McCain family has deep Mississippi roots
By Zack McMillin
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
CARROLL COUNTY, Miss. -- His older cousin remembers the way young Johnny McCain, not yet 10, would walk down a Mississippi country road to the general store near the family plantation.
"Johnny would keep his eyes straight ahead, always straight ahead, never saw anybody else walk like that," recalls Elizabeth Spencer, a renowned novelist whose grandfather, John Sidney McCain, was "Johnny's" great-grandfather. "He was such an attractive little boy then and very bright."
When McCain, now a Republican senator from Arizona running for president, faces Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama in Friday's debate in Oxford, it will represent a homecoming of sorts. Much will be made of the historical significance of Ole Miss hosting the first presidential debate featuring a black man, but there is also meaning in McCain, a man with deep roots in the Mississippi soil, coming to Ole Miss.
That great-grandfather linking McCain to Spencer was once a sheriff here in Carroll County, and McCain's grandfather -- the novelist's uncle -- attended the University of Mississippi in 1901-02 before eventually landing at the Naval Academy, on his way to becoming an Admiral. The military training ground near Grenada is called Camp McCain, and the Meridian Naval Air Station features McCain Field, named for his grandfather.
Ole Miss honors the family with both a McCain Hall and a McCain Plaza.
Curtis Wilkie, a journalism professor at Ole Miss, recalls a dinner held at Ole Miss in 2005 after McCain spoke at the Ford Center, where the debate is being held.
"In kind of a lull, I said, 'Senator, how would you like to come to Ole Miss, assuming you win the nomination, and participate in a debate here?'" Wilkie said. "McCain said, 'Yeah, I think it would be a great idea' or something along those lines."
McCain himself was born in the Panama Canal Zone and was a Navy brat. At the Merrill Building Museum on the Town Square in Carrollton, an exhibit featuring McCain family memorabilia includes a 1936 photo of the presidential candidate as an infant in Panama, held by his admiral grandfather.
As recalled by Spencer, now 86 and living in Chapel Hill, N.C., "Johnny" McCain spent most of World War II living with his mother and siblings here in Carroll County, on the old McCain plantation, known as "Teoc."
McCain's autobiography devotes only four pages to his Mississippi roots, and when McCain embarked on a personal history tour earlier this year by beginning in Meridian, he emphasized the military heritage over family history.
Such was McCain's military focus that, before reporters presented him with evidence showing otherwise during the 2000 presidential primary, he had told crowds, "I have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy, none of whom owned slaves."
When Salon.com reporters told McCain that documents showed his great-great-grandfather, William Alexander McCain, had owned 52 slaves at Teoc, he expressed surprise.
"I didn't know that," McCain said at the time. "I knew they had sharecroppers. I did not know that."
Spencer, whose Pulitzer Prize-finalist novel "Voice at the Back Door" stirred controversy for its depiction of race in 1950s Mississippi, said it was the first she had heard of that report.
"Johnny couldn't have felt that, because he stayed at Teoc in World War II and there were still many slave descendents," Spencer said.
She said McCain plantation slave descendents have long held reunions every other year at Teoc, and that she was at this summer's event with John's brother, Joe.
"I think John was fibbing when he said he didn't think they owned slaves," Spencer said.
The McCain campaign did not respond to a list of submitted questions.
Spencer does remain deeply fond of her cousin, and speaks very warmly of his mother, Roberta, and his siblings.
"But I must tell you that I am a Democrat and I am not going to vote for president," she said. "Because I just cannot vote against John."
And while Spencer cannot help but appreciate what she calls the "historical irony" of Mississippi hosting the first presidential debate involving a black man, she insists the character and accomplishments of both men demonstrate they have transcended superficial characterizations -- and marvels that the country and her home state have, too.
"I mean, 55 years ago someone like John McCain would be telling (a black man) to go out and cut him some kindling," Spencer says. "This country has evolved so much on race. Mississippi has, too."
Source.
McCain's connection in Ole Miss. His ancestors used to own slaves, I guess this explains his contempt for anyone who isn't white or male
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
CARROLL COUNTY, Miss. -- His older cousin remembers the way young Johnny McCain, not yet 10, would walk down a Mississippi country road to the general store near the family plantation.
"Johnny would keep his eyes straight ahead, always straight ahead, never saw anybody else walk like that," recalls Elizabeth Spencer, a renowned novelist whose grandfather, John Sidney McCain, was "Johnny's" great-grandfather. "He was such an attractive little boy then and very bright."
When McCain, now a Republican senator from Arizona running for president, faces Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama in Friday's debate in Oxford, it will represent a homecoming of sorts. Much will be made of the historical significance of Ole Miss hosting the first presidential debate featuring a black man, but there is also meaning in McCain, a man with deep roots in the Mississippi soil, coming to Ole Miss.
That great-grandfather linking McCain to Spencer was once a sheriff here in Carroll County, and McCain's grandfather -- the novelist's uncle -- attended the University of Mississippi in 1901-02 before eventually landing at the Naval Academy, on his way to becoming an Admiral. The military training ground near Grenada is called Camp McCain, and the Meridian Naval Air Station features McCain Field, named for his grandfather.
Ole Miss honors the family with both a McCain Hall and a McCain Plaza.
Curtis Wilkie, a journalism professor at Ole Miss, recalls a dinner held at Ole Miss in 2005 after McCain spoke at the Ford Center, where the debate is being held.
"In kind of a lull, I said, 'Senator, how would you like to come to Ole Miss, assuming you win the nomination, and participate in a debate here?'" Wilkie said. "McCain said, 'Yeah, I think it would be a great idea' or something along those lines."
McCain himself was born in the Panama Canal Zone and was a Navy brat. At the Merrill Building Museum on the Town Square in Carrollton, an exhibit featuring McCain family memorabilia includes a 1936 photo of the presidential candidate as an infant in Panama, held by his admiral grandfather.
As recalled by Spencer, now 86 and living in Chapel Hill, N.C., "Johnny" McCain spent most of World War II living with his mother and siblings here in Carroll County, on the old McCain plantation, known as "Teoc."
McCain's autobiography devotes only four pages to his Mississippi roots, and when McCain embarked on a personal history tour earlier this year by beginning in Meridian, he emphasized the military heritage over family history.
Such was McCain's military focus that, before reporters presented him with evidence showing otherwise during the 2000 presidential primary, he had told crowds, "I have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy, none of whom owned slaves."
When Salon.com reporters told McCain that documents showed his great-great-grandfather, William Alexander McCain, had owned 52 slaves at Teoc, he expressed surprise.
"I didn't know that," McCain said at the time. "I knew they had sharecroppers. I did not know that."
Spencer, whose Pulitzer Prize-finalist novel "Voice at the Back Door" stirred controversy for its depiction of race in 1950s Mississippi, said it was the first she had heard of that report.
"Johnny couldn't have felt that, because he stayed at Teoc in World War II and there were still many slave descendents," Spencer said.
She said McCain plantation slave descendents have long held reunions every other year at Teoc, and that she was at this summer's event with John's brother, Joe.
"I think John was fibbing when he said he didn't think they owned slaves," Spencer said.
The McCain campaign did not respond to a list of submitted questions.
Spencer does remain deeply fond of her cousin, and speaks very warmly of his mother, Roberta, and his siblings.
"But I must tell you that I am a Democrat and I am not going to vote for president," she said. "Because I just cannot vote against John."
And while Spencer cannot help but appreciate what she calls the "historical irony" of Mississippi hosting the first presidential debate involving a black man, she insists the character and accomplishments of both men demonstrate they have transcended superficial characterizations -- and marvels that the country and her home state have, too.
"I mean, 55 years ago someone like John McCain would be telling (a black man) to go out and cut him some kindling," Spencer says. "This country has evolved so much on race. Mississippi has, too."
Source.
McCain's connection in Ole Miss. His ancestors used to own slaves, I guess this explains his contempt for anyone who isn't white or male