Birmingham native and civil rights activist Angela Davis, known as a part of the Black Power movement of the early 1970s, was shocked to learn that she is descended from a passenger on the Mayflower, one of the first settlers in America.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of the PBS program, “Finding Your Roots,” revealed Davis’ ancestry on a show that aired Tuesday night.

Davis’ 10th great-grandfather, tracing back through her father’s white father, Murphy Jones, was William Brewster, born in England in about 1570, Gates said.

Gates had Davis read about Brewster, who sailed in 1620 as one of the first settlers in America.

“That is a list of passengers on the Mayflower,” Gates said.

“No, I can’t believe this,” Davis said. “My ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower.”

“You are descended from one of the 101 people who sailed on the Mayflower,” Gates said.

Davis, who grew up in Birmingham, also traces back, through her mother’s side, to a Revolutionary War soldier, Stephen Darden, who played fife and drums for the fourth Virginia regiment in the 1770s, but then moved to Georgia and became a slave owner, Gates said.

“I always imagined my ancestors as the people who were enslaved,” Davis said. “It makes me even more committed to struggling for a better world.”

Davis noted the irony of her ancestor’s role in the Revolutionary War and his role in slavery.

“The American Revolution should have gone further than it did,” she said. “So many people have called those of us who try to fight against racism and who have visions of a more radical democracy as un-American. I’ve always insisted that the best way to pay tribute to this country is to try to change it and allow it to develop into the kind of place where anyone can be free and equal and happy.”

It took DNA testing to solve the mystery of her mother’s ancestry.

Her mother, Sallye Bell, grew up in a foster home and never knew her biological parents.

Through DNA, Gates was able to find Davis’ white first cousins.

Her mother’s father was John Austin Darden, a white lawyer from Goodwater who served as a state representative and senator in the Alabama Legislature from 1914-33. He was also publisher of the Goodwater Enterprise newspaper.

Gates shared profile photos of Davis’ mother alongside a photo of John Darden.

“It’s really amazing,” Davis said of the resemblance.

“The barbershop would have convicted the brother right there,” Gates said. “She looks like her daddy.”

A news report of Darden’s death mentioned his white family, but not his Black family.

Davis said her mother would have liked to have known her white relatives.

“My mother was so open and so gracious and always willing to look for the good in people,” she said.

Davis said she was glad the mystery of her mother’s family was partially revealed.

“I’m glad, but I’m also really angry,” she said.

Gates also revealed that Davis’ father, Benjamin Frank Davis, who was born in 1909 in Linden in Marengo County, knew that his father was a white man, Murphy Jones. Davis said her father never revealed that to her.

Murphy Jones had a long relationship and multiple children with Davis’ grandmother, Mollie Spencer, who was born in 1869 in Marengo County.

Mollie’s father, Isom Spencer, was born into slavery in 1824 on a Marengo County cotton plantation. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Isom Spencer went to court in 1866 and filed a complaint that the plantation owner continued to hold his nephews and nieces in unpaid bondage. A judge ruled in the plantation owner’s favor, saying the arrangement was beneficial to the children. Isom Spencer continued to fight, and finally the Freedmens Bureau of the federal government ordered that the children be released from the plantation and turned over to their family.

The full episode of “Finding Your Roots,” which also features former Homeland Security director Jeh Johnson, who also has roots in Alabama, can be viewed on PBS.

Davis received the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Fred L. Shuttlesworth Award in 2020, after it was initially rescinded over complaints about her support for Palestinians, then reinstated.