Sharpton: DNA Could Tie Me to Thurmond

Rev. Al Sharpton speaks at a news conference in New York, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007. Genealogists have found that civil rights activist Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig - AP)

Washington-Williams' daughter, Wanda Terry, said her mother was not available for comment Monday. She said she and Washington-Williams were shocked when they learned of the Sharpton link.

"I said, 'Boy, the Thurmond family _ this thing _ the legs keep growing,'" Terry said.

Sharpton said he met Thurmond only once, when he visited Washington with the late James Brown, who knew Thurmond. Sharpton said the 1991 meeting was awkward.

"I was not happy to meet him because what he had done all his life," Sharpton said.

Terry said Sharpton should try to make peace with the matter.

"We made our peace with ours," she said. "My mother addressed that. She has a relationship with her family members and she's moved on. There's no animosity and there's no point in having all this resentment because it's not healthy and it's not doing anyone any good."

Thurmond's niece, Ellen Senter, said she would speak with Sharpton if he were interested.

"I doubt you can find many native South Carolinians today whose family, if you traced them back far enough, didn't own slaves," Senter, of Columbia, S.C., told the Daily News.

She added: "And it is wonderful that (Sharpton) was able to become what he is in spite of what his forefather was."

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Associated Press Writer Katrina A. Goggins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.