Woman says she's Strom Thurmond's child [She's 78 years old...]

NJ.COM ^

[Sub-Driver]

LOS ANGELES (AP)

[Killborn]

Compare that to Clintoon's "put some ice on it"...

[Az Joe]

She should be thankful she wasn't clin-toon's daughter.

[Dog Gone]

The fact that she's not seeking money adds some credibility to the story.

But doesn't this, if true, detract from the image of him as being a racist pig?

[ladyinred]

What bad behavior of a dim is this brought out to justify? That is usually the reason these things are released.

[ConservativeMan55]

"Just Damn!"

[Norse]

"I'm sure the senator may have sowed some wild oats in his early days, but certainly I have no information about that."

...this is the funniest thing i've ever read

[ConservativeMan55]

LOL!

Strom was quite a flirt! He flirted with Laura Ingraham a lot!

[TedsGarage]

No, it makes it worse, because he was willing to use black servants for his sexual pleasure, but he wasn't willing to acknowledge them as equals or grant them the same rights as whites. If blacks were inferior, why were they good enough to bear his children?

An honorable man would have married the mother, or at least acknowledged the daughter, but in South Carolina in the 1920s, marriage would have been a violation of the miscegenation laws, and admitting to paternity of an inter-racial bastard would have ruined any chance at a political career.

[Orange1998]

Call me naive I did not see race mentioned.

[Martin Tell]

Mark Steyn reported this rumor several months ago. Steyn wrote that Larry Flynt (during Clinton impeachment) claimed to have proof (video, Steyn wrote) that Strom had a little jungle fever in his younger days. Steyn did a hilarous take-off imagining the slient film that Flynt would produce.

[Finalapproach29er]

Strom messing with a black woman in the 1920's? The Klan was most powerful in the 1920's. This would have killed his career if not him ;amazing it stayed under wraps. Must have cost him big bucks to keep quiet.

M. Steyn told a story of how when Strom was a judge in the 1930's, he sentenced a women (black) to death and had sex with her in the car on the way to the death house. Said it was a true story known by old timers in South Carolina.

[Common Tator]

But doesn't this, if true, detract from the image of him as being a racist pig?

What is posted here is a excerpt of the story. I am pretty sure it is true.

But the image of Strom Thurman as a Racist is a media invention. Strom ran in 1948 as a states rights candidate. His prior record as Governor was not racist as all. He put real teeth in anti lynching laws. He opened up education to blacks and spent white peoples tax money to do it.

When he opposed Harry Truman in 1948 the media claimed he had changed sides and become a racist. But there is little evidence to back that belief.

Thurman was the first Senator to integrate his staff. And he did not appoint blacks to menial positions and claim integeration.

It is interesting ot note if you want to name a Southern white man who got the highest percentages of black votes on record, that name would be Strom Thurman.

[Catspaw]

Her race is mentioned in the Washington Post article. The article includes a picture.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60363-2003Dec12.html

[Kirkwood]

Um, read the first sentence again. The woman is said to be mixed race, so the mother was obviously a different race than Strom.

[HitmanLV]

Is she sure she isn't one of his 'child brides?' ;-)

[Orange1998]

Oooopss!

[Orange1998]

After seeing the pic how can the relatives deny it.

[Martin Tell]

From the Steyn article (posted here at FR (12/08/02), naturally):

"There were rumors that Larry Flynt, Hustler's head honcho, had been working with Clinton operatives to provide the president with an insurance policy lest the numbers get a little close: They were hunting up video evidence of any amorous adventuring by hypocritical senators with a mind to convict. Naturally, we in the media were eager to see what Flynt might produce. I turned up one morning to find my colleagues immersed in a scandal from an unexpected corner: "Thurmond In World's Oldest Love-Child Shocker!"

Apparently, someone had alleged that in 1923 Strom had fathered a child by a black woman. It seemed unlikely even Flynt could have video evidence, though perhaps he had an authentic silent movie of the incident with full piano accompaniment and ornately bordered dialogue cards saying things like, ''Why, Mistuh Thurmond suh, what are you doin' here at this hour?'' Perhaps the lady in question had a petticoat with the senator's DNA on it, which the FBI lab had managed to carbon-date. At any rate, Strom's damage-control strategy of just lying low till the love-child died of old age was in tatters, and he was faced with having to stump up for 75 years in back child support.

In the end, like most everything else, it just added to Strom's luster."

[Route66]

Well we can't be so sure yet that this is not about money. According to her, she has been receiving "financial support" since 1941 about twice a year. That's over 60 years of payments. I could understand his support while she was a young girl and woman, but if it's true and it's been going on all her life, one would have to wonder if these were more payments she took for silence than they were simply a gift on his part. And now that he's gone, I assume those 'gifts' have stopped.

Or it all simply could be a scam that won't be easily refutable now that Thurmond is dead. We'll have to see how it plays out.