Woman now acknowledged as Thurmond's daughter explains long silence

[Purveyor]

(12-16) 18:15 PST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) --

The woman born out of wedlock to the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and a black maid nearly eight decades ago said Tuesday she kept silent about her roots until now because she cared for her segregationist father and didn't want to hurt his career.

In an interview to be aired on "60 Minutes II" on Wednesday, Essie Mae Washington-Williams said she liked her father even if they saw each other only about once a year.

<snip>

Williams, a 78-year-old retiree living in Los Angeles, has said Thurmond fathered her when he was 22 and living in his parents' home. Her mother, Carrie Butler, 16 at the time, worked as a maid in the Thurmond home.

If Williams had come forward earlier, she believes it could have destroyed Thurmond's career. In seven decades of politics, the former senator gained fame and infamy as an arch-segregationist but later came to support a holiday for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

"I think it might have hurt him and I think that would totally have changed the history," she said.


AP Link

[Purveyor]

1. One has to wonder...was "National Security" ever compromised

by this blackmailable secret?

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Strom used his Senate office and staff

to filter her support money. Seems like an abuse of power in more ways than one.

[LiberalFighter]

11. Did they use campaign money or his wages?

[hadrons]

2. so she had no problem with him fighting to keep her & mom ....

at the back of the bus? Father or not, what the hell is wrong with her?

[KC21304]

4. And if you think this was consensual sex ,

I have this ocean front property in Arizona . . .

[Zan_of_Texas]

5. look at it from her point of view

Her mother is a young maid. Her source of support is the Thurmond family at the time of her birth.

And, lordee it's South Carolina. If the mother speaks out, what do you think her chances are of getting employment in the 1920s? How much money do you think she had saved up? Where could she go?

By the time the young woman reaches adulthood, presumably the financial support system has been in place all during her childhood. She gets a chance to go to college. She has access, although severely limited, to a US Senator. If she plays the game, she has a measure of protection in a classist racist world. She doesn't make her father angry, and "ruin" him.

Especially in past decades, a child of an illegitimate pairing becomes, in a way, the proof of that pairing, and takes on the shame of the parents. He or she becomes a "bastard" although the child of course is 100% innocent. It's very difficult to be the living symbol of a sexual transgression, and not to take on the shame.

I'll be interested to see what she has to say in the interview.


So, does that mean I'm glad he got away with this giant hypocrisy? No. Absolutely not. But I'm not sure the daughter should be given the duty to expose it.

Remember, the black press exposed it years ago. The mainstream press did what they do with many hot potatoes, and buried it.

[truthspeaker]

6. my gf grew up in South Carolina and said this is old news

It was an open secret that everyone knew, it just wasn't 100% confirmed.

The South is weird.

[LizW]

12. This was known in the South

It was whispered about always.

I don't see putting the blame on this woman. She was a child, and she was in a position of vast, ingrained inequity. If she had exposed him, she and her mother would have been ruined and he would have gone on his merry way.

People in the south knew Thurmond had done this, they knew he was supporting the child, and they voted for him anyway. I don't blame the woman at all for not falling on her sword and going public. It was already public and Thurmond's white constituents didn't care.

If she "blackmailed" him all these years, then good for her.

[KC21304]

21. I agree she and her mother had no choice.

Today he would have been brought up on rape charges. Well, maybe not.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. she did much harm with her silence..

i am angry at her silence...she said, "i didn't wanna hurt my fathers political career" :puke: she could have prevented Strom from doing so much damage to people of color and the civil rights movement...she betrayed her people for an evil biggot!...she was selfish imho

[snooper2]

9. I agree to an extent...

She doesn't seem like the brightest person in the world from her quotes. Probably was scared of the old dirty POS as well.

[shanti]

15. those were my feelings about this too

after reading that particular statement from her. if she had exposed her "father's" hypocrisy early on, who knows how he might have changed?

[Blue_Roses]

24. Wait just a dog-gone minute...

"she could have prevented Strom from doing so much damage to people of color and the civil rights movement...she betrayed her people for an evil biggot!...she was selfish imho"

With all due respect, you obviously haven't lived in the south. She did what she could do to SURVIVE, yes, that's right, SURVIVE. THE SOUTH WAS NOT AND STILL ISN'T KIND TO THOSE WHO BUCK THE SYSTEM, especially, where it is a racial hot bed. Just look at what happened in Jasper, Texas a few years ago where they dragged a black man behind a truck dismembering him AND this was when GW was governor in the '90's. Can you imagine what would have happened to her if she would have spoken up? There is no way she could have "prevented" Thurman from doing anything. And by the way, do you realize that this was a "dime a dozen"? There were MANY interracial children born during this time because there was so much abuse between "employer" and "employee."

The south has a long way to go still.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

31. i was born/raised in the south 1950 i know exactly what the south is like

as a child/teen i use to get my cracker ass kicked off the bus for giving my seat up to elderly african americans...and for drinking out of "colored only" water fountians....so spare me...she did what she did for the hush money Strom was giving her

[SemperEadem]

27. can I have some of what you're smoking?

She betrayed no one. In what universe could she have prevented him from doing so much damage? Just exactly how was she going to muster up the support of the white people of South Carolina, since they owned the means by which this truth could be disseminated?

Time to quit thinking of this in blockbuster movie terms---no, it would not have changed the course of history because she didn't have the critical mass required to put this over the huge wall of resistence she would indeed have met. Don't forget---lots of people don't like to have unpleasant things brought to them which makes them feel uncomfortable and they will stop at nothing to make sure they aren't inconvenienced.

She took the only realistic route a poor black illegitimate female child could have taken under the same circumstances if she wanted a peaceful, quiet life. It wasn't her burden to take up a sword and go fight the racist dragon--that was for adults in power who had anything remotely like honor about them to do. Clearly, there were none in South Carolina around the time when this woman was conceived.

If you want to be angry at anyone, be angry at those in positions of power who stood by and did nothing toward defending the honor of this child and her mother. Be angry at those who allowed a mindset to develop where it was winked at if the men of the family were fornicating with the help right up under the women of the house's noses, with or without the complicity of said women. Many times, she knew exactly what was going on and did nothing.

Perhaps these questions need to be heaped upon the doorstep of Strom's widow. Too bad she's left to answer for her husband's posterity now that he's dead.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

32. by 1965 she was no longer a frightened child! she had already graduated

college...i guess she figured it was okay to just let others be beaten, lynched killed to protect her "fathers political career?
:shrug: i was there

[Skittles]

33. I understand her early silence

but her later silence? Absolutely not.

[rocktivity]

8. Cut the comedy, dearie

You know perfectly well that "destroying the career" of an "arch segregationist" is the most noble thing you could have done. The least you can do now is be noble enough to admit that what you were REALLY worried about was Thurmond and his loved ones detroying YOU and yours!


rocknation

[Devilock]

10. No coverage by Fox, SHOCKING

Her press conference, covered by both CNN and MSNBC, was nowhere to be seen on our beloved Fox News Channel. In fact, I have yet to see or hear any mention of the story at all, where the Ministry of the Fair & Balanced is concerned. Not that this is at all out of the ordinary.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Fox is covering it

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105695,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105820,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105972,00.html

[David__77]

16. To be fair, those are AP stories.

Other networks have done original material on the story. More importantly, I wonder if the story is covered on the actual Fox channel, as opposed to streaming AP stories on the website. CNN had an original story on it. Of course, Fox has inferior resources, and those that it does possess are dedicated to certain political purposes that don't include this story.

[Flubadubya]

14. I'm glad the woman felt enough love...

and familial loyaty for the old bastard to not want to hurt his career (and that presupposes that I believe her story, which I do).

It just shows that his progeny turned out to be of far better quality and character than his own sorry old ass. Thank god for the Afro-American genes in this woman... I'm sure they are her saving grace. It's hard to imagine she got anything worthwhile from Mr. Wrote the Book on Hypocrisy Himself Thurmond.

[Skittles]

17. HIS CAREER SHOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED

look at the damage that piece of racist shit caused

[SoCalDem]

20. But.. Strom's "supporters" probably did the same thing

or had family members who did.. This was COMMON in the south.. The black female "employees" were fair game for the men in the family.. Probably lots of mixed race people in the south had prominent "Daddies"..

They would not have held it against ole Strom :(

[southerngirlwriter]

18. She did what she had to do.

Remember, this was before DNA tests. Strom could have just denied it, and then her financial support would be cut off and she and her mom would *probably* have faced violence. It wasn't safe to be black and bad-mouth a powerful white man back then.

In some parts of the south, it still isn't.

I have a hard time faulting people for taking care of themselves the best way they know how.

[David__77]

19. I sympathize with her.

It's difficult. I do wish that in more recent years she had taken action though.

[kskiska]

22. I don't think it was up to her to blow the whistle.

I think she just wanted a father. It was the duty of the media, and they didn't do it.

I like what she said at the close of the Dan Rather interview. He said she left no doubt as to who was welcome who to the family. She said that, yeah, Nancy and her children now wanted to meet with her, but that during many of her years with her father, they weren't around – that she goes back a long way with him and was there before they ever were.

[goforit]

23. GOPrs are hypocracy masters!!!

Thurmond?..........What an a**!!!!!!

[moondust]

25. What if Bill Clinton had done something like this?

There would be no mercy. He would be imprisoned for life as a danger to society. His name would never appear in textbooks.

[Catherine Vincent]

26. What I want to know is, did anybody check Jesse Helm's past?

That racist old coot may have done the same thing!

[koopie57]

35. Wasn't thurmon one of those

who chastised Clinton unmercifully for being immoral by not turning down a hummer?

[gimme a break]

28. How is this any different?

from Thomas Jefferson. How can we jump to the conclusion that Thurman raped the mother? Maybe they loved each other. I wasn't there were you? During that time they certainly couldn't be together. He eventually became a supporter of civil rights, but no one wants to give cut him any slack prior to his change of heart.

I seriously didn't agree with many issues that this man once did. He's dead and gone. This is not the time to belittle him and his daughter as some have. I have a child that lives with me that loves his mother dearly and would do anything for her, that has nothing to do with him. He's been with me for 10 years. But that's his mom. At least Mr. Thurman aparently made attempts to do what he could. Same as Jefferson. Jefferson's "white looking" kids when to college. He did what he could for the rest. I'm sure others knew about that too.

It's easy to sit back and be an armchair quarterback on what who should have done what. But I don't see this outrage aimed at Jefferson too. And we don't know the actual family dynamics either. I just think we should be a little less judgmental since we don't have all the facts. It's been speculated on for years. Now we know a little. I'm positive that more aspects of the situation will come out soon. I will wait until I get more facts before leaping to conclusions.

[sendero]

29. I don't judge...

.... her at all, but him - well that's easy. The very least bad thing you can say about him is that he's a hypocrite, and that is bad enough.

There is no comparison to Jefferson, he was not an overt racist.

[maxsolomon]

30. was jefferson a statutory RAPIST?

i dunno how old sally hemmings was, but there seemed to be genuine affection & a relationship between the 2, not just a rascist young horndog raping the young negro (and this is not the word that would have been used in the '20s) help.

is there a line from 'brown sugar' to cover this? gotta be...

more shame for the south.

[0007]

34. I remember five short years when the freepers started a rumor

that Bill Clinton had fathered a black baby. At freerepulic.com the gossip went on for days with their hatred for the man.