Woman Claims Thurmond As Father -- Proof Forthcoming, Black Retiree Says

The Washington Post ^ | December 14, 2003 | Marilyn W. Thompson

[aculeus]

Please! Some of us will be 125 years old when that happens.

[aculeus]

Case closed!!

She looks (and is acting like) a wonderful person.

[Print]

Congrats Strom, it's a girl!

[dixie sass]

Lol, if nothing else the smile by itself tells the tale!

[NYCVirago]

Thanks for posting the photos side-by-side. IMHO, it seems pretty clear, between the photos and the evidence of all the visits, that this is Strom's daughter. I'm not buying that she doesn't want any money from the estate, but I do believe she is his daughter.

[LS]

In fact, you are wrong: there is CONSIDERABLE question as to whether, if he was "boinking," as you put it, Sally Hemmings, it did not cause him to keep her and her family in slavery after he otherwise might have been tempted to release them. This is the subject of several historical studies, which assert (with some credibility, I must say) that Jefferson's lofty ideals were prisoner to his own personal lusts when it came to freeing his own slaves.

So the jury is WAAAAYYY out yet.

[LS]

I don't in any way buy the notion that Jefferson's writings were "delegitimated" by any relationship he had with Hemmings, regardless of whether they resulted in a child.

I do think it relevant that, as some historians suggest, if TJ is proven to have had relations with Sally Hemmings, that it may well have influenced his willingness to emancipate her and her children. More than one reputable historian claims that Jefferson was deeply compromised by this relationship, and that without it his ideological points would have produced real-world fruit that would have seen him, like Washington and Franklin, free his own slaves while championing the liberty of all. It's not a minor point, nor one we should cede to the leftists who want TJ's writings to fail for other obvious reasons.

[Post Toasties]

TJ would have had to impregnate at Sally Hemings at age 65 for there to be any possibility at all, which even so, given the other relevant circumstances, makes it somewhat less likely than you or I being struck by lightning.

[Post Toasties]

I believe most slave owners were Scotch-Irish, not English.

[Quietly]

Gotta admit....she looks like Old Strom.

Oh my goodness... she is the *very image* of Strom.

[LWalk18]

TJ would have had to impregnate at Sally Hemings at age 65 for there to be any possibility at all, which even so, given the other relevant circumstances, makes it somewhat less likely than you or I being struck by lightning.

Yeah, it impossible to father a child at 65- just ask Strom Thurmond :)

[Destro]

Not really.

[Destro]

Wait-Protestant Scotch Irish? Maybe but their lastnames are different..

[FR_addict]

This woman is 78. She would have been born in 1924. Back them it would have been almost impossible for a white man to recognize a black child without putting everyone in danger.

It sounds like he provided money for her at least since 1941.

This would make an interesting story. Armstrong Williams suggested that many knew about this arrangement in Thurmond's staff. It sounds like no one was ever explicitly told the connection, but Thurmond was said to have held her in high regard.

I hope she gets the recognition she deserves and tells her story.

Today's social norms are very different than 1924. Bill Clinton is said to have fathered a black child by a prostitute. If the story is true, I bet he is not supporting the child. At least Thurmond was attempting to fulfill his financial obligations to his child.

[cupcakes]

Strom "forgot a few payments"? Sounds like Ms. Essie was using him as a welfare check all these years because I don't know many folks whose parents support them beyond 20, let alone at the ripe old age of 70+. If she was bankrupt, it is her children who should be ashamed for not caring for in her old age. As for claim to a will, plenty of parents leave LEGITIMATE children out of their will--good luck to her. Let's face it the payments throughout the years was hush money. What Strom did was wrong, but I'm becoming less sympathetic of the daughter with each new article about her. The newer articles I read paint a woman who went with the hand extended and probably threatened many times if refused that she would blab. To say she kept quiet all of these years because she respected her father and then to say she didn't attend his funeral because she "wasn't close to his family" sounds awfully suspicious of the earlier assertion that she was some loving daughter whom Strom supported out of his desire to help her financially.