Over 100 members of the last sitting US Congress are direct descendants of ancestors who enslaved Black people, according to a Reuters investigation. This represents at least 8% of Democrats in Congress and 28% of Republicans. The slaves owned by these ancestors included more than 700 people who Reuters found were enslaved by ancestors of the political leaders.
The Congressional slaveholding ancestors were among the richest in America before the Civil War, with three-quarters being among the richest 10%. The group includes Republican senators Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and James Lankford, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. Furthermore, President Joe Biden and every living former US president except Donald Trump are direct descendants of slaveholders, including Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Reuters also found that governors of 11 of the 50 US states in 2022 were descendants of slaveholders, as were two US Supreme Court justices. Some 23% of respondents to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll said knowing that a candidate’s ancestors enslaved people would make them less likely to vote for that candidate, and white respondents who said they’re aware of having a slaveholding ancestor were more likely than other white people to support paying reparations for slavery.
The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles were upheld in the investigation.
Lawrence Delevingne, the author of the article, works primarily on enterprise stories related to finance. He joined Reuters in 2015 and previously reported for CNBC.com and Absolute Return. Delevingne is a graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.
Original Story at www.reuters.com – 2023-06-27 10:22:00
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