Black McCains

Black McCains is not a commercial brand in the ordinary sense. The name is a media-used designation for living African-American descendants of Isom McCain and Leddie McCain, who were enslaved in Teoc, Mississippi, by William Alexander McCain, a cotton plantation owner and ancestor of U.S. Senator John McCain. The descendants retain the McCain surname because it derives from that history of enslavement; they neither assert nor reject a biological relationship with Senator McCain. The family history is connected to the McCain plantation, formally known as Waverly. The plantation covered approximately 2,000 acres and operated from 1848 until 1952. Before the American Civil War it relied on enslaved labor, while after emancipation it continued through a sharecropping system. Blues musician Mississippi John Hurt was born on the property to parents associated with the later sharecropping community. Contemporary members identified in published accounts include Lillie McCain of Detroit and her relatives Charles McCain Jr. and Mary Lou McCain Fluker, who lived in Mississippi. Lillie McCain became publicly associated with the family’s history after contacting Senator John McCain following his statement on Meet the Press that his ancestors had not owned enslaved people. Senator McCain later said that he had not known about the family’s slaveholding history until reporters uncovered it during his 2000 presidential campaign. He reportedly never met the Black McCains, although relatives of his, including his brother Joseph McCain, attended family reunions in Teoc. The senator was invited to the family’s recurring reunions but did not attend, with his 2008 presidential campaign attributing his absence to scheduling conflicts. The family’s significance extends beyond genealogy. Accounts of the Black McCains emphasize their participation in African-American civic and civil-rights history in Mississippi. Charles “Jack” McCain, a World War II veteran and Lillie McCain’s father, purchased 120 acres in Teoc and divided the land with a cousin. He participated in civil-rights activity and worked with Stokely Carmichael during Carmichael’s organizing visit to Greenwood, Mississippi. The family has also been described as resisting Ku Klux Klan activity, supporting voter-registration efforts during the 1960s, helping lead local civil-rights work, and contributing to the integration of Mississippi public schools. The term therefore functions as a historical and journalistic label rather than a consumer-facing identity. Its central themes are the persistence of family history after slavery, the contested legacy of plantation ownership, African-American landownership and civic activism, and the way genealogical revelations entered the public discussion surrounding John McCain’s presidential campaigns. The family’s members have not been presented as a corporation, product line, or organized commercial enterprise.

The Black McCains are the living descendants of Isom McCain and Leddie McCain, African-American people enslaved in Teoc, Mississippi, by William Alexander McCain. William Alexander McCain was an ancestor of Senator John McCain. The descendants’ use of the McCain surname reflects the conditions under which the family was enslaved. Members of the family have not claimed or denied a biological relationship with Senator McCain; their historical connection is grounded in the plantation ownership and enslavement record. The family’s story is associated with the McCain plantation, formally called Waverly. The property covered about 2,000 acres and existed from 1848 to 1952. Enslaved labor was used before the Civil War. Following emancipation, the plantation continued to operate through sharecropping, a system under which Mississippi John Hurt was born into the later agricultural community connected with the property. Among the contemporary descendants identified in published accounts are Lillie McCain, who lived in Detroit, and siblings or relatives Charles McCain Jr. and Mary Lou McCain Fluker, who lived in Carrollton, Mississippi. Lillie McCain contacted Senator John McCain after hearing him say on Meet the Press that his ancestors had not owned slaves. Senator McCain said that he had not known about the slaveholding history until journalists uncovered it during his 2000 presidential campaign. He did not meet the Black McCains, although the family invited him to recurring reunions in Teoc. His brother Joseph McCain attended some of those gatherings, while the senator’s 2008 campaign attributed his own nonattendance to scheduling conflicts. The family’s public importance is also tied to the civil-rights history of the Mississippi Delta. Douglas Blackmon, a Wall Street Journal journalist who researched the family in 2008, described the Black McCains as participants in efforts against Ku Klux Klan activity, civil-rights organizing, voter registration, and public-school integration. Lillie McCain’s father, Charles “Jack” McCain, was a World War II veteran who acquired 120 acres in Teoc and divided the land with a cousin. He took part in the civil-rights movement and worked with Stokely Carmichael during Carmichael’s organizing activity in Greenwood, Mississippi. The name Black McCains consequently became a shorthand for a family history that intersects slavery, emancipation, sharecropping, African-American landownership, civil-rights activism, and the political legacy of a prominent white American family. It is best understood as a descriptive historical label, not as the name of an incorporated organization or consumer brand.

• 2008

  Renewed reporting on the family

  [1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  Research and reporting during John McCain’s 2008 campaign highlighted the family’s genealogy, landownership, civil-rights participation, and reunion invitations.

• 2000

  Family history enters the presidential campaign

  [1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  Reporters brought the slaveholding history of John McCain’s ancestors and the existence of the Black McCain descendants into public discussion during his presidential campaign.

• 1952

  End of the plantation’s operating period

  [1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  The plantation’s documented operating period ended after decades of slavery and later sharecropping.

• 1848

  Establishment of the Waverly plantation

  [1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  The McCain plantation in Teoc, later identified as Waverly, began its recorded period of operation on a property of roughly 2,000 acres.

• 1831

  Birth of Isom McCain

  [1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  Isom McCain, one of the ancestral figures associated with the Black McCains, was born.

A historical and media label for descendants of an African-American family connected to the McCain plantation in Teoc, Mississippi; it is not a conventional commercial brand.

• 2008

  The Black McCains receive renewed attention during John McCain’s 2008 campaign[1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  Accounts published during the 2008 presidential campaign revisited the family’s history, civil-rights activities, landownership, and relationship to John McCain’s family. A campaign statement described the Teoc descendants’ community service as an example of family resilience and civic contribution.

• 2000

  Reporters uncover the McCain family’s slaveholding history during the 2000 presidential campaign[1]Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org

  Other

  The historical connection between John McCain’s ancestors and the Black McCain descendants became publicly discussed after reporters investigated the family’s plantation history during McCain’s presidential campaign. John McCain said he had previously been unaware of the slaveholding past.

1. 1Black McCainsen.wikipedia.org