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But the Free Beacon reports that nearly every central claim in Moore’s story falls apart when matched against historical evidence.
Moore’s maternal great-grandfather, the Rev. Josiah Johnson Thomas, did indeed serve as a minister in South Carolina during the early 1920s. However, church records show he preached at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Pineville, South Carolina—roughly 65 miles north of Charleston, not in the city Moore frequently references.
More importantly, there is no evidence that Thomas was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, condemned racism in a way that drew violent retaliation, or fled the country under threat. Church archives show no record of intimidation, danger, or emergency surrounding his departure.
Instead, Episcopal Church records cited by the Free Beacon indicate that Thomas formally transferred from South Carolina to Jamaica on December 13, 1924. The move followed standard church procedures and occurred after Thomas was selected to replace a prominent Jamaican pastor who had died unexpectedly the week prior.
There is no documentation suggesting Thomas was chased out of the United States or forced to leave secretly. While the Ku Klux Klan was active in South Carolina during that era, historical mapping from Virginia Commonwealth University shows the group never operated a chapter in Pineville.
Despite this, Moore has expanded the story over time. During a 2020 appearance on Andrew Yang’s podcast, Moore claimed the Klan ran his grandfather and “the rest of my family out of this country, not just out of Charleston, South Carolina.” Time magazine later echoed an even more dramatic version in 2023, reporting that Moore’s great-grandfather had been “targeted for lynching.”
Moore repeated that account during a commencement address at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania last May, telling graduates that his grandfather was “chased away by the Ku Klux Klan” because “my great-grandfather was a vocal minister in the community.”
“Being Black and outspoken was a crime—even if it wasn’t on the books,” Moore said. “So, in the middle of the night, they fled. My grandfather may have been just a boy… but he never forgot what happened that night.”
But church records reviewed by the Free Beacon tell a very different story. They show Thomas was officially “transferred” to Jamaica through a formal Episcopal process involving multiple layers of approval—hardly the mark of a hurried escape.
“Typically, when a clergy member moves from one diocese to another, it is at the request of the clergy member, who works in concert with the new parish,” said Amy Evenson, an archivist at the national Episcopal Archives in Austin, Texas. “All parties must agree that the move is advantageous, which is then approved by the Bishop.”
Contemporaneous reporting from Jamaica’s Daily Gleaner further undermines Moore’s claims. When Thomas returned to Jamaica, the newspaper made no mention of racial violence, threats, or the Klan. Instead, it reported that he “laboured in the States for a number of years, and like many other Jamaicans he has returned to his native land to work among his people.”
Far from living in fear, Thomas quickly re-entered public life. Shortly after his arrival, the island’s governor appointed him as a marriage officer—an unlikely role for someone who had just fled political persecution.
Photo: Elvert Barnes
The Free Beacon also found no evidence that Thomas’s sermons provoked Klan hostility. In fact, South Carolina Bishop William Guerry—who personally ordained Thomas in 1923—described the Pineville church as well-respected by the surrounding white community. After Thomas’s departure, Guerry reported in 1925 that the church’s “colored work” was thriving, with no reference to threats or intimidation.
This latest revelation adds to a growing list of biographical inconsistencies surrounding Moore. As previously reported, Moore has falsely claimed to be born and raised in Baltimore, asserted induction into a Maryland College Football Hall of Fame that does not exist, and said he received a Bronze Star he never earned. He has also made academic claims about Oxford University that remain undocumented.
While Moore’s family story reaches back more than a century, the paper trail surrounding his great-grandfather is extensive and clear. Taken together, the records describe a respected clergyman making a routine church transfer—not a family fleeing the Ku Klux Klan under cover of darkness.
For a politician whose brand relies heavily on personal narrative, the gap between story and documented fact is raising serious questions.
