Dear Senator

A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond

by William Stadiem; Essie Mae Washington-Williams

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America was astonished when it learned that Strom Thurmond, the distinguished Senator from South Carolina--and staunch segregationist--had a mixed-race daughter whose existence he kept secret from the world for decades. In this memoir, Essie Mae Washington-Williams tells of how she learned that her father was the famous senator and her mother, Carrie Butler, had been a maid on the Thurmond estate while a teenager. Born in 1925, Essie May had been raised by her aunt and uncle, and only learned the truth in her teen years. Thurmond helped support Essie May, and he met with her on occasion, but he never acknowledged her publicly. Washington-Williams writes about their relationship, which she also kept secret, and also about what it was like to grow up in the South. Her stories, powerful in themselves, have even greater resonance because of her personal history.

Editions of Dear Senator

ISBN

9780060760953

Binding/Format

Hardcover

Publisher

Harpercollins

Date

2005

Price

$1.00

Used, Good

Publisher Notes

In Dear Senator, Essie Mae Washington-Williams -- daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond -- breaks her lifelong silence and tells the story of her life. Hers is a story seven decades in the making, yet one whose unique historical importance has only recently been revealed. Until the age of sixteen, Washington-Williams assumed that the aunt and uncle who raised her in Pennsylvania were her parents. The revelation of her true parents' identities was a shock that changed the course of her life. Her father, the longtime senator from South Carolina, was once the nation's leading voice for racial segregation; he ran for president on a segregationist ticket in 1948 and once mounted a twenty-four-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 -- in the name of saving the South from "mongrelization." Her mother was Carrie Butler, a black teenager who worked as a maid on the Thurmond family's South Carolina plantation.

Set against the explosively changing times of the civil rights movement, Washington-Williams's memoir reveals a brave young woman who struggled with the discrepancy between the father she knew -- one who was financially generous, supportive of her education, even affectionate -- and the old Southern politician, railing against greater racial equality, who refused to acknowledge their relationship in public. She describes what it felt like to face overt racism, especially in the slow-to-change South, despite the fact that her father was the most powerful politician in Dixie. From her richly told narrative emerges a nuanced, fascinating portrait of a father who counseled his daughter about her goals, and supported her in reaching them -- but who was ultimately unwilling to break with the values of his Dixiecrat constituents.

With elegance, candor, and spirit, Essie Mae Washington-Williams gives us a chapter of American history as it has never been written before -- told in a voice that will be heard and cherished by generations.

Synopses

The illegitimate daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond breaks her lifelong silence. Her father, the longtime senator from South Carolina, was once the nation's leading voice for racial segregation; he mounted a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 -- in the name of saving the South from "mongrelization." Her mother was Carrie Butler, a black teenager who worked as a maid on the Thurmond family's South Carolina plantation. The memoir reveals a brave young woman who struggled with the discrepancy between the father she knew -- financially generous, supportive of her education, even affectionate -- and the old Southern politician who refused to acknowledge their relationship in public.

Customer Reviews

on Jul 7 2009, hunderwood said:

" Dear Senator is well written and engaging. I have no doubt that Essie Mae did mpre to sensitize Strom Thurmond to the plight of African Americans than all of the congressional debates could've ever done! This book humanizes the complexities of being a southern segregationist whose political views and values were confronted due to the very real, intelligent and personal faces who were the brunt of the usual segregationists vitriole, ie, his only child for 66 years of his life and her mother, who he seemed to truly love. "

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