posted on December 13, 2003 08:06:33 PM new
Woman Says She's Strom Thurmond's Child
A 78-Year-Old Retired Schoolteacher Says She's Strom Thurmond's Illegitimate Mixed-Race Daughter
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES Dec. 13 — A 78-year-old retired schoolteacher is coming forward after years of silence to claim she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, her attorney said Saturday.
Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who lives in Los Angeles, had long been rumored to be the daughter of the one-time segregationist, who died June 26 at the age of 100. She is coming forward now at the urging and encouragement of her children, attorney Frank K. Wheaton said.
"She's decided to come forward to bring some closure to what has been thought to be an old family secret," Wheaton told The Associated Press.
"We're not trying to upset the Thurmond estate. We are merely bringing closure to Essie Mae's life, so her children have an opportunity to know from where they come, whether those ancestors are black or white matters not. It is part of our American history."
Williams told The Washington Post that Thurmond privately acknowledged her as his daughter and had provided financial support since 1941. The Post first reported her claims on its Web site Saturday.
Williams, who has scheduled a news conference in Columbia, S.C., on Wednesday, previously denied rumors that Thurmond, the nation's oldest and longest-serving senator, was her father.
"There was an agreement between the parties that she would never discuss the fact that Sen. Thurmond was her father," another of Williams' attorneys, Glenn Walters, told The AP. "He never denied that Ms. Washington-Williams was his daughter."
Walters said Williams was not seeking money and did not want to challenge Thurmond's will: "She simply wants the truth about her life to be told."
Those close to Thurmond said they were unsure about Williams' claim.
"I really don't know anything about that story, so you'll need to talk to someone else," said Thurmond's widow, Nancy Moore Thurmond. The couple separated in 1991.
"I certainly have no answer one way or the other," said Bettis Rainsford, a longtime family friend. "I'm sure the senator may have sowed some wild oats in his early days, but certainly I have no information about that."
Doris Strom Costner, a distant cousin of Thurmond's, said she doesn't think the claim is true.
"I don't appreciate anyone coming forth after he's dead, you know? It doesn't make good sense," Costner said.
Williams told the Post she waited until now to go public with her story because she didn't want to embarrass herself or hurt Thurmond's career.
"I want to bring closure to this," she said. "It is a part of history."
In seven decades of politics, Thurmond gained fame and infamy as an arch-segregationist, but he later came to support a holiday for the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
Williams claims Thurmond fathered her long before his political career started, when he was a 22-year-old living in his parents' home in Edgefield, S.C. Her mother, then 16, had been working as a maid in the Thurmonds' home.
If challenged by the Thurmond family, Williams is ready to submit to DNA tests, Wheaton said.
Williams said she has documents to validate her claim, including cashier's check stubs, mementos from Thurmond and a letter from an intermediary who delivered money from the senator. She provided the Post with a copy of a 1998 Thurmond letter thanking her "for the nice Father's Day note you sent me."
She told the newspaper she received money at least once a year in sessions arranged by Thurmond's Senate staff. In recent years, as the senator's health declined, she said, financial assistance was passed through a Thurmond relative in South Carolina.
Wheaton said the amount of money Thurmond provided over the years was "a very substantial amount" but less than $1 million.
Williams' mother, Carrie Butler, was unmarried when she gave birth to her in 1925. Butler's neighbors in the impoverished section of Edgefield helped feed and clothe the child, according to Post interviews with local residents.
Butler's sister, Essie, took the child when she was 6 months old to live with a married aunt, Mary Washington, in Coatesville, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb.
Williams told the Post she first met Thurmond around 1941, when she returned to Edgefield for a visit at age 16. Her mother was suffering from an untreatable kidney disease and insisted on introducing her to her father, Williams said.
In a meeting lasting 20 to 30 minutes, Williams said, Thurmond called her a "very lovely daughter."
"I was very happy. I knew I had a father somewhere, and it was wonderful to meet him."
Williams claims she had another conversation with Thurmond in 1947, when he was governor of South Carolina and a year away from running for president on a Dixiecrat platform of segregation.
"He asked her directly, 'How does it feel to be the daughter of the governor and not be able to tell anyone about it?'" Wheaton said. "She said it felt fine."
Associated Press writer Jacob Jordan in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.
posted on December 13, 2003 09:19:01 PM new
The problem I have is with people coming forward with these 'admissions' after the person dies. She is 78? and just coming forward now? Suspicious
posted on December 13, 2003 10:23:20 PM new
Look at Lindbergh's illegitamite German kids--he's been dead for 30 years, and theyjust had their identities proved through DNA Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on December 13, 2003 10:31:49 PM new
I know bunni and it does say they are willing to do the DNA test, if challenged. I think the family should challenge...that's all.
Put it to rest one way or the other.
We all know there were many white men, now 'well aged' especially during the slavery days, who slept with colored women. Doubt many would be willing to admit this....even today.
The only reason this made the news is because of how Strom Thurmond felt about blacks....way back when. Would be no different if we were to read a similar story about the ol' Byrd when he passes on.
posted on December 13, 2003 11:31:04 PM new
Wouldn't surprise me - lots of guys felt they were good for sex - just not anything else. Come right down to it they feel that way about white women too.
Do the DNA and move on as it's no big revelation.
posted on December 14, 2003 07:21:49 AM new
back in the old days,arent slaves property of the master so he can do whatever he wants with them??
many do father his children who also remain slaves??
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
posted on December 14, 2003 09:58:01 AM new"We all know there were many white men, now 'well aged' especially during the slavery days, who slept with colored women. Doubt many would be willing to admit this....even today." [LindaK]
Linda, I thought the accepted term today was Black Women?
What term do you use for yourself? Colorless?
Why didn’t you use the term colorless men instead of white men?
The problem with all the self-righteous male racists and/or Bible Thumpers in the news, in the South (and some in the North too) is they so frequently get caught with their pants down. In one way or the other and for many reasons.
The Media or their colleagues know they have their hands (or penises) in the cookie jar and no one squeals.
Russ Limbaugh, Swaggert, Baker, JFK (adulterer)and so many more. I could add to the list but won’t take the time.
posted on December 14, 2003 11:30:49 AM new
I have always been interested in why its still called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Why have they changed it to the NAAAA-National Association for the Advancement of African Americans????
or the United Negro College Fund?
Personally, I always check 'other' when asked for race on any forms if they do look at that section, it always confuses the heck of them
Wanna Take a Ride? Art Bell is Back! Weekends on C2C-www.coasttocoastam.com
posted on December 14, 2003 02:27:48 PM new
A term is used until enough prejudiced people use it with a sneer and then it becomes corrupted. We will continue to cycle through a bunch of different usages until they stop being used with contempt in the voice.
Reminds me of a New Yorker carton I saw from the 70's where a white guy at a cocktail party is asking a black guy - "So what are you people calling yourselves this month?"
African American is really an awkward mouthful. And there are plenty of issues that extend beyond America that other people of African origins share and there are non-black Africans so it is really not very well thought out.
It doesn't make much sense to claim to want to lose all the things that seperate you from the mainstream yet keep a label that seperates you.
Seems to me that if you went back to your ancesteral lands and wanted to be called an American African they would think you strange.
[ edited by gravid on Dec 14, 2003 02:29 PM ]
posted on December 14, 2003 03:24:55 PM new
I don't know anyone that refers to themsef as an African American. I o however know a great deal of people who refer to themselves as Blck. The only time I ever hear African American is in the media.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on December 14, 2003 08:37:15 PM new
Just like "hispanics" don't use THAT term, unless we're speaking of ourselves to non-latinos, who like to use it...it's not offensive, just sort of generic....you'll notice it's mostly anglos who are fretting about what to call people of color, not the other way around.....
___________________________________
The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.
-- P. J. ORourke (Holidays in hell, 1989)
posted on December 14, 2003 08:41:23 PM new
speaking of the "colorless" checkboxes...usually the form for latinos is "hispanic-non white", or "hispanic,non-aglo", as if you can't be a latino unless you're not white....try telling Vicente Fox that...
___________________________________
The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.
-- P. J. ORourke (Holidays in hell, 1989)
posted on December 14, 2003 10:48:42 PM new
The Thurmond issue should be good for bringing a few racists out of the bushes...they'll be the ones rushing to make denials and excuses for the old crank...of course, the denials won't have anything to do with the fact that she's black, just that she's claiming to be an out of wedlock child..It sounds like she doesn't want anything from his estate, I hope she goes thru with the DNA test, just to rub it in his fans' faces.
___________________________________
The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.
-- P. J. ORourke (Holidays in hell, 1989)
posted on December 15, 2003 04:44:59 PM new
Maybe the people running the NAACP have sense when it comes to their name?
Why spend money changing a name to another more modern socially accepted one? Just think of all the member's money that would be spent changing signs,etc.
Kinda like the enormous amount it took the Republicans to change an airport's name to Reagan from National, or a school or a government bulding's name.
I suspect the AARP would like to change their name because many of their members won't retire for 15, maybe 20 years. The members would surely pitch a fit with said spending.
Prof, the last time I was ask to give race, I checked all the boxes. We all are related anyway.
posted on December 15, 2003 05:10:14 PM new
As an old poster here once said, We all have imported blood...It's nice to think we're all more or less the same gooey mess under our multicolored sheaths.
posted on December 15, 2003 08:04:48 PM newWe all are related anyway
around here we are...cuz
___________________________________
The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then gets elected and proves it.
-- P. J. ORourke (Holidays in hell, 1989)
posted on December 16, 2003 11:27:19 AM new
When the university I worked at insisted we provide our racial identity one of the carpenters who was black as a lump of coal listed his as eskimo. They asked his foreman to verify it but the smart fellow refused to quiz him - he had a sharp tongue and would have ripped into him. I can just hear him asking if the foreman wanted to ask his mama about it.....I was jealous I didn't think of doing that.
