Thurmond's family `acknowledges' black woman's claim as daughter

[Purveyor]

(12-15) 12:04 PST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) --

The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family on Monday said it "acknowledges" a California woman's claim that she is his illegitimate mixed-race daughter.

"As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away and cannot speak for himself, the Thurmond family acknowledges Ms. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim to her heritage. We hope this acknowledgment will bring closure for Ms. Williams," the family's lawyer, J. Mark Taylor, said in a brief statement.

<snip>

Williams claims Thurmond fathered her when he was a 22-year-old living in his parents' home in Edgefield. Her mother, Carrie Butler, 16, had been working as a maid in the Thurmonds' home.

Raised by an aunt, Williams told the Post she first met Thurmond around 1941, when she was 16, and Thurmond called her a "very lovely daughter."

She told the newspaper she received money at least once a year in sessions arranged by Thurmond's Senate staff. Wheaton said the total over the years was "very substantial" but less than $1 million.

Associated Press Link

[CMT]

1. and all those years

he spoke out against the "inter-mingling of races"--of course this is nothing new racist slave owners used to take advantage of their slaves too--they thought it was their right.

[The Zanti Regent]

32. Hmmm, how many other Wild Oats did Strom have?

We will never know thanks to the Whore Press

BUT

If Bill Clinton did this, the Whore Press would be ALL OVER HIM!

[JackSwift]

2. The family acknowledges the claim

not the truth of the claim. Didja notice?

[loudnclear]

16. Huh, the truth of the claim is in the DNA...

Didja notice?

[DuctapeFatwa]

23. The truth of the claim is in Miss Essie's face

Now we will see what kind of folks Strom's heirs are. The lady is not asking for any money.

She should not have to ask, they are her family.

[MnFats]

3. let me get this straight...

...Old bigot Thurmond boned the FAMILY MAID and had a child, then spent his entire life railing about 'nigras' etc., etc. and doing everything in his power to stiff integration, decent schools, voting rights......

Fuggin old hypocrit.
they must have him in an even hotter level of hell than i thought.
What a pig.

[recidivist]

10. Not his entire life.

Strom was a product of his time and place. Yes, he was an opportunistic southern pol. Yes, he rode Jim Crow when that was SOP for his entire generation of southern democrats, including such luminaries as Richard Russell, Al Gore Sr., and William Fulbright.

Then came the civil rights revolution and Strom modified his views accordingly. Fritz Hollings, Bobby Byrd, and Strom Thurmond were the last of the southern old guard. Racists all, once upon a time. All changed. Their voters accepted the change. We ought not to mischaracterize the latter half of Strom's career.

Now only Byrd is left. The passing of an era, etc.

[Alenne]

14. If he had changed that much

he would not have publicly denied his daughter well after the civil rights revolution.

[CarinKaryn]

18. How dare you accuse these men of being racists!

Al Gore Sr? Robert Byrd is a sitting senator. You should be ashamed.

[recidivist]

27. Because early in their careers, they were.

As a young man, Robert Byrd was a member of the KKK. He changed. Similarly, Al Gore Sr. was a man of his time and place, a Jim Crow southern senator who voted against the Civil Rights Act. Had he remained in office, I expect he too would have changed with the times, whether sincerely or out of political necessity I cannot say. A younger Fritz Hollings is the man who put the confederate flag atop the South Carolina statehouse. The older Fritz Hollings repudiated those views.

There is more than one narrative in the Civil Rights epic. One of them is a generation of southern whites who changed their views on race. Not all, and not all changed willingly, but most have come a long, long way. Southern white politicians are a particularly interesting subset. Fifty years ago, the southern Democratic Party was solidly, institutionally racist. That is no longer the case. Southern pols who lingered in office through that transition by and large repudiated their earlier views.

[kcwayne]

21. Fact check

I don't have time to do the research to refute the assertion that Strom changed with the times, but Slate did an article on this topic earlier this year that went through it extensively. Strom voted against the Civil Rights act, and joined the Republican party when Democrats were pushing for its passage. Strom was a racist to the end.

Mahatma Ghandi was a product of those same times. Of the two, one is a hero and a champion of humanity. The other is a worthless piece of shit that should have been killed in Normandy and been buried with his Nazi brethern that shared his views on race.

[Cheswick2.0]

30. not true

Strom never changed. He continued to vote against progressive legislation his whole life.
Al Gore Sr was never a racist. He was torn between his state and his own beliefs. However the reason he voted against the 1994 legislation was that it was a very punishing bill on those states that could not comply quick enough. He felts students would be punished because of the mistake and prejudices of their parents and grandparents. Other than that he was a fairly liberal senator.
Byrd was racist early in his life. He changed.

Strom, on the other hand switched parties. He was just fine with the racist policies of Nixon's "southern stategy". He was unrepentant to the end of his days.

[kskiska]

36. I don't think Strom changed

He was just shrewd enough to see which way the wind was blowing and didn't want to jeopardize his career. He did what was politically expedient.

[styersc]

34. Statuatory rapist (he was 22 and she 16) also voted for

Clinton's Impeachment.

[saigon68]

35. spent his entire life railing about 'nigras' etc.

What a cowardly worthless piece of SHIT. His sock puppet Trent Lott lives on.

Fine SOUTHERN gentlemen all of them. Surprising he didn't have a Confederate flag, on his casket at the wake.

[Mountainman]

4. Well you know those conservative Southern gentlemen

always protecting their culture and heritage from us lying liberal infiltrators from up north.

[PinkTiger]

5. Well, to be fair, he may have been a hypocrite, but he did support her.

And it sounds as though he acknowedged her. There's a lot of men out there right now, today, who have not supported their children nor acknowledged them. Men of all colors.
Regardless of his heinous political record and his pathetic, bigotted, racist self, he at least did partially right by this woman. It would have been simple for him, back then, to say, "not me! It wasn't me who fathered that child!" They didn't have dna tests.

[David__77]

12. Was the money "support" or was it a bribe?

I wonder. I tend to think it was a bribe. Not too uncommon. Typical--the racist who has no problem having sex with a person of color. I wish this had come out before he died and was still lucid.

[Alenne]

13. Oh please

He gave that woman money so she could keep her mouth closed. He didn't start giving her anything until she was 16. He could have acknowledged her publicly before he died or in his will at least. He died publicly denying his own child.

Unfortuantely in this day we give people credit for doing half assed jobs.

[loudnclear]

17. Wonder why Strom gets a break and not Jesse J.

Most of you here are making this sound like an act of great chivalry and as I remember, Jesse J was drivin to the stake when the revelations came out about his child out of wedlock. I'm not taking up for Jesse, but I sure as hell ain't going excuse Strommie!

[bluestateguy]

6. Was Thurmond a statutory rapist?

Williams claims Thurmond fathered her when he was a 22-year-old living in his parents' home in Edgefield. Her mother, Carrie Butler, 16, had been working as a maid in the Thurmonds' home.

What was the age of consent in South Carolina? It seems possible that South Carolinians had not only a racist as their governor and senator for 50 years, but also a felon.

[amazona]

9. no the age of consent was very low back then

I thought we addressed this in another thread but the age of consent in South Carolina was 12 or 13 in that era.

I hope it does not reveal too much about my hillbilly roots to point out that it was not unknown for girls in the Carolinas to marry at that age.

I don't think the age of consent was raised until the 1970s. It has been many a year since I lived in South Carolina but I think the age of consent was still 12 when I lived there in the 1960s! Maybe some historian can check my fading memories.

There may have been some miscegenation laws still on the books in the 1920s, so Thurmond may have been a "felon" if he violated those laws. But he wasn't a statutory rapist.

[Beaker]

28. statutory??? where did it ever say that consent was given?

22 year-old rich rascist white boy gonna "fall in love" with the 16 year-old black maid?

guess again.

[LiberalFighter]

7. Very substantial?

That only amounts to $16,129 a year for 62 years.

I guess that is substantial for someone living in Mississippi.
Not in California.

[Beaker]

33. it would have been a lot in the 40's...

but she probably could have made much much more with a book deal, or a series of interviews.
It really pisses me off that strom was allowed to die without ever having to own up to this, and his own raging hypocricy, in a very public manner.
chalk up another one for the white guys.

[Skittles]

8. STROM WAS A SICK F***ING BASTARD

I WONDER WHAT HIS HAND PUPPET LOTT HAS TO SAY.

[CalebHayes]

24. Yeah baby!

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

11. I have always wondered

Was old Strom just a guy throwing money at women or was he "ENHANCED"

;) :P :)

[0007]

15. O Therm was a true to form freeper, 'eh?

[metisnation]

19. chalk em up

another hypocrite for the GOP

[young_at_heart]

20. And Trent Lott thought he would have made a great president?

So many words come to mind, the least of which is HYPOCRITE!!!

[Myra]

22. "As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away..." Convenient.

Hypocrite Pugs are protected by the media et al their entire lives,
even if they live to be a thousand like this jerk.

[kskiska]

25. They were ready to dig the SOB up. New WP article on this:

(snip)

Williams had said that, at the urging of her children, she wanted to disclose the relationship to "bring closure" to the issue during her lifetime. Wheaton insisted that she had no plans to make a claim against the senator's estate, which is now being settled in probate court.

But comments made by Wheaton and his legal associates in South Carolina had suggested other, more volatile legal strategies, including the filing of a paternity suit and a call for DNA testing, if the family challenged her claim. Wheaton had said they would go to "whatever extent" necessary to prove paternity, and in recent days, he dodged reporters' questions about whether those tactics could include a request for exhumation of the senator's remains, buried at a family plot in South Carolina. Williams's lawyers said exhumation might not be required for DNA evidence since Thurmond had regularly submitted blood samples for medical treatment and he has three surviving children by his widow, Nancy Moore Thurmond.

(snip)

In Thurmond's last years, when his health was failing, Williams said a close Thurmond relative contacted her and described in a letter how the payments would continue. She declined to release the three-page letter that explained the details of the financial arrangement.

Wheaton said Williams was reluctant to identify the relative out of hope that the family would step forward and "do the right thing."

She may not be challenging the will, but it sounds like she wants the payments to continue.



more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3207-2003Dec15.html

[UpInArms]

26. okay, call me picky, but

do all senators' staffs do these types of personal arrangements?

She told the newspaper she received money at least once a year in sessions arranged by Thurmond's Senate staff. Wheaton said the total over the years was "very substantial" but less than $1 million.

so because this racist bigoted male person conceived a child out of wedlock - the Senate staff made arrangements for payment?

So, how does that work?

[daleo]

29. More hypocrisy about sex as well

I would be interested to know if he was in the "Clinton should be impeached because he lied about sex" camp. If so, another bit of rank hypocrisy to add to the file. After all, keeping this quiet for 80 odd years, with a significant part of this time being in elected politics seems to fit the definition of lying.

[Name removed]

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