December 20, 2003

Cry Me a River

Posted by Kieran

An article in the New York Times reports that the (white) relatives of Strom Thurmond are all upset since (black) Essie Mae Washington-Williams told the world last week that Thurmond was her father. Her mother had been a teenage maid in Thurmond’s household when Strom was in his early twenties. The article doesn’t have much in the way of commentary, but it doesn’t have to because you just have to listen to them damn themselves out of their own mouths.

They say, variously, that the announcement “was like a blight on the family”; that “For the first time in my life, I felt shame;” that “My family always had help around the house. But it just seems Strom would have been above that” (?!); that the publicity was “embarrassing and awkward”; that if Washington-Williams had been white “it would be a whole other situation,” because criticism wouldn’t have been as harsh (you don’t say); that they “don’t know why this lady is doing this”; that she had better be “coming out for the right reasons”; and that anyways at least she was “humble,” if you know what I mean. Thurmond’s nephew, Barry Bishop, said “For something to be done so publicly … well, we’re just not comfortable dealing with things in that way.” You never spoke a truer word, Mr Bishop. Finally, Thurmond’s niece, Mary T. Thompkins Freeman, said she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to meet Washington-Williams just yet. “If I do, I’m not going to go with open arms,” Ms. Freeman said. “It’s too much to accept right now.” Yes, dear. This must be such a burden for you all.

Posted on December 20, 2003 11:37 AM UTC
Comments

So, according to the Times article,

…Essie Mae Washington-Williams told the world this week that she was Strom Thurmond’s … daughter …

Mary T. Thompkins Freeman, a niece of the late senator, … said Ms. Washington-Williams’s announcement “was like a blight on the family.”

But the same sentence tells us that Thompkins Freeman died at 100 in June! Did she comment on the announcement from beyond the grave?

On the contrary, it sounds as though this “news” has been very nearly public for a long time now. If the Times skirts around this fact, does this mean they too have known? And how long?

Maybe the Times really is Pravda. This sure feels like Kremlinology.

Posted by Vance Maverick · December 20, 2003 01:15 PM

Mea culpa, a misreading. It’s Strom, of course, who died at 100 in June. Never mind.

Posted by Vance Maverick · December 20, 2003 01:17 PM

As a longtime amateur Dixieologist, I’ve known about Essie Mae (by name) for years. I can’t imagine that Thurmond’s relatives didn’t either, or the Washington press corps.

That being said, I am not sure whether the press’s previous silence about this story belongs in the “We Need A Better Press Corps Aleph Null” file or not. One would have to be a special sort of ssholea indeed to upset a nonagenarian in poor health, even if it is the Lich King himself.

A still spawning octogenarian, though: hey, go for it.

C.

Posted by Carlos · December 20, 2003 02:10 PM

Roll, Thurmonds, roll.

Posted by cs · December 20, 2003 02:13 PM

What struck me was that not a single one of them acknowledged or appreciated the enormous amount that she sacrificed to protect him (and, given the nepotism the article describes, them). I’m just guessing that he wouldn’t have carried all of those southern states in 1948 had she done this then.

Posted by Michael · December 20, 2003 02:37 PM

I am glad they are going through this. This might be good for them, before death.

Posted by John Isbell · December 20, 2003 04:50 PM

Well, the confusion over which person in that sentence is dead and which is speaking is the fault of the writer.

Mary T. Thompkins Freeman, a niece of the late senator, who died at 100 in June, said Ms. Washington-Williams’s announcement “was like a blight on the family.”

Obviously that’s ambiguous and misleading. That comma after ‘senator’ shouldn’t be there - the following clause could be in a parenthesis, but within the comma-including set between ‘Freeman’ and ‘said.’ The Times does a crappy job of editing.

And then there’s this interesting bit -

her uncle, a legendary politician in the South who rose to fame as a fiery segregationist

Fiery, huh. Well, that’s one word. Pathological, ignorant, bigoted, ruthless, dangerous, inflammatory - those might be some others. Fiery is an awfully nice way of putting it.

As Lear points out when Gloucester tries the same move in an attempt to pour oil on the waters between Lear and his daughter and son-in-law. ‘My liege you know the fiery quality of the duke - ’

But Lear will have none of it. ‘Fiery?’ he interrupts, ‘what quality? Tell the hot duke - ’ etcetera.

Tell the hot senator that a fiery segregationist is just a nice way of saying loathsome race-bater.

Posted by Ophelia Benson · December 20, 2003 07:45 PM

Yes, they should be appreciative and grateful for her helpful silence all these years. But they have every right to be ashamed. After all, silly Stom, when a kid, got the maid knocked up!

Posted by Marcus Tullius Cicero · December 20, 2003 09:58 PM

You can judge just how “secret” this was from the fact that a Washington Post columnist, Colbert King, mentioned it a year ago, and that it had been published elsewhere before that.

Given Thurmond’s repuatation as a tomcat, the surprise is that he had only one illegitimate child. Kweisi Mfume, who has a better tan than Thurmond, but resembles the early Thurmond in some ways, managed to father illegitimate children with three different women in less than two years. So far as I can tell, it didn’t hurt his career at the NAACP a bit.

Posted by Jim Miller · December 20, 2003 10:21 PM

Jim—Mfume didn’t go on to base a political career on the idea that his children were less than fully human, did he? Big difference between himself and Strom.

Ophelia—Well, I would say that ignorant, pathological, dangerous, and bigoted all follow from segregationist; fiery and inflammatory describe the way he went about it. But yes, I wish more journalists had the courage to use the phrase “loathsome toad” in discussing Thurmonds, Helmses, and Maddoxes in their dotage.

Posted by Matt Weiner · December 20, 2003 10:31 PM

Matt - Neither did Strom, as you would know if you read my post on Strom as a liberal some months ago. In his early career, he was about as liberal on race as a white politician could be in South Carolina. There’s some interesting bits on him in V. O Key’s classic, Southern Politics that supports this argument.

He switched, perhaps to save his own career in 1948, but even then he did very little race baiting. And then, as soon as it was safe to do so, he switched back again, being one of the first Southern senators to hire black staff members. And he was superb at constituent service for all South Carolinians at about the same time.

Considering his early career and his two switches, I see him as more of an opportunist than a racist.

Posted by Jim Miller · December 21, 2003 12:01 AM

You can find my post on Strom’s early career here:
http://www.seanet.com/~jimxc/Politics/June2003_4.html#jrm1188

By the way, those interested in this general subject will want to see my post on the rise and fall and rise in Southern black voting. It should be out in about a week.

Posted by Jim Miller · December 21, 2003 12:19 AM

I read that Ernest Hollings, whose record on race is by no means admirable, got to Thurmond’s left on the issue—they say he oversaw peaceful school desegregation from ‘59 to ‘63. But arguendo, I’ll accept “opportunistically promoted the idea that his children were less than fully human until it was safe not to” if you like.

And if the past is prologue, I don’t think it’s a good idea to continue this discussion, so I’ll sign off.

Posted by Matt Weiner · December 21, 2003 01:12 AM

Most people in Strom’s state South Carolina have known for a long time about his daughter. Have you read the account of how, in order for his daughter to get money from him, she’d have to appear in person and always cash. I doubt Strom is in heaven. What a horrible load it must be to carry on your back knowing your father thought you were less than human. That poor woman.

Posted by andalucia · December 21, 2003 02:33 AM

“I Was Strom Thurmon’d Daughter and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt”

Posted by Michael · December 21, 2003 01:46 PM

“I Was Strom Thurmond’s Daughter and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt”

Posted by Michael · December 21, 2003 01:46 PM

I don’t really have much of an opinion on this (dog bites man quality)…but I don’t understand the relevance of this:

Kweisi Mfume, who has a better tan than Thurmond, but resembles the early Thurmond in some ways, managed to father illegitimate children with three different women in less than two years. So far as I can tell, it didn’t hurt his career at the NAACP a bit.

What does Mfume, his “tan” and his illegitimate children have to do with the story? Forgive me if I’m jumping to the wrong conclusion, but…huh?

Is this the same technique as, say, when the topic is the suffering of blacks under slavery and the moral culpability of the whites involved, a clever apologist will speak up, “well, many Africans were enslaved by their own people, etc.?”
Yeah, that’s true, but, what’s the point?

I thought we were talking about Strom Thurmond, not “any random politically visible black” who might have engaged in tangentially-related behavior. The issue wasn’t promiscuity or adultery, it was the “discomfort” of the family, and the inferences to be drawn from such, right?

I’m probably being overly sensitive. My racist relatives commonly make comments like, “but blacks use the n-word, why can’t we?” And this reminded me of that.

But I probably missed the point, and made an ass of myself. If so I apologize. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Posted by gimmeadollar · December 21, 2003 10:31 PM

Jim Miller - Mfume’s illegitimate children probably weren’t the result of rape.

Thurmond’s sex with the help was almost certainly rape. Maybe not violent, but coerced.

Big difference.

Posted by Jon H · December 22, 2003 03:16 AM

To say that the announcement “was like a blight on the family” and that “For the first time in my life, I felt shame” might mean that the speaker is ashamed of the old goat’s hypocrisy because he/she was appalled by it, or it might mean that they simply thought it should be hushed up (its the difference between repenting of a crime because you know its wrong and repenting of it because you were caught). If the sentiment was the former it’s praiseworthy, if the latter it’s blameworthy.

You’d need the context to be sure of which was meant. But judging by some of the other comments I suspect the blameworthy interpretation is correct.

Posted by derrida derider · December 22, 2003 04:34 AM

Considering his early career and his two switches, I see him as more of an opportunist than a racist.

Well, an awfully large percentage of successful politicians might just be considered opportunists. That Ol’ Strom was also extremely racist seems besides the point.

And what was your point, by the way, in comparing Mr. Thurmond to Mr. Mfume? One wonders.

Posted by some dude · December 22, 2003 06:30 AM

Some scattered points:

1. The New York Times article was intended to make Thurmond’s white descendants look bad. It had a far worse tone than other articles with their reactions. I suspect that it is not a fair statement of their views.

2. My point about Mfume is simple, though I should have been more direct. I think, from the evidence I have seen, that Strom Thurmond’s behavior was not as bad as Mfume’s. However—and this is the essential point—Mfume (like Jesse Jackson) is now a role model for young black men, while Strom Thurmond is not. Very few who condemn Thurmond have anything to say about Mfume, or Jesse Jackson, for that matter, even though Mfume’s behavior matters now and Thurmond’s doesn’t.

3. Not having been in the bedroom with Strom, I do not know whether what happened was rape. We don’t even know which one initiated the affair. (Those who think the power difference makes this unlikely should recall Monica Lewinsky.)

We do know that, according to the daughter, the relationship continued for a long time and that her mother spoke well of Strom. It may have been statuatory rape, of course. It may also have been a love story. We simply don’t know.

4. “Some dude” may want to look at the post I mentioned above, pointing out that, early in his career, Thurmond was about as favorable to blacks as a South Carolina politician could be then. For example, while Democratic senator Robert Byrd was joining the Klan, Thurmond was fighting the Klan.

The evidence from the beginning and end of his career sugggests that he was not a racist, or less of one than most Southern whites of his time.

5. Of course most politicians are opportunists, to some extent. Democratically elected politicians who do not, to some extent, follow popular opinion are usually replaced by politicians who will. That doesn’t make Thurmond different from, for example, John Kennedy, who was very hesitating in his efforts on civil rights.

Posted by Jim Miller · December 22, 2003 04:32 PM

I think, from the evidence I have seen, that Strom Thurmond’s behavior was not as bad as Mfume’s.

Mfume was inveighing against race-mixing and building his career on suppressing the aspirations to freedom of whites while having half-white children he paid off to keep their mouth shut?

I’m surprised that Mfume hasn’t become more of an icon then.

Posted by drapetomaniac · December 22, 2003 09:17 PM

That doesn’t make Thurmond different from, for example, John Kennedy, who was very hesitating in his efforts on civil rights.

“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.” —Strom Thurmond, 1948.

Yeah, just like JFK. I gotta say, though, Jim Miller gets points for invoking Monica Lewinsky’s name. It’s all about the Clenis.

Posted by Paul · December 23, 2003 02:33 AM

Color me picky, but…

“An article in the New York Times reports that the (white) relatives of Strom Thurmond are all upset since (black) Essie Mae Washington-Williams told the world last week that Thurmond was her father.”

…why is she called “black” if her father was white? Isn’t she better called “mixed-race” or “biracial” or something, or are people with some African ancestors still to be called “black” even if they also have European ancestors?

Posted by David Weigel · December 23, 2003 05:00 PM
Followups

la sauteuse flattert.
Excerpt: 1. Du langage français bizarre hermaphrodite, / De quel genre te faire, équivoque maudite, / Ou maudit? [Boileau, Sur l'Équivoque,...Read more at Uncle Jazzbeau's Gallimaufrey
→ Race relations.
Excerpt: I meant to write about this last week, but forget - until a post on Crooked Timber dredged the story...Read more at politX
→ Race relations.
Excerpt: I meant to write about this last week, but forget - until a post on Crooked Timber dredged the story...Read more at politX
la sauteuse flattert.
Excerpt: 1. Du langage français bizarre hermaphrodite, / De quel genre te faire, équivoque maudite, / Ou maudit? [Boileau, Sur l’Équivoque,...Read more at Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.