[Ads-l] [A little OT] Q: Modification of surnames post-slavery (U.S.)

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 1:32 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Is there support for Cobb's specific contention?


AFAIK, no. And I consider the assertion to be total BS.You gotta ask
yourself, "Do I feel stupid?" Why has no one else ever noticed this, before
now?

It's a story 'bout the origin of the name, _Thurgood Marshall_. Wanna heah
it? Heah 'tis. It go sumpm like dis:

One of Thurgood Marshall's ancestors was a slave known as "Marshall," who
was owned by the Thoroughgood family. He was, therefore, referenced as "Mr.
Thoroughgood's man, Marshall," when necessary. After Emancipation, instead
of following the usual custom of naming himself "Marshall Thoroughgood,"
for reasons unknown, he chose to call himself "Thoroughgood Marshall."
Naturally, behind the Cotton Curtain, _Thoroughgood_ is pronounced
"Thuhgood," ultimately resulting in the re-spelling, "Thurgood."

Godfrey Daniels! It's astonishing that Her late Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Gibbs), was able to keep her
sub-Saharan ancestry hidden, over the course of her career, despite the
fact that her surname was a dead give-away.

My maternal grandmother's maiden name was "Jones." Her ancestors were owned
by the Jone family of East Texas, you see.

"[T]his is hardly my area of expertise." Neither is it that of Jelani Cobb
- or should that be, "Cobbs"? He merely lacks your sense of modesty.


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org