Free Republic

At a March 3, 2002 Presidential Gala at Ford’s Theater, in Washington, President George W. Bush was seated in the front row. When emcee Kelsey Grammer introduced blind musician Stevie Wonder, the president smiled and raised his right hand in a perfunctory wave. It was clear to those seated nearby that his gesture was intended for Grammer, one of Hollywood’s few unabashed Republicans. Nevertheless, the Washington Post published a story the following day implying that Bush had waved at Stevie Wonder, saying, “The Prez is such a dolt, he waves at blind folks,” and Democrats all across the country repeated...

AIKEN, S.C. | The oldest son of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond may be going into the family business. Strom Thurmond Jr. is considering running for a recently vacated state Senate seat once held by his father, according to reports published Thursday. Thurmond, 34, did not immediately return a telephone message left by The Associated Press. Before officially becoming a candidate for the seat, Thurmond would have to move to the nearby Senate district with the vacancy. "I have some loose ends to address - one of which would be to move the family," he said. Thurmond served as...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The biracial daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond defended the former segregationist on Tuesday and said the Rev. Al Sharpton "overreacted" when Sharpton learned he is a descendent of a slave owned by the senator's relatives. "In spite of the fact he was a segregationist, he did many wonderful things for black people ... I'm not sure that Reverend Sharpton is aware of all the things he did," said Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who was in South Carolina for a speech. "I kind of feel that there was an overreaction." Professional genealogists working for Ancestry.com found that...

NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton said he wants a DNA test to determine whether he is related to former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond through his great-grandfather, a slave owned by an ancestor of the late senator. "I can't find out anything more shocking than I've already learned," Sharpton told the Daily News, which on Sunday reported the link based on genealogists' findings. Sharpton's spokesman, Rachel Noerdlinger, confirmed Monday for The Associated Press that Sharpton plans to pursue DNA testing, but had no further details. Sharpton and Thurmond didn't appear to have much in common: Thurmond ran for president...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prominent black activist Al Sharpton has learned he is descended from a slave who was owned by ancestors of the one-time segregationist U.S. senator, the late Strom Thurmond, the Daily News reported on Sunday. The series of revelations came to light after the newspaper offered Sharpton a chance to delve into his family history with the help of genealogy experts from Ancestry.com. Sharpton learned of the connection this week, and told the News that "nothing -- nothing -- could prepare me for this." According to the genealogists' research, Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave in...

Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper’s behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation’s best known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation. “I have always wondered what was the background of my family,” the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. “But nothing — nothing — could prepare me for this.” “It’s chilling. It’s amazing.” Some of Thurmond’s...

Al Sharpton's Ancestors Were Slaves Owned by Strom Thurmond's Relatives February 25, 2007 New York - Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper's behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation's best-known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation. "I have always wondered what was the background of my family," the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. "But nothing...

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., was in critical condition Saturday and resting from brain surgery. In South Dakota, the governor said people were standing behind the stricken lawmaker and he urged patience during Johnson's recovery. "At this point, no news is good news," said the senator's spokesman, Noah Pinegar. GOP Gov. Mike Rounds, who would appoint a replacement if Johnson were to leave office, said, "It just happens that we have one of our friends, one of our colleagues, who is going through a tough time. When that happens, we stand by him. And that's exactly what the people of South...

Paul Thurmond, 30, seeks nomination for Charleston County Council seat By LEE BANDY Staff Writer Paul Thurmond, the youngest son of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, said Thursday he will seek the Republican nomination for a seat on the Charleston County Council.Thurmond, in making the first run for public office by a child of the former senator and governor, said he views the seat as an opportunity to make a difference for the people of Charleston County.For three years, Thurmond served in the Charleston County Solicitor’s Office before co-founding the Thurmond Kirchner & Timbes law firm.Thurmond, 30, promised to...

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The youngest son of the late U-S Senator Strom Thurmond says he will seek the Republican nomination for a seat on the Charleston County Council. The 30-year-old Paul Thurmond is the first of his father's five children to seek public office. Paul's brother -- Strom Junior -- was appointed U-S attorney for South Carolina but resigned the post about two years ago. Paul Thurmond left the Charleston County prosecutor's office for private practice last fall. He downplayed any notions he might seek higher office in the future. The seat Thurmond is seeking is held by council chairman...

Strom Thurmond wins S.C. 3A title Associated Press Posted on Sat, Dec. 03, 2005 COLUMBIA, S.C. - Coco Hillary passed for one touchdown and ran for two more scores Saturday night to lead Strom Thurmond a 21-3 victory over Clinton for the state Class 3A championship. Hillary completed 13-of-19 passes for 174 yards and ran for 63 yards as the Rebels finished with a 14-1 record and won their first state title since 1968. Hillary's touchdown pass came on the last play of the first half on a 50-yard toss to Jarrell Taylor that gave Strom Thurmond a 14-3 lead....

[note: old news - 1989 - shows Specter character] S-747, The DeConcini Gun Bill Passes The Senate Judiciary Committee Are you getting the feeling these days that in the future you may have fewer types of firearms to sell? Recent events in Washington seem to indicate you are correct--and that the number of guns on the prohibited list may continue to grow. On July 7, the Bush Administration ordered that the temporary import suspension on 50 semiautomatic firearms be made permanent on 43 of the guns. Then 13 days later, the Senate Judiciary Committee surprised even most of its members...

...CBS has dismissed calls for an internal investigation into its reporting of the story, arguing that it was thoroughly reviewed before broadcast. "I'm confident in the process of vetting that got the story on air. When we say we continue to report the story you can be sure we're being conscientious in responding to these allegations," says CBS News President Andrew Heyward. CBS may offer further evidence in support of its story as early as today. The stakes are high for "60 Minutes," the undisputed gold standard in television news.... Its longtime producer, Don Hewitt, 81, has retired unenthusiastically, and...

FReepers, with all of the contacts we have across the nation, I am hoping that someone can help. I want to speak with survivors of Senators John Stennis, Strom Thurmond, or John Tower. Nov. 12-15, 1971, leadership of the VVAW met in Kansas City and debated and voted on whether to assassinate seven senators, including those above named. Although John Kerry denied being there, witnesses place him at that meeting and then resigning his leadership position. I hope to contact surviving relatives of the three senators to see if any of them will go on record with a public question...

<p>December 18, 2002 -- NEXT to the Mohammed Ali-Joe Frazier fight, Madison Square Garden had never been so packed.</p> <p>Seventeen thousand people jammed the great monument of combat on Oct. 24, 1968, to listen and embrace the words of segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama.</p>

There was a story that the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond never tired of telling his fellow members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was about how, in April 1865, after the tattered survivors of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army stacked their rifles in surrender at Appomattox, his grandfather, George Washington Thurmond, walked more than 300 miles back to his farm in Edgefield County, S.C. Now, Thurmond's mixed-race daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, is taking action to claim her share of that heritage. She's planning to apply to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a 109-year-old organization whose...

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a biracial woman who stepped forward last year to acknowledge that she was the daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, now wants to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization of descendants of soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. Evidently she is eligible: Senator Thurmond, once a fierce segregationist, was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. Ms. Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired teacher who lives in Los Angeles, also plans to apply for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution...

FLORENCE - The company that will put the likeness of Strom Thurmond's daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, on a commemorative coin is the Confederate States Mint.The irony of a mint with the Confederate name producing a coin honoring Washington-Williams, who revealed last December she was the out-of-wedlock child of a man who spent much of his political career fighting integration, is not lost on the company's owner, Florence businessman Gene Brown."I think that's actually going to make the coin more valuable," said Brown, who owns the mint with Thurmond relative Bruce Elrod.The mint was the old Confederate Mint in Ridgeway.Brown said...

Terry McAuliffe's own racial troubles indicates possibility of larger problem in the DNC Do as I say. . . Dems must figure out how to confront their racist past and presentIs there more than meets to eye when it comes to Terry McAuliffe's silence regarding Christopher Dodd's racist comments about Robert Byrd's career? Apparently so. It seems that Mr. McAuliffe has exhibited, and had to apologize for, his own racist words. According to CNN, McAuliffe referred to blacks as "colored people" at a 2001 DNC meeting. Alvin Holmes, a DNC delegate from Alabama, even urged McAuliffe to withdraw his candidacy...

<p>The top Senate Democrat yesterday defended a colleague's assertion that Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Klansman, would have been a great leader during the Civil War.</p> <p>Sen. Tom Daschle said there was "no parallel" between Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's praise of Mr. Byrd and Republican Sen. Trent Lott's praise of former segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond.</p>

A Vietnam veteran who plotted to kill members of Congress in 1971 is reportedly ready to accept a position working in the presidential campaign of John Kerry. Leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, including John Kerry, debated a plot to assassinate congressmen in November 1971, according to a report in the New York Sun. The Kerry campaign denies the senator and presidential candidate was present at the meeting, saying he quit the organization prior to the heated session in Kansas City, Nov. 12-15, 1971. However, Randy Barnes of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, disputes that account. Barnes participated in...

The anti-war group that John Kerry was the principal spokesman for debated and voted on a plot to assassinate politicians who supported the Vietnam War. Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and says he quit the group before the meeting. But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry,who was then 27,was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization. Mr. Barnes was present as part of the Kansas City host chapter for the...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A state Senate committee approved adding the name of Strom Thurmond's biracial daughter to the list of his children engraved on a monument to the late U.S. senator. Essie Mae Washington-Williams came forward last year and announced she is the daughter of Thurmond and a black 16-year-old housekeeper who worked in the Thurmond family home. Thurmond was 22 years old when Washington-Williams was born. He died last year at age 100. The Statehouse monument was built in the late 1990s with $850,000 in private donations. The statue depicts Thurmond as he was in the 1960s -...

Posted on Sun, Dec. 28, 2003 McConnell's lost battle bears name, memory DESPITE DEFEAT, SENATOR STILL OPPOSES CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW By Carl Hulse And Glen Justice NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON - Sen. Mitch McConnell was such a determined opponent of the new campaign finance law that when the fight moved from Congress to the courts, he made certain the decisive case was titled McConnell v. FEC. Now, with the Supreme Court validating the campaign spending restrictions enforced by the Federal Election Commission in a ruling earlier this month, Kentucky's senior U.S. senator will remain strongly identified with the...

Strom Thurmond was your what? That racist, segregationist, obstructionist who stood on the Senate floor and almost single-handedly stopped key civil rights legislation by carrying on the longest filibuster in U.S. history? He was your father? But you are black? This was likely the common first reaction among many who heard the news. But to many blacks, there is little surprise. Some have called the existence of a black child of Strom Thurmond the worst-kept secret in South Carolina or Washington. It was, as it were, an open secret, denied only by the principals involved, Sen. Thurmond and his daughter,...

CENTRALIA, Wash. -- Following his mother's lead, a 53-year-old doctor in Onalaska has come forward to talk openly about his heritage as the mixed-race grandson of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist. Dr. Ronald Williams, an emergency room physician at Morton General Hospital, spoke proudly about his grandfather in an interview with The Chronicle of Centralia and said he regrets he wasn't closer to Thurmond. "I can't imagine not being able to claim your own father," Williams told the paper in a copyright story published Wednesday. "It was even hard for us not to acknowledge it,...

<p>"I never wanted to do anything to harm him or cause detriment to his life or to the lives of those around him," Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired schoolteacher said at a news conference in Columbia, South Carolina.</p> <p>"My father did a lot of things to help other people, even though his public stance appeared opposite.</p>

<p>Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, died in June at age 100. His illegitimate daughter's story was published Sunday by the Washington Post.</p> <p>Essie Mae Washington-Williams, now 78 and a retired school teacher in Los Angeles, publicly revealed her relationship to the former segregationist after a lifetime of silence.</p>

A 78-year-old retired Los Angeles schoolteacher said she is breaking a lifetime of silence to announce that she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of former U.S. senator James Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), once the nation's leading segregationist

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)--Strom Thurmond left most of his estate, estimated at $200,000, to family, former aides and favorite institutions. The value of the assets might be more $200,000 after an inventory is complete, said Jim Jones, the lawyer for the estate. Thurmond died June 26 at age 100. He retired in January after serving 48 years in the Senate. He also was an educator, state senator, state judge and governor. The nine-page will of the nation's oldest and longest serving U.S. senator was filed Monday at the Aiken County courthouse, The (Columbia) State reported Tuesday. Thurmond left his largest cash...

<p>WASHINGTON — Sen. Trent Lott says he'll sign a deal with an unidentified publisher this week to pen his memoirs.</p> <p>The Mississippi Republican says he plans to tell all about the 1994 Republican revolution, initiated when voters gave control of the House and Senate to the GOP. Lott also plans to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at former President Clinton's impeachment and Lott's loss of his leadership job. Lott was ousted as Senate Republican leader last year after he made racially insensitive remarks at a party for then-Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.</p>

Such is the case with the recently dumped old Southern planter that was adopted by a committee of black and white students in 1973 as the mascot for Strom Thurmond High School, replacing a Confederate soldier charging against the backdrop of the Rebel battle banner. On June 24, the Edgefield County school board decided to get rid of the planter and the school nickname, the Rebels, in a 4-3 vote that split along lines of race. The board declared the mascot and the nickname to be symbols of slavery and racism. That vote was the result of protests from black...

<p>WASHINGTON — Since Ernest "Fritz" Hollings was elected to the Senate in 1966, the South Carolina Democrat has been overshadowed by the late Strom Thurmond, who died June 26.</p> <p>But as Hollings' career comes into sharper focus, the 81-year-old World War II veteran and former state legislator and governor is unsure whether he will seek re-election.</p>

COLUMBIA - The death of former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond last week has left the S.C. Republican Party with a void in leadership, political observers say. Thurmond, who retired in January after serving 48 years in the Senate, holds the record as the nation's oldest and longest-serving senator. He died June 26 at the age of 100. "Clearly we're a little bit without a patriarch right now," said Richland County GOP Chairman Shell Suber. "He's been our spiritual leader, if you will, for so long. It may be some time before someone steps in that role." When Thurmond died, Republicans...

Strom's Skeleton The late segregationist's black daughter. By Diane McWhorter Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2003, at 12:11 PM PT Thurmond: curiouser and curiouser In all the words spent on Strom Thurmond's life and times since his death last week, I have seen no acknowledgment of the most interesting of his sundry racial legacies. She is Essie Mae Washington Williams, a widowed former school teacher in her 70s, living in Los Angeles. Presumably she did not show up for any of the obsequies even though Strom Thurmond was almost certainly her father. Williams is black. Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson...

Posted on Mon, Jun. 30, 2003 Thurmond's impact on history remembered Hundreds gather to pay respects By VALERIE BAUERLEIN Staff Writer Strom Thurmond's body was carried into the State House Sunday afternoon for the public viewing. Hundreds gather to pay respects Some knew him. Most didn't -- not personally, anyway. But they knew what he stood for, so they came to stand in line for him on a muggy summer Sunday afternoon. A total of 1,156 people waited about three hours apiece to pay their respects to the late Strom Thurmond, and to thank and console his wife and children....

Strom Thurmond: An American HeroBy Joseph J. SabiaFrontPageMagazine.com | June 30, 2003 “Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration, Dies at 100.”  That is how the New York Times reported the passing of American hero J. Strom Thurmond.  With this outrageous headline, we get a small taste of what happens when the Left is permitted to write our history. Any honest historian knows that Strom Thurmond was not a segregationist for the last 30 years of his life.  Thurmond changed his race-based views and proudly served the people of South Carolina and the Republican Party as a colorblind Senator.  Still, the leftist...

Strom Thurmond Near Death, Family at his Side By: Alex Marcelewski Count on 2 News Thursday, June 26, 2003 Tonight, Strom Thurmond is near death at an Edgefield hospital. We have been asking questions about the senator's condition all day. The senator has been listed in serious condition since his arrival at the special hospital room built for him in his hometown of Edgefield. The 100 year-old retired in 2002. Sources tell Count on 2 News that the Thurmond family members have been called to the hospital today, and that his son, US Attorney Strom Thurmond, Jr., has been at...

WASHINGTON – The late Sen. Strom Thurmond knew veterans of every American war going back to the Civil War. No one ever served longer in the US Senate. His former colleagues say no one ever will. Yet, the statements in his honor on the floor of the Senate on Friday were unusually restrained by the standards of a body known for effusive tributes to its own. Senators noted his longevity, patriotism, capacity for friendship, and prodigious service to his constituents in South Carolina. What they all avoided was his politics - especially his once-segregationist views on race. "When he saw...

Strom Thurmond: A Tribute Former Untied States Senator Strom Thurmond died today. He was just one hundred years old. He was a solider, a lawyer, a judge, a Governor, a Presidential candidate, and the longest-serving Senator in the entire history of the United States. He was a man of honor. He was a great man. And he was a hero. In the days to come you will hear many obituaries for Strom and, I am certain, virtually all of them will come with a ‘but.’ Yes, they will say, Senator Thurmond did this and this, but he was also once...

Strom Thurmond Dead at 100 Thursday, June 26, 2003 By James Di Liberto Jr. Former South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond (search), the nation's longest-serving senator and former "Dixiecrat" (search) candidate for the presidency, died Thursday in Edgefield, S.C. He was 100. Thurmond died at 9:45 p.m. after being in poor health in recent weeks, said his older son, Strom Thurmond Jr. Thurmond, born Dec. 5, 1902, had been living in a newly renovated wing of a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield (search) since he returned to the state from Washington in early 2003. "Surrounded by family, my father was...

<p>Strom Thurmond, the oldest and longest-serving senator in history, died last night at age 100.</p> <p>Mr. Thurmond died at 9:45 p.m., his son Strom Thurmond Jr. said. He had been living in a newly renovated wing of a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield, S.C., since retiring after 48 years in the Senate earlier this year.</p>

Mourners recount ways Thurmond served S.C. More than 1,000 go to State House visitation DAN HUNTLEY Staff Writer COLUMBIA - They came after church, after lunch, and after work; they wore suits, military uniforms, church dresses, flip-flops and wingtips. They were united by one thing under the hot Columbia sun: They wanted to pay their respects on Sunday afternoon to "The Senator," Strom Thurmond. At 6 p.m., with more than two hours to go, more than 1,000 people had made their way through a line that wrapped around the front of the State House. They shaded themselves with umbrellas and...

<p>Vice President Dick Cheney wil represent President Bush at the funeral of Strom Thurmond on Tuesday, the White House says.</p> <p>Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also will go to the First Baptist Church in Columbia to pay his respects to the former Republican Senator, said State Senator John Courson.</p>

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler"I believe in spiritual and political redemption. I don't think anyone can excuse some of his earlier positions. But I thought his redemption was genuine. In the later years of his career, he voted for the reauthorization of the Civil Rights act. It serves no purpose to try to second-guess that. I believe his political redemption on the racial matter was genuine." Since the national media and many liberals and self-loathing right-wingers in the blogosphere seem to be focused solely on what was bad about Strom Thurmond and civil rights, I decided to catalog...

No Respect for the Dead I really wasn't that surprised that many of the national news reports would dwell upon Trent Lott's remarks at Thurmond's retirement party and I was even less surprised that most of the articles written today would include mentions of Thurmond's changing views on race and integration. It is a bit interesting that the NY Times, that running joke of a newspaper in Gotham, chose as its headline: Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration, Dies at 100. Of all the things they could mention about Thurmond, the headline writer/editor chose to leave it as just Strom Thurmond,...

The late Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party in 1964, and joined the Republican Party, bringing a part of the Dixiecrat worldview with him. The Republicans were always been the party of Capitalism and equal rights before 1964. During the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt years, the GOP opposed the Democratic party's socialist policies, and in addition, they were supportive of black Civil Rights. Before 1964, Republicans had proven that there was no contradiction between supporting capitalism, and supporting civil rights. And during the era of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower, the Republican Party came to be identified as the party...

Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration, Dies at 100 By ADAM CLYMER trom Thurmond of South Carolina, a central figure in the political transformation of the South and the longest-serving senator in American history, died yesterday in Edgefield, S.C. He was 100. He had been living in Edgefield, his hometown, since retiring from the Senate in January, after 48 years. Mr. Thurmond first came to national attention in 1948 as the States' Rights candidate after Southerners walked out of the Democratic convention to protest the party's new commitment to civil rights. Mr. Thurmond finished a distant third to President Harry S....

The Jewish tradition mandates us to recite the Mourners Prayer or Kaddish following the death of a family member or friend. The theme of Kaddish is rather the Greatness of God as a being. In Memory and in Honor of Senator Thurmond, I urge us all to pray for the late Senators family. Hebrew Version: Yisgadal v'yiskadash sh'may raho, B'olmo deev-vro birusay, v'yamloch mal-busay, Bh-yah-boh uvyo-mayhon, uv-ha-yahd' hol hays yisrael, Ba-a-go-lo u-vizman ko-reev, v'im-ru omayn. Y'hay ah'may ra-ho m'vorab, l'olam ul-ol-may-yo. Yisborah v'yish-tabab, v'yispoar v'yisomamm V'yis-na-yah, v'yis-hadar, v'yisaleh, v'yishalal sh'may d'kud sho b'rib hu; L'ay-lo min kol bir-ho-so v'shee-roso, Tush-b'ho-so...

<p>WASHINGTON — The one-time cat herder is finding that being a plain old cat isn't so bad.</p> <p>While the transition has been personally difficult and he misses some of the perks of his old job, Sen. Trent Lott is finding freedom in his new role that was unavailable to him as Majority Leader Lott — a job so frustrating at times that he likened it to herding cats.</p>