Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke on Sunday disclosed that he and his wife are both descended from slave owners.

The former congressman from El Paso said the revelation “only increases the urgency I feel to help change this country so that it works for those who have been locked-out of — or locked-up in — this system.”

O’Rourke revealed the information in a post on Medium and in an email to supporters around the same time The Guardian posted a story saying it informed O’Rourke that “abundant documentation exists of his and his wife Amy’s ancestors’ slave-owning and their support for the Confederacy.” O’Rourke told the newspaper that his family knew nothing about the ties until The Guardian contacted him.

In the email, he revealed that he was given documents showing that his paternal great-great-great grandfather had two women, Rose and Eliza, listed as possessions.

Credit by - The Texas tribune

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