Volume II No. 19
 12-17-03
 An Insult 
 { Essie Mae Washington Williams,
   The Woman Who Did Not Exist }
 author: Vance Cureton
 © Copyright 2003

 How can one of the most senior politicians ever to work on Capital
 Hill go to his grave without publicly acknowledging the existence 
 of one of the children he fathered? A proud woman of mature age 
 herself. A woman with grandchildren and great grandchildren of
 her own.

 And yet, this inaction is the legacy of the late Senator Strom Thurmond.

 They sure do things strangely down South. Maybe Thurmond's 
 good friend, Senator Trent Lott, understands this whole mess. You 
 remember Trent Lott don't you? Senator Lott who believes that the 
 Dixiecrat segregationist Thurmond deserved to be elected President
 of the United States way back in '48. "...We wouldn't have had all 
 these problems over all these years..."  is the now infamous quote 
 of Lott's at Thurmond's 100th birthday celebration.

 Thurmond as a Presidential candidate believed that white Americans 
 should never be "forced" to allow black people into their living rooms. 
 And that defending segregation was right and proper. In other words,
 Strom Thurmond believed that everything in this country would be
 just fine if black folks stayed in their place. And if those bothersome
 politicians from up North would take a hike.

 The Dixiecrat ticket Strom Thurmond ran under in 1948, was transparently
 racist in a way we could not even imagine today.

 Yeah, Strom sure was a lot of fun back in those rosy, segregationist, 
 Jim Crow, days of old. Southern boys like Strom may not have wanted 
 to walk down the aisle hand-in-hand with a black woman. But, he 
 obviously had "the eye." Because he fathered himself a cute little 
 "Tar Baby" with the family maid. -- The black family maid. 

 Strom was twenty-two years old when he slept with her. She, by-the-way, 
 was but an innocent child of sixteen. { The legal age of consent was 14. } 
 Not that it really would have mattered, as Strom was a child of priviledge.

 Nonetheless, it would have been absolutely priceless to hear Strom 
 Thurmond's explanation to "his" folks about this one!

 The little bundle of joy born to the lusty Strom and the maid, was later
 given the name Essie Mae. The baby would surely have been labeled a black 
 child back in 1925. But she was not a dark baby, particularly. More the color 
 of coffee and cream. In the politically correct times of today, Essie Mae is 
 more accurately described as mixed-race. Or bi-racial.

 All of this interracial "messing around" happened a long time ago, indeed. 
 But this entire episode is so much a reflection of what the American South
 once was. A part of the nation terribly conflicted about race. A region 
 that has never fully acknowledged the gross and abominable injustice to 
 the Africans who were once enslaved there. The South was on the wrong
 side of the slavery issue. And was just as wrong to allow the insane orgy 
 of lynchings that occured in the early days of the 20th century. 

 Ironic, is it not, in that so many of those lynchings were allegedly done to
 protect the "honor and dignity" of white women.

 Black and White. 

 Was all that pain? Was all that injustice? Was it all only about sex 
 and sin?

 Perhaps Senator Thurmond thought that it was. 

 Miscegnation. 

 Black and White blood all mixed together.

 God save us.

 Strom Thurmond and Essie Mae were father and daughter. What
 went on between them can never be understood. And perhaps is
 a question best left unasked and unanswered. But what has been 
 acknowledged is that he provided financial assistance for his daughter 
 through her hard times. And that there was perhaps a reluctant 
 affection between them that was more substantial than the "family 
 friendship" that outsiders were led to believe was all that existed.

 But the outside is important, too. Because this story ultimately is
 about much more than Strom Thurmond and Essie Mae Washington-
 Williams. -- Now that the truth of their relationship is known.

 This is a story about what could have been. About a missed opportunity
 for racial conciliation that would have extended beyond one family.

 And it is also a story about justice for Essie Mae. A wonderful old
 woman of 78 years, who deserved more than what she got.

 The man was her father. And the fact that Thurmond could never 
 bring himself to "publicly" acknowledge his own flesh and blood, 
 is important. Perhaps { and it is only speculation } because she was 
 the unplanned result of a meaningless interracial relationship.

 So if it wasn't Bessie's Mae's skin color. What was the reason Strom 
 kept silent? -- Because she was illegitimate?

 Hardly a political death sentence even as far back as the 1970's. 
 And ol' Strom surely could have talked that one out. Given how
 beloved he was in his home state.

 So, is it wrong to further speculate what would have happened if
 this "love child" had been a white baby? Would the story have
 been spoken of publicly and done with many decades ago?

 The easy theory is to label Strom Thurmond a hypocrite. How 
 could a man who spent half-a-lifetime fighting against laws designed
 to bridge the social-economic gap between Blacks and Whites,
 have fathered a black child? And provided financial support for
 that black child. 

 And yet, though the social climate changed. He remained afraid
 that this fact become public knowledge.

 Did Thurmond's own racial insecurities contribute to his silence?

 Prejudices are based upon fears. Perhaps the fear of one group
 discovering that they are in reality not superior to another. Jim
 Crow and all that followed was based upon a hollow lie.

 But those are the discussions of days gone by. No serious politician
 would dare speak the intolerant and fear-raising words that the
 Dixiecrats did back in '48.

 Strom Thurmond lived to be 100.There is no excuse for his silence. 
 He should have done right by his daughter. And her children. -- His
 own grandchildren.

 His blood.

 Did he ever even meet them?

 Although Essie Mae Washington-Williams may long have accepted 
 that while her father lived, worked, and enjoyed his public life. She 
 would remain "closeted." And that their relationship would forever be 
 one of a unique quality. Hidden and private.

 But surely, for the other members of Essie Mae's race. The outsiders
 looking in. The people - who's skin color didn't matter at all that day 
 when her father became biblical with the maid.

 An innocent 16 year old.

 There are two words to describe Strom Thurmond's failure to publicly
 acknowledge the result of that fateful liason.

 An insult.

 ReadingPost.Com
 © Copyright 2003

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