Tucker Carlson in Bedminster, N.J., July 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Most people know Tucker Carlson as a conservative news commentator who was most recently ousted from his longtime post at Fox News. But according to religious leader Bishop Talbert Swan, what many people don’t know is that the right-wing commentator may also hail from a slavemaster family.
It seems Carlson is related to Cornelius Ennis, who is believed to have been a slave owner.
In an exclusive interview with The Moguldom Nation, Swan explained how he discovered this information.
“My brother and I do a lot of genealogical research. We found evidence that Tucker Carlson is the descendant of Cornelius Ennis, former mayor of Houston, Texas,” said Swan. “(He is) the person for whom Ennis, Texas, is named after. He was a slave, owner, and a Confederate blockade runner.”
Bishop Swan served as a youth minister at the Spring of Hope Church Of God In Christ before founding the Solid Rock Church Of God In Christ in 1994. In January 2009, the Solid Rock and Spring of Hope Churches merged, and Rev. Swan was installed as pastor on May 31, 2009.
A community activist, Swan also serves as prelate of the Greater Vermont Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, president of the Greater Springfield NAACP, and a member of the Hate Crimes Task for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
His brother is Dr. Jonathan Swan, an educator, former teacher, and principal in the Springfield, Massachusetts, school system. He is the former assistant superintendent in the Hartford public school system. He is the director of school supports for the Veritas Preparatory Charter School.
Tucker was dismissed from Fox News on April 24, 2023, when the network canceled his popular show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which he hosted from 2016 to 2023. The network did not include a reason for Carlson’s termination in its press statement. But many speculate it has to do with leaked messages Tucker made that were racist in nature. It didn’t help matters that the network was in the middle of a billion-dollar defamation trial.
The text messages by Carlson revealed his “inflammatory views about violence and race,” The New York Times reported. The Fox board was not happy about the messages and the damage they could do to the trial and to the network publicly. Almost immediately after Fox News agreed to settle the defamation lawsuit over election misinformation, the network abruptly fired Carlson, who has been described as a leading voice of white grievance politics.
Swan said he and his brother made the connection between Carlson and Ennis.
“My brother started doing some quick searches and found what he thought was a slave-owning ancestor (to Carlson Tucker),” explained Swan.
“I jumped into the search with him and confirmed that Cornelius Ennis was definitely related and that he owned slaves in Texas and Louisiana. We did some further research and found out that he was the former mayor of Houston, owner of the Ennis railroad, and the person for whom Ennis, Texas, is named. We also found out that he was a blockade runner for the Confederacy,” said Swan.
Swan said he and his brother were curious about Carlson’s heritage given the pro-Donald Trump TV pundit‘s anti-immigration stance and his history of racist rants.
“It was Tucker Carlson‘s blatant racism that prompted my brother to do some research on his background. We had done genealogical research on our family, going back a decade or more, and have become accustomed to what resources to use,” said Swan.
“Meet Cornelius Ennis, Tucker Carlson’s 3x great-grandfather. He was a SLAVE OWNER, cotton shipper, railroad exec, and Mayor of Houston. Ennis, TX, is named for him. During the Civil War, he was a blockade runner for the Confederacy. White supremacy is in @TuckerCarlson’s DNA,” tweeted Swan.
Cornelius Ennis was born September 26, 1813 in Belleville, New Jersey, and died February 13, 1899. According to accounts, he was a cotton shipper and railroad executive who once served as Mayor of Houston, Texas. His shipping business ran Union blockades during the American Civil War, according to the Texas State Historical Association. In 1834, he moved to New York City and started work in a drugstore. In 1939 he opened his own drugstore in Houston.
He teamed with another businessman named George W. Kimball to expand the business and made their first shipment of cotton to Boston in 1841. He soon got into the railroad business. He started and was on the Houston and Texas Central Railway board of directors in 1853. Politics was next, and he became the Mayor of Houston in July 1856 and served until December 1857. During the Civil War, he shipped cotton to Cuba and to England through Mexico despite the Union Navy’s blockade. While it is challenging to research, Swan and his brother found that Ennis seemed to have owned slaves.
“The 1860 Census Slave Schedule shows @TuckerCarlson’s 3x great grandfather, Cornelius Ennis, former mayor of Houston, blockade runner for the Confederacy, and man for whom Ennis, TX is named, as the owner of at least 16 slaves in Harris, TX. He also owned slaves in Louisiana,” Swan tweeted.
When asked why he thought the mainstream media had not covered Carlson’s slave-master ancestry, Swan answered, “For some reason, family background and connections seem to only be important with the media trying to discredit Black people, particularly those that are victims of police abuse or extrajudicial murder. I am not surprised that white-run media has not exposed the racist heritage of one of their colleagues. There’s no telling how many others in the industry have similar backgrounds in their families.”
Despite the lack of mainstream media coverage, Swan said it is important for people to know Carlson’s heritage.
“Tucker Carlson‘s connection to slaveowners is particularly important. Given his overt racism, dismissal of the racist history of America, and rejection of the notion that reparations are owed to the descendants of enslaved Black people. Especially since his family would be personally responsible,” said Swan.
“According to the TX State Historical Association, Mayor Cornelius Ennis was born in 1813 in NJ, the same as@TuckerCarlson ’s 3x great grandfather. His family came to NJ from Ireland, the same as Carlson‘s family. He married Jeanette Kimball, the name of Carlson‘s 3x great-grandmother,” tweeted Swan.
Tucker Carlson attends the final round of the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J., July 31, 2022. A racist text message from Tucker Carlson is what helped drive the commentator’s ouster from Fox News, The New York Times reports. The Times says that in a text uncovered as part of a recent defamation lawsuit, the former Fox host lamented how supporters of former President Donald Trump ganged up to beat a protester. “It’s not how white men fight,” Carlson wrote. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
