LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — As we celebrate Back History Month, one Las Vegas man says looking into his family's history helped him learn more about himself and led to some interesting discoveries.
I talked to a local historian Minister Stretch Sanders, who's diving into his family's ties to slavery and discovered a long-lost distant relative who lives here in Las Vegas.
Everyone's family has an interesting story.
Sanders is a local Black historian, community organizer, and activist known for his work across the Valley. Lately, one of his hobbies has been keeping him busy.
"That is the thing about genealogy is you never know what is in the closet," he said.
He's learned a lot by looking into his family's own history.
"For the last 10 years, I have been tracing my family back trying to find information on the one who started our family during enslavement and after enslavement," he said.
He told me his family's stories have been passed down through generations by word of mouth, but by digging through records, he learned a lot more.
"I discovered I am a direct descendant of the family who owned my family in enslavement," he said.
Sanders said Fred Jordan is his fourth great-grandfather and he owned a large plantation in Pachuta, Mississippi.
Sanders said Jordan had a child with a slave on the plantation, and that child was Sanders's third great-grandfather Nick.
"I think the interesting part for my family is we are direct descendants of an enslaver and he had a Black son and he gave 125 acres of land that we owned until 1990," Sanders said.
Sanders's family eventually moved to Chicago and later some moved to Las Vegas. It's here where he met his coworker Michele Caro.
"I discovered that my coworker Ms. Michele, she is also a genealogist," Sanders said. "I was intrigued. I wanted to know if you are related to this man and when she started doing some homework, I let her know that this man is an enslaver but he is also my direct ancestor. It turns out we are related."
Together they learned that generations before Fred Jordan, Sanders's and Caro's family trees have family ties.
"My great grandfather who connects us, no idea. They were all New Englanders as far as I knew. I had no idea," Caro said.
"I think it is an awesome story," Sanders said. "I think it is one of the things that was buried. I am sure Fred Jordan is flipping in his grave."
"Even my cousins in the South say that is so cool," Caro said. "They say when we have reunions is he going to come?"
Sanders is planning a big family gathering in Mississippi.
"We are doing a national reunion. It is this year in July with all the descendants of the woman that Fred Jordan owned, her name is Kizzy," Sanders said.
It's taking place at Mount Jordan Church in Pachuta, named after the family.
He said hundreds of descendants are planning to go, including Caro.
"Even invited her to our reunion and other family members," Sanders said. "That is what it is about. It is about taking something that has an ugly, dirty past but you clean it up with something great, which is unity."
He said on Black History Month, he hopes his story can inspire others to learn more about their past.
"I look at this as a moment of healing. Martin Luther King Jr. said that one day he hopes that the descendants of slaves and descendants of slave masters can join together in brotherhood, and that is what this is."
