventually traced their black ancestry back to the 1600s.

When he told his brother about his find, Wild Bill brushed it off.

"He was in denial, but after that he never gave us any of his 'white is superior' stuff," Sheldon said. [Link]

Appraising Bigotry

While demolishing a wall in a 200-year-old Northborough, Massachusetts, house, Betty Tetreault's son discovered a medallion bearing the initials of a despicable organization.

Tetreault brought the medallion, about the size of a silver dollar, to an appraiser at the Historical Society's Main Street building Friday night. In cut-out words it reads "in good standing," with the letters "KKK" in the middle.

"It's bizarre because this is a northern state," said Marie Nieber, who is also the chair woman of the town's Historical Commission. "Maybe someone tried to hide their past. Who knows? " [Link]

Instant KKKarma Gets Texas Reporter

Amarillo Globe-News reporter Joe Chapman requested some KKK membership documents from 1923-25, hoping to "out" some local families. Halfway down the first page, he found the name of his own great-grandfather—the man he'd been named for.

After telling a few co-workers of my surreal discovery, I got back to work and finished up the afternoon's task. The next day, I went to my parents' house and told my mom, Karen Chapman, what I had learned.

Her response was a casual, "Really?" She said, no, she hadn't ever known Grandpa Joe to have been in the Klan. With a bit of humor, she admitted if she had ever guessed, she would have thought her other granddad, who was more bigoted, might have been. [Link (reg. req.)]

A Breakthrough in Skinhead Genealogy

For too long genealogists have been encumbered by demands for "proof" and "intelligibility." Now, one of America's premier racist organizations has devised an easier way to trace one's ancestry.

On Tuesday, The Nationalist Movement (link intentionally omitted; here's one to the ADL instead) issued the following statement on the heritage of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers:

The genealogy of the nominee has been as vacuous as the record has been undistinguished. However, Miers' physical resemblance to Golda Mier, the late prime-minister of Israel, is telling, as well as the similarity in name. "Miers" is an uncommon spelling, which could be derived from "Meyers," a common Jewish name.

The implications of this research strategy are obvious. We can now safely assume that Harriet Miers, sausage king Oscar Mayer, Halloween killer Michael Myers, and HBO host Bill Maher are all related, and probably attend the same synagogue.

The case for physical similarity is also compelling. The Movement's statement notes that Miers resembles not only Golda Meir, but also Madeleine Albright and Betty Freidan— resemblances which reveal both her ancestry and her political views. Upon hearing this news, the scientists at The Genographic Project will undoubtedly abandon their DNA research and focus their attention on the burgeoning science of stereotypology.

Even those left unpersuaded by the Movement's impeccable reasoning can learn an important lesson from these ignorant thugs: Learn to recognize your enemies.

Grand Wizard Descendant Kurses Klan Konnection

From The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal:

Forrest descendant has a different take

By Wendi C. Thomas

August 14, 2005

In the clamorous debate over what to do with the three city parks that honor the Confederacy, there's a man whose story hasn't been told.

His name is Douglas Turner Ward, and he is a descendant of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.

He's also a black man, a founder of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York, an established playwright who was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

Ward, 75, is not one to suffer fools gladly, especially ones who turn a blind eye to Forrest's sins as a slave trader and a grand wizard of the country's first terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Ward suggests that they "Put [Forrest's] grave where it belongs, back in the woods . . . or wherever he came from." They'd have to dig an awfully deep hole to put him where he truly belongs.

Buried Among Enemies

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Pierce City apologizes for dark past, refuses to pay for moving remains
Associated Press
06/14/2005

PIERCE CITY, Mo. (AP) -- More than 100 years after this southwest Missouri community's entire black population was run out of town by angry white mobs, city officials have apologized for the dark chapter in local history.

But they're drawing the line at paying to move the remains of a Civil War veteran who died three years before the Aug. 19, 1901, riots and lynching that forced his family to flee to Springfield, The Monett Times reported.

Charles and James Brown of St. Louis were researching their family's history when they learned of the 1901 events in Pierce City. They also discovered that their great-grandfather, James Cobb Sr., was buried in a cemetery there.

"It causes the family grief to think of him down there; alone, in a hostile, unrepentant environment, where he and members of his race were hated, maltreated, and where many were run out of town for nothing more than being black," Charles Brown wrote in a letter to Pierce City Mayor Mark Peters.

[snip]

Cobb's remains were unearthed on June 2 and taken to a cemetery in Springfield where other family members are buried. Afterward, Brown requested that Pierce City -- which remains a largely white community -- apologize for its treatment of blacks and pay the costs of moving Cobb and for a tombstone to mark his new grave.

[snip]

Peters, in his response to Brown's letter, agreed the community owed an apology for the atrocities committed on its former black residents -- but not any money.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]