[Vision2020] Family Ties Michigan Sisters to McCain

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Detroit Free Press at:

http://www.freep.com/article/20081026/NEWS15/810260386
 
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Family ties Michigan sisters to McCain
They cite legacy of slavery, progress
BY Patricia Montemurri, Staff Writer

They share a last name and a family legacy rooted in the slavery of the 
old South.

Lillie and Joyce McCain, two sisters who live in Grand Blanc, descend from 
a family once held captive as slaves who toiled on the Mississippi 
plantation owned by the great-great-grandfather of John McCain, the GOP 
presidential nominee.

The sisters and other siblings still own land in Teoc, Miss., that their 
great-great-grandparents, Isom and Lettie, labored on as slaves owned by 
William Alexander McCain, John McCain's great-great-grandfather. The 
McCain sisters have attended recent family reunions in Teoc, where they've 
been joined by John McCain's brother and a cousin.

"Each family has evolved to the point to see in each other positive 
things. And if we live as brothers and sisters, that's positive," said 
Lillie McCain, 56, a psychology professor at Mott Community College.

The McCain sisters say they have respect and admiration for John McCain, 
whom they've never met. But the sisters are supporting Democratic 
presidential candidate Barack Obama, who if he wins would be the first 
African-American elected president.

"This is really history coming alive for us," said Joyce McCain, 54, who 
retired as a General Motors production executive. "You have a real 
appreciation of where we have come from. Only five generations ago our 
family was in slavery. The progress has been something."

Lillie and Joyce McCain's family history received national attention in an 
Oct. 17 front-page story by Douglas Blackmon in the Wall Street Journal. 
When their great-great-grandfather Isom was freed from slavery, he took on 
the last name of McCain, the plantation owner.

In recent years, John McCain's brother, Joe McCain, and a cousin, Bill 
McCain, who still lives in the area, have attended the reunions organized 
by the McCains who descended from slaves. Bill McCain attended the funeral 
of the sisters' brother, George McCain, the first black fire chief in 
Greenwood, Miss.

For the McCain sisters, the family's link to the white McCain family was 
common knowledge all their lives.

"I used to tell people that I was related to John McCain, and they don't 
take you seriously," Joyce McCain said.

Lillie McCain attended a four-room schoolhouse named McCain School in 
Teoc. There was a McCain general store. The cemetery where their ancestors 
are buried is land that was donated by the McCain family.

They remember when their grandfather, Weston McCain, pleaded from his 
deathbed that his heirs not sell the family land.

"Our grandfather was able to purchase land that his grandfather had worked 
as a slave," Joyce McCain explained. "He instilled in us to never sell the 
land. The ownership is still there."

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Photos:

http://tinyurl.com/5ljgqm
Joyce McCain, 54, left, and her sister Lillie McCain, 56, both of Grand 
Blanc, look at photos from a reunion in Teoc, Miss., on Thursday. They are 
descendants of Isom McCain, a slave who was owned by the great-great-
grandfather of GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

http://tinyurl.com/6gaw58
Laura McCain, an ancestor of Joyce and Lillie McCain, is related to Isom 
McCain. The sisters say they respect John McCain but are backing Democrat 
Barack Obama.
 
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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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