English Alum Spenser Simrill's Blueprint for Racial Healing

By Spenser Simrill Jr

What happens when you find your ancestors on the wrong side of history? In 2013, I was teaching an ancestry course at UGA when I discovered a horrible truth: my great-great grandfather belonged to the Ku Klux Klan in York County, South Carolina. Tom Simrill was eighteen-years old when he terrorized a crippled man, Rev. Elias Hill, a voting-rights advocate who would lead 166 freedmen to the promised land of Liberia. 

“No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white . . . or black,” Toni Morrison says. I was thirty-seven when I first realized that I was truly white, and it was sickening to know that my family’s freedom had come at another’s expense.

My ancestry course was inspired by Henry Louis Gates’ show on PBS and a study at Emory that a knowledge of family history is the best indicator of academic success and emotional resilience. Inside I was a nervous wreck. At home we never talked about a legacy of slavery and racial terrorism. It was a crime forgotten. 

You can imagine the jolt of the shock and fear when I received a “friend suggestion” for Michael Simril, a black man my age who spelled his name with one-L—S-I-M-R-I-L. Michael was from Rock Hill, South Carolina just like my dad, and there was something about him that was intensely familiar.

The mouse hovered over the blue button for “add friend”—my hand was shaking—I could not press it. Had my ancestors enslaved Michael's? It seemed likely. And if so, Michael might want to know me. I mean, if I were him, would I? No, I'm not sure that I would.

I needed to know the whole story. In 1860, Tom Simrill’s father, Hugh Simril, owned and enslaved 26 people in York County along the waters of Allison Creek. The family was doing well materially. Most of the enslaved were kin to Elias Hill. Had Elias not contracted polio when he was a boy, he, too, would have belonged to the Simrills’.

Elias Hill did not renounce politics. Instead his testimony helped President Grant declare martial law and bring the Klan to justice. Elias Hill’s niece, Harriet Simril also testified against the Klan in federal court. She gave up the chance at a new life in Liberia for the hope of a better life here. 

Did Michael and the Black Simrils know about Elias and Harriet? It seemed doubtful because much of this information was not in history books. The essential link—their family connection—could only be found in my family’s records, newly digitized on Ancestry.com. I believe that truth must precede reconciliation. It is incumbent for white descendants of slaveholders to know their history and to share their findings. Reparations begins at home. 

No, I didn’t friend Michael on Facebook. Instead I sent a letter to everyone in the Carolinas with a version of the Simrill name. No one responded, and, to be honest, a part of me was relieved. Perhaps the letter was too painful or too close to home. A week passed, and my dad and I decided to make some phone calls. What happened next was truly extraordinary. 

In March 2024, Audible released an 8-episode docuseries on the Simril-Simrill journey towards racial reconciliation. “Once Removed: An American Family Reunion” features historic reenactments, scholarly interviews, family testimonies, narration by Elvis Mitchell and an original soundtrack produced by T Bone Burnett.

In September 2025, CNN aired  “The Simril(l)s: A Family in Black and White” as part of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, a five-time Emmy Award-winning CNN Original program.

Writer, filmmaker, and award-winning educator, DR SPENSER SIMRILL JR was born on Koinonia Farm, the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity. For many years, he taught at the University of Georgia where he earned his PhD. His research has led to peace walks in Liberia and Northern Ireland and to the first historical marker in South Carolina to mention the Ku Klux Klan. Spenser lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his wife and children and teaches at Christ School. 

A musician, community organizer, and stylist, MICHAEL SIMRIL hails from Rock Hill, South Carolina, his ancestral home. During the Revolutionary War, his enslaved forebears made cannonballs for the Patriot army. During Reconstruction, they testified against the Ku Klux Klan in federal court before migrating to Liberia, West Africa. In his free time, Michael enjoys genealogy, fishing, meditation, and spending time with his children and grandchildren.