Report: Obama ancestors owned slaves
The researcher, William Addams Reitwiesner, says the discovery is part of his first draft of research into Obama's roots. Obama's father was from Kenya, and his mother was a white woman from Kansas.
Obama wrote in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, that while one of his great-great-grandfathers was a decorated Union soldier, family rumors also say he is distantly related to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.
The Baltimore Sun first reported Reitwiesner's work and asked genealogical experts to review it, but they would not confirm the findings.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator's ancestors "are representative of America."
Reitwiesner found that two other presidential candidates were descendants of slave owners -- Republican John McCain and Democrat John Edwards.
The New York Daily News reported recently that genealogists say relatives of former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond appear to have owned the ancestors of civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
AP