Old News: Obama's Ancestors Owned Slaves (And Anderson Cooper's Peeps Owned Michelle's Folks)

Once more, we look to British tabs for the teal story.

The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday March 11 2007 

The article below was incorrect to claim that the Rev Al Sharpton's slave ancestors 'were owned by the late politician Strom Thurmond, who once stood for President on a staunchly racist, segregationalist platform'. Al Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. 

It is a question that few thought a man aiming to be America's first black President would ever have to answer: did your family once own slaves?

The Guardian:

Another forgotten revelation:

Amazingly, one of Anderson Cooper’s ancestors owned “Friendfield Plantation,” where one of Michelle Obama’s ancestors was a slave.

The New York Daily News reported in 2008: 

“Whitney Tower says Michelle Obama is welcome to visit the grave of a slave ancestor on his family’s South Carolina plantation.

One of Tower’s great-great-grandfathers was ferry and railroad baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, and one of Michelle Robinson Obama’s great-great-grandfathers was Jim Robinson, who was born a slave in 1850 at Friendfield in Georgetown, S.C.

Tower, who’s also a cousin of Anderson Cooper and is writing a memoir of addiction, ‘The Gilded Needle,’ told us: ‘After Lincoln freed the slaves, Jim Robinson stayed on and worked there. We believe he was buried there in 1888, in the African-American cemetery. Ms. Obama is welcome to visit anytime.’”