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Edited on Sun Dec-14-03 02:52 AM by Isome
.::.blackcommentator article.::."... At the same time he was preaching segregation now and forever, Thurmond discreetly was financing the education of a black coed business administration major at all-black South Carolina State College in Orangeburg.
...had it become known at the time, could have ended Thurmond's remarkable political career before it even got started, said Southern historian Robert Sherrill.
Thurmond's relationship with and support of this black woman has continued to this day, according to the woman's in-laws and members of Thurmond's Senate staff.
...those who knew of the unusual relationship back then see no contradiction in Thurmond's championing segregation while helping a young black woman get ahead in life...
...in supporting a black woman he supposedly sired, remained loyal to one of the codes of his youth, said Bennettsville lawyer Frank E. Cain, a classmate of the woman purported to be the senator's daughter at South Carolina State in the late 1940s.
That code required white boys, who often learned about sex "on the colored side of town," to take care of any children they fathered.
..."That's the old South."
...The story of Essie Washington is well-known in South Carolina among people, black and white, who lived in the state and were active in politics in the late 1940s and 1950s when this tale circulated widely." Someone remarked that it was too bad "we" didn't know about this sooner. WE'VE always known about this, and we've always tried to communicate to people that instances like these weren't uncommon. What's too bad is that some Americans, those wearing black skin, are not taken seriously when relaying our perspectives or stories, based on hundreds of years of oral history and many decades of written history. Had ya' listened, you would have heard of this. At the very least, few would be surprised, nor in any way in doubt of the veracity of the tale.
There's not much pity that needs to be directed her way. She chose to remain silent. At first it could be chalked up to attitudes of the era, now it can only be explained by the fact that he WAS her daddy and it afforded her a decent life. At any point after the mid-70's she could have spoken out, but she apparently felt no compunction about his duplicity, her benefit from it, nor the horrific beliefs that brought her into being.
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