Strom Thurmond has a mixed-race illegimate daughter! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

The_Dude · 12-15-2003, 02:45 PM

OMFG!

Quote:

COLUMBIA, S.C. - 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. Her lawyer said the statement brought her "a sigh of relief."

"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.

Contacted at his office, Taylor confirmed he was speaking for the Thurmond family but refused to give detail or answer any questions, including whether the family was in fact verifying the claims of Williams, a 78-year-old retired teacher who lives in Los Angeles.

"The statement speaks for itself," Taylor said.

A message left for U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. was not immediately returned. Thurmond's widow, Nancy, said she was not taking calls from the media.

Glenn Walters, an attorney for Williams, said he believes the statement acknowledges Thurmond's paternity, though he hasn't discussed the question with the Thurmond family.

"We are happy that this matter has been resolved. Mrs. Essie Mae Washington-Williams can now take a place in history as a daughter of U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond," Walters said.

Said Frank K. Wheaton, another attorney for Williams: "Ms. Williams shed a sigh of relief. She said 'I'm happy and very much surprised.'"

Wheaton had said Saturday that his client was coming forward to claim that the nation's longest-serving senator — and one-time segregationist — was her father. Thurmond died in June at age 100.

Williams was to discuss her story at a news conference Wednesday in Columbia. Wheaton said Williams may not release all her alleged evidence supporting the claim because of the announcement. "There may be no need," he said.

Williams had long been rumored to be Thurmond's child, though she had previously denied it. She came forward now at the urging and encouragement of her children, Wheaton said.

Williams told The Washington Post that Thurmond privately acknowledged her as his daughter and had provided financial support since 1941. She said she waited to go public because she didn't want to embarrass herself or hurt Thurmond's career. The Post first reported her claims on its Web site Saturday.

"There was an agreement between the parties that she would never discuss the fact that Sen. Thurmond was her father," Walters said. He said Williams was not seeking money and did not want to challenge Thurmond's will.

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 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.

I know the guy is dead and all, but he was a very conservative racist (not saying that all conservatives are racists, but strom was). talk about this guy's double standard. not only does he have an illegimate kid, but it's an inter-racial relationship!

hypocrite!!!!!

Link - http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...mond_paternity

j8ear · 12-15-2003, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by The_Dude
OMFG!
hypocrite!!!!!

Ironic. Hello pot...meet kettle.

I see his family revealing all unashamedly, and the daughter also confiding she had been well cared for through out her life.

I'm surprised you didn't pull out the rapist angle, as Strom was 22 when the daughter's mother conceived at 16 years of age.

Your hatred betray's you.

-bear

Kadath · 12-15-2003, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by j8ear
Your hatred betray's you.

And your typos embarass you.
The point is that Strom was publicly for "segregation forever" while he privately conducted his own "integration". (Please excuse my pun.) That's hypocritical.

j8ear · 12-15-2003, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kadath
And your typos embarass you.
The point is that Strom was publicly for "segregation forever" while he privately conducted his own "integration". (Please excuse my pun.) That's hypocritical.

Style over substance. As usual.

None the less I am unfamiliar with that position (long before my time on this globe), and recall him publically being for something exactly opposite of that position. That of diversity and intergration. At least for the last twenty years.

Liquor Dealer · 12-15-2003, 08:29 PM

This was how long ago and where? I think some of you might oughta' look back at what was basically considered legitimate entertainment in those days. Times have changed over the years and this damned sure didn't happen yesterday. And j8ear - he apparently favored "diversity and intergration" to some extent long before twenty years ago!

Ustwo · 12-15-2003, 08:38 PM

Thurmond was a pretty wacky guy.

From a total racist segregationist, to the first southern senator to have a black man on his staff and supporting civil rights legislation. Maybe it was a change of heart, maybe it was just political. On the plus side he was never in the Klan (as far as anyone knows) unlike a current democrat senator who was his nemisis in the Senate

j8ear · 12-15-2003, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Liquor Dealer
... j8ear - he apparently favored "diversity and intergration" to some extent long before twenty years ago!

I stand corrected...

yet similarly vindicated ~

Now that I think of things, I wonder if his 'love' child had anything to do with his change of heart. Maybe even the feelings he had for her mother. I guess at this point we'll never know.

-bear

Phaenx · 12-15-2003, 10:00 PM

See, Thurmond didn't hate black people. Lets bring Lott back.

smooth · 12-16-2003, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ustwo
...the first southern senator to have a black man on his staff and supporting civil rights legislation. Maybe it was a change of heart, maybe it was just political.

...maybe it was his son

2wolves · 12-16-2003, 03:03 AM

If it happened before Reagan was president it doesn't count.

Ancient history. Nothing to see. Move along, move along.

2Wolves

OFKU0 · 12-16-2003, 07:55 AM

Kinda unfortunate that Thurmond lived to the rip old age of 100 before the story could come out. Must of had a clause in the contract to be segregated from his daughter til death do him part.

tdoc · 12-21-2003, 08:30 PM

I wonder what else is hidden in his family stick?

smooth · 12-21-2003, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by OFKU0
Kinda unfortunate that Thurmond lived to the rip old age of 100 before the story could come out. Must of had a clause in the contract to be segregated from his daughter til death do him part.

I saw the interview with his daughter. They actually had a very interesting and caring relationship. He visited her while she attended university (even paid for tuition, too) and kept in contact with her children, etc.

It really was quite a good show and I hope others see it before making judgement.

Journeyman · 12-23-2003, 06:00 PM

Quote:

I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theatres into our swimming pools into our homes and into our churches.

Well... he never did say anything about admitting them into his bed.

Endymon32 · 12-24-2003, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 2wolves
If it happened before Reagan was president it doesn't count.

Ancient history. Nothing to see. Move along, move along.

2Wolves

I will say this " and nothing good Bush does counts either, nothing to see, Move along, learn one fact and start shouting"

Superbelt · 12-24-2003, 08:31 AM

Personally I see Strom as having been an opportunist. A shrewd politician.
He looked at his constitutents and told them what they wanted to hear. When segregation would get him elected, that was his platform. When the world changed and he had to be for civil rights, yet still for denying Martin Luther King Jr a day in his honor, that is what he stood for.

He truly was a mouthpiece for his state.

Him having this child while still pushing for segregation, reinforces my thoughts of him as an opportunist.

Endymon32 · 12-24-2003, 08:39 AM

I agree on Superbelt on this one. Its not like the man was an abberation. He was consistanly relected for a lifetime. He was what his constitiuents ( sp I know) elected him to be. Had he don anything else, some one else would have been elected in his stead.

Nomad · 12-24-2003, 01:45 PM

Caution ... Thurmond uses the N word In this video.

http://www.whitehouse.org/news/2003/media/stromlove.wmv

Journeyman · 12-24-2003, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Superbelt
Personally I see Strom as having been an opportunist. A shrewd politician.
He looked at his constitutents and told them what they wanted to hear. When segregation would get him elected, that was his platform. When the world changed and he had to be for civil rights, yet still for denying Martin Luther King Jr a day in his honor, that is what he stood for.

He truly was a mouthpiece for his state.

Him having this child while still pushing for segregation, reinforces my thoughts of him as an opportunist.

While the blame for having disagreeable (and vocal) platforms can be placed on both the representative and the represented, you do have to chicken/egg it and wonder how much of his beliefs were politically motivated by his voters and how much of his voters beliefs were validated/maybe even swayed by his rhetoric.
Sorta like Hitler and anti-Semitism, Strom and segregationism is a self-feeding machine of perpetual-motion in politics. Certainly the seed was there for them to grow, but I doubt Germany's situation would have been brought to the gruesome level that it was were it not for someone to really yell about it.

Remember, part of the failure of the south to keep from integrating lies in the fact that they were kept in this union by the blood of Civil War soldiers.

Endymon32 · 12-24-2003, 04:01 PM

I just say that we are better off with out people like Strom, his day, hopfully has passed.

OFKU0 · 12-25-2003, 08:39 PM

This is what Time said about him.

OLD GHOSTS

For years it had been rumored that Thurmond, a Senator from South Carolina, had fathered a black child, but it wasn't until Essie Mae Washington Williams came forward a few months after his death, at age 100, that it became clear the former segregationist leader who once inveighed against "mixing the races" had had his own entanglements. As 78-year-old Williams told it, she had been conceived while her mother worked as a domestic in the Thurmonds' home.

Over the years, there were cash payments and moments of tenderness when the Senator and his daughter would occasionally meet. Williams stayed mum as Thurmond went from state legislator to Governor to segregationist presidential candidate and finally to the longest tenure of any Senator in history, 48 years. Confessing her heritage at last, she told reporters she finally felt "completely free." Her words seemed an appropriate epitaph for the complex Thurmond, who later became the first Southern Senator to hire a black staff member, and for an era in which attitudes about race were marked by ambiguity and often hypocrisy.
—By Matthew Cooper

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2003/memoriam/

Locobot · 12-26-2003, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by OFKU0
This is what Time said about him.

Her words seemed an appropriate epitaph for the complex Thurmond, who later became the first Southern Senator to hire a black staff member, and for an era in which attitudes about race were marked by ambiguity and often hypocrisy.

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2003/memoriam/

This didn't keep him from voting against the civil rights act (1967) and repeatedly against affirmative action. I can't believe she took the hush money, for 78 years! I guess there are things about southern culture I just don't understand. You know there's a pretty big estate sitting there to which she has a legitimate claim. I just don't think I'd be able to display her reserve. She's obviously still under the charm Strom.

12-15-2003, 08:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
Liquor Dealer Super Agitator Location: Just SW of Nowhere!!! In the good old US of A	This was how long ago and where? I think some of you might oughta' look back at what was basically considered legitimate entertainment in those days. Times have changed over the years and this damned sure didn't happen yesterday. And j8ear - he apparently favored "diversity and intergration" to some extent long before twenty years ago! __________________ Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, sometimes it's more like a jar of Jalapenos --- what you say or do today might burn your ass tomorrow!!! Last edited by Liquor Dealer; 12-15-2003 at 08:35 PM..

12-15-2003, 08:38 PM	#6 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	Thurmond was a pretty wacky guy. From a total racist segregationist, to the first southern senator to have a black man on his staff and supporting civil rights legislation. Maybe it was a change of heart, maybe it was just political. On the plus side he was never in the Klan (as far as anyone knows) unlike a current democrat senator who was his nemisis in the Senate __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

12-15-2003, 10:00 PM	#8 (permalink)
Phaenx The Northern Ward Location: Columbus, Ohio	See, Thurmond didn't hate black people. Lets bring Lott back. __________________ "I went shopping last night at like 1am. The place was empty and this old woman just making polite conversation said to me, 'where is everyone??' I replied, 'In bed, same place you and I should be!' Took me ten minutes to figure out why she gave me a dirty look." --Some guy

12-16-2003, 03:03 AM	#10 (permalink)
2wolves Psycho Location: Just outside the D.C. belt	If it happened before Reagan was president it doesn't count. Ancient history. Nothing to see. Move along, move along. 2Wolves __________________ Nation of the Cat. Forgive maybe, forget .... not quite yet.

12-16-2003, 07:55 AM	#11 (permalink)
OFKU0 Junk	Kinda unfortunate that Thurmond lived to the rip old age of 100 before the story could come out. Must of had a clause in the contract to be segregated from his daughter til death do him part. __________________ " In Canada, you can tell the most blatant lie in a calm voice, and people will believe you over someone who's a little passionate about the truth." David Warren, Western Standard.

12-21-2003, 08:30 PM	#12 (permalink)
tdoc Tilted	I wonder what else is hidden in his family stick?

12-24-2003, 08:31 AM	#16 (permalink)
Superbelt This vexes me. I am terribly vexed. Location: Grantville, Pa	Personally I see Strom as having been an opportunist. A shrewd politician. He looked at his constitutents and told them what they wanted to hear. When segregation would get him elected, that was his platform. When the world changed and he had to be for civil rights, yet still for denying Martin Luther King Jr a day in his honor, that is what he stood for. He truly was a mouthpiece for his state. Him having this child while still pushing for segregation, reinforces my thoughts of him as an opportunist.

12-24-2003, 08:39 AM	#17 (permalink)
Endymon32 Banned	I agree on Superbelt on this one. Its not like the man was an abberation. He was consistanly relected for a lifetime. He was what his constitiuents ( sp I know) elected him to be. Had he don anything else, some one else would have been elected in his stead.

12-24-2003, 01:45 PM	#18 (permalink)
Nomad Heathen Location: California	Strom Thurmond - Video Caution ... Thurmond uses the N word In this video. http://www.whitehouse.org/news/2003/media/stromlove.wmv

12-24-2003, 04:01 PM	#20 (permalink)
Endymon32 Banned	I just say that we are better off with out people like Strom, his day, hopfully has passed.

12-25-2003, 08:39 PM	#21 (permalink)
OFKU0 Junk	This is what Time said about him. OLD GHOSTS For years it had been rumored that Thurmond, a Senator from South Carolina, had fathered a black child, but it wasn't until Essie Mae Washington Williams came forward a few months after his death, at age 100, that it became clear the former segregationist leader who once inveighed against "mixing the races" had had his own entanglements. As 78-year-old Williams told it, she had been conceived while her mother worked as a domestic in the Thurmonds' home. Over the years, there were cash payments and moments of tenderness when the Senator and his daughter would occasionally meet. Williams stayed mum as Thurmond went from state legislator to Governor to segregationist presidential candidate and finally to the longest tenure of any Senator in history, 48 years. Confessing her heritage at last, she told reporters she finally felt "completely free." Her words seemed an appropriate epitaph for the complex Thurmond, who later became the first Southern Senator to hire a black staff member, and for an era in which attitudes about race were marked by ambiguity and often hypocrisy. —By Matthew Cooper http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2003/memoriam/ __________________ " In Canada, you can tell the most blatant lie in a calm voice, and people will believe you over someone who's a little passionate about the truth." David Warren, Western Standard.