Dwight D. Eisenhower had black ancestry via his maternal side, Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower; it was used politically against him by his opponents.
Ida Link’s mother — Elizabeth Link (Eisenhower’s maternal grandmother) has no known family tree:
Why are her parents listed as “unknown”?
She’s a genealogical dead end. But no one is a genealogical dead end unless someone wants them to be.
She was born in Mount Sidney, Virginia,[1] the only daughter of Elizabeth Ida Juda Link and Simon P. Stover.
Here’s the problem: In Mount Sidney to this day there are both black families and white families with the surname “Link”.. Many years ago, a black researcher discovered that Ida’s mother was from the black Links a fact washed away in time by two things:
1. Her mother died when she was five years old.
2. She went to live with a white family after.
3. She moved to Kansas while in her teens.
4. She married a white man.
It is really none of our business but the story depicts the wisdom and the ignorance of priviledge and its lack. Would they submit to DNA evidence to verify this? Again it isn;t that important but what people of colour know visually, and a sense that something isn’t right, the white mas has to have an investigation to figure out that same reality.
I am a relative of Dwight Eisenhower. My grandmother was his first cousin and my great-grandfather is the brother of Ida, the woman pictured. I have a copy of a photograph of Ida’s father in my bedroom. He appears totally white. There is no family history of black relatives.
The author of this website says that Ike was accused of being black during his lifetime but offers no citations or evidence other than his assertion. Furthermore, even if he finds such citations of people saying that Ike has black ancestry, what proof did they cite supporting that assertion. You need more than just “she looks black in the picture to say that there is black ancestry.
I have had genealogical testing and it showed 2% North African ancestry. However, one cannot infer from that that the 2% is shared with Ike’s ancestry or that there is Sub-Saharan African ancestry in me, although, of course, everyone has African roots and some DNA shared with all Sub-Saharan Africans.
Believe me, if she had Negroid features, there was recent and close black DNA within her makeup.
All whites are mixed with 1/4 of an ounce of black blood. So they’re black.
Now there is a real contradiction if you’re white you’re white if you colored your colored or black as they say now days if you have some Ancestry that’s white or colored or mixed that doesn’t make you pure one race or pure the other race
Paul- My great Grandmother is a distant cousin of Dwight Eisenhower, Its in fact my Great Grandmothers Maiden name. Do you have any info on the family?
Saying, “I had a DNA test completed” means nothing.
DNA passed from mother to daughter will not show the grandfathers DNA and DNA passed from father to son will not reveal the grandmothers genetic markers.
Nice try, but your comment is meaningless.
2% North African ancestry is still Black. Get a grip man.
No, there is many nationalities in North Africa- like there are many Nationalities in the U. S. + will over the world.
I googled “did Eisenhower have Black ancestry?”, after watching a DVD about him. When I saw his mom’s picture and his younger photos, it was clear to me. Even a blind man could see it.
Well well so a man who might be or not be black led the troop to victory in ww2 but refused to honor or report the massacre of squad of black soldiers by the Germans in Belgium
Obama is mixed but he black there is questions about others president
HOORAY for a drop of black blood
Hip Hip Hooray
My great, great grandmother was a slave in Virginia. One of the secrets handed down through my mother’s side of the family was “when the master would rape us and we had a baby at the same time the white wife had a baby of the same gender, and we had the nurse the white baby as an infant just born, we would switch those babies so that the slave child could be free”. I am proud of my black skin, wavy hair and blue eyes. Our family have some that look exclusively white to beautiful dark brown; what a blessing it is for us and we are all thankful for our diversity.
The curious case, although it may seem logical on the other hand, that many families descended from Germans had changed their surname during the Great War, that of being more papist than the Pope in hostile territory, or at least, to appear. The family of Eisenhower, general and commander-in-chief of the allied troops in Europe (and later president of EUU), was of those, because the original German surname is “Eisenhauer”.
It is well known his family was from Sweden on his father’s side, his mother was a Stover, which is from Switzerland
My grandfather, Robert R. Branson looked exactly like President Eisenhower in the late 1950’s. He was from Letcher Co., Ky. He is buried there in a family cemetery in Blackey. Although his family did not own slaves at anytime a few blacks are buried there on the opposite side of the cemetery. It was an act of charity and friendship I was told. Blacks worked in the mines there too. My grandfather is suppose to be of Scotch Irish heritage. Since they looked so similar I wonder now if he had German or even black ancestry. There are German’s of the Black Forest region who have black hair and brown eyes. My grandfather had red hair and green eyes. He also had a receding hair line like President Ike. His family would not claim German ancestry if they had it because of the two World Wars.