whoopsie... Strom Thurmond's bastard daughter
from the
Washington Post
Thurmond was not exactly a friend of the blacks when he was in office and now it seems that he had a bit of fling with a 16-year-old black maid in his home. The offspring that resulted -- Essie Mae Washington-Williams -- is not seeking part of Thurmand's estate but is seeking recognition and closure. This raises the flag of credibility to me.
A couple of quotes from the article:
bq. A 78-year-old retired Los Angeles schoolteacher said she is breaking a lifetime of silence to announce that she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of former U.S. senator James Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), once the nation's leading segregationist. In an interview, the woman said that Thurmond privately acknowledged her as his daughter and provided financial support since 1941.
bq. A 78-year-old retired Los Angeles schoolteacher said she is breaking a lifetime of silence to announce that she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of former U.S. senator James Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), once the nation's leading segregationist. In an interview, the woman said that Thurmond privately acknowledged her as his daughter and provided financial support since 1941.
another
bq. Williams, whose mother worked as a maid in the Thurmond family home as a teenager, has long been the subject of widespread speculation and has been pursued by journalists seeking her story for two decades. She always denied that she is Thurmond's daughter.
bq. "I want to bring closure to this," said Williams, who plans to hold a news conference Wednesday in Columbia, S.C. "It is a part of history."
and a few more:
bq. In 1972, the senator exploded in anger when an Edgefield newspaper editor and longtime enemy, W.W. Mims, printed a front-page headline that Thurmond had sired "colored offspring." The headline offered no supporting evidence, and Thurmond called it "too scandalous" to warrant comment.
bq. By the early 1990s, Thurmond's staff conceded to a Penthouse magazine writer that the senator had frequent visits in Washington from his friend "Essie Williams." It was the first time her name had appeared in print in connection with Thurmond. The magazine described her as Thurmond's alleged black daughter.
bq. The Post article in 1992 cited a brief letter Williams sent Thurmond in Oct. 31, 1947, acknowledging receipt of a loan. A second letter from Williams to Thurmond on June 29, 1950, contained a request for $75. The letters were discovered buried among thousands of pages of documents in Thurmond's gubernatorial papers archived at the University of South Carolina.
This is cool - the Thurmond attorneys are being professional #$#@s but I would like to see a recognition of this womans place in the Thurmond family -- just to tweak them off a bit. Sanctimonious pinheads.
(and that is insulting a lot of wonderful pinheads!)
Posted by DaveH at December 13, 2003 10:42 PM