Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore is facing scrutiny over a family story he has told repeatedly throughout his political career—that his great-grandfather fled South Carolina in the 1920s after being targeted by the Ku Klux Klan for preaching against racism. A Washington Free Beacon investigation published last week found historical church records and contemporary newspaper accounts that appear to contradict key elements of Moore's narrative.
Moore, who became Maryland's first Black governor in 2022 and is widely considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has shared the story in his 2014 memoir, campaign speeches, podcast interviews, and public addresses. He has described how his great-grandfather, Rev. Josiah Johnson Thomas, was forced to flee to Jamaica in the middle of the night with his family, including Moore's then-six-year-old grandfather, to escape KKK threats.
The Free Beacon report examined Episcopal Church archives, census records, and Jamaican newspaper coverage from the 1920s. According to these documents, Thomas made an orderly professional transfer from Pineville, South Carolina, to Jamaica on December 13, 1924, to replace a prominent pastor who had died unexpectedly one week earlier. Church records show the transfer followed standard Episcopal procedures requiring approval from multiple church officials.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative critics have seized on the report as evidence of a pattern of embellishment in Moore's biography. Greg Price, former Trump White House rapid response manager, posted on X that Moore "has already told more lies about his life than Elizabeth Warren." National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru wrote that "Moore is reaching Biden levels of fabulism."
The Free Beacon investigation highlighted other disputed claims in Moore's background, including that he received a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan (he did not), was inducted into the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame (an organization that doesn't exist), and completed a doctoral thesis at Oxford University (which the university has not confirmed and Moore cannot locate).
Critics argue that the detailed church records, contemporary newspaper accounts, and the timing of Thomas's departure—coinciding precisely with another pastor's death in Jamaica—make Moore's dramatic escape narrative implausible. They note that Thomas himself made no mention of KKK threats when interviewed by Jamaican newspapers about his return in 1925, instead saying he had "laboured in the States for a number of years" and returned "to work among his people."
What the Left Is Saying
Moore's spokesperson Ammar Moussa declined to provide specific evidence supporting the governor's account, instead criticizing the Free Beacon as a "partisan outlet" and defending the story as family oral history. "We're not going to litigate a family's century-old oral history with a partisan outlet," Moussa told Fox News. "The broader reality is not in dispute: intimidation and racial terror were pervasive in the Jim Crow South, and it rarely came with neat documentation."
Moussa pointed to the documented reality of racial violence in the 1920s South, noting that even Bishop William Alexander Guerry—who the Free Beacon cited regarding positive relations between Thomas's church and the white community—was later murdered "amid intense backlash tied to his racial equality work." The spokesperson emphasized that Moore remains "focused on doing the job Marylanders elected him to do."
Democratic supporters have noted that oral family histories often differ from official records, particularly for Black families in the Jim Crow era where documentation of racial violence was incomplete. They argue that the absence of written records does not disprove Moore's account, given that KKK intimidation frequently occurred without official documentation.
What the Numbers Show
According to Virginia Commonwealth University's Mapping of the Second Ku Klux Klan project, no KKK chapter operated in Pineville, South Carolina, during the 1920s. The Second Klan, active from 1915 to 1940, primarily targeted white people engaged in what it considered immoral behavior—bootleggers, adulterers, and others—according to a 1984 article in the South Carolina Historical Magazine examining Klan activities in the state during that period.
Episcopal Church records show Thomas served at the Church of the Redeemer in Pineville from 1922 to late 1924. Bishop Guerry's 1924 report to the National Council of the Episcopal Church stated the white community held Thomas's church "in high regard" for medical services provided to the Black community, with no mention of racial conflict or KKK interference.
The Jamaican Daily Gleaner reported on May 18, 1925, that Thomas was appointed to succeed Rev. George Lewis Young, who died December 6, 1924. Thomas's transfer was finalized December 13, 1924, exactly one week after Young's death—consistent with a planned professional succession rather than an emergency flight.
The Bottom Line
The discrepancy between Moore's public narrative and historical records raises questions about how political figures construct personal origin stories. Moore has not provided documentation supporting his account, while church archives and contemporary newspapers suggest a routine professional transfer. Whether this represents family mythology passed down through generations, deliberate embellishment, or incomplete historical records remains unclear. Moore's office has declined to provide family members who could verify the story or additional documentation beyond oral tradition.