Who Was Strom Thurmond?
Can a white person afford to be a non-racist in a racist society?
Strom Thurmond could not. One of the most salient and incredible statements made by Ms. Williams is that she was quiet because she felt that she had to “protect” the reputation of her white father. That Strom Thurmond most certainly needed protection is a fact no one has questioned or fully defined. No one has questioned how and why did a little black girl understand so well that she was the one who could protect a grown white man. From what was this little black girl protecting Strom Thurmond? Did she fear that a large group of angry black people would go down to the state house and attack or drag Strom out of there for violating a young black girl? Was it the justice system that Strom needed to fear? If not, then who or what was it that Strom needed protecting from and what did that have to do with a little black girl who was afraid to say who her father was?
Seventy-eight years later, this child with great emotions and obvious relief comes forward to put down this incredible burden she has carried for a lifetime. She told the world who her father is---after he is dead.
Was Strom’s transgression having illegal sex with a teenager? Or maybe it was having sex with a black teenager in a racist setting? Or was it having sex without the sanctity of marriage? None of these were the taboo or crime that even a young black girl knew so well and from which she felt obliged to protect her white father.
Ol’ Strom did not break any rules of the South; therefore he continued to be accepted as one of the good old boys and even recently was celebrated in the comments of Trent Lott, as a great man and a likely candidate for president of the United States. Anyone remember Thomas Jefferson?
The Southern taboo that has been a historical unwritten rule etched indelibly in the Southern white psyche was the disturbing act of a white man actually claiming a child he created with a black woman as his own and acting as a father would or should. This was the line Strom Thurmond feared crossing and felt it so necessary to consistently deny for his entire life as an adult. This was also the same line that his little black girl knew would likely harm or even destroy the reputation, livelihood and future of the great man, her father, Strom Thurmond. This is the secret she felt compelled to keep all seventy-eight years of her life and until Strom was dead.
It was acceptable to sleep with black women and even to have children with them as evidenced by the great number of light-skinned African Americans today. The unforgivable crime was to actually claim the children of such engagements. According to W.E. B. Du Bois, 13% of black Americans were “visibly of white as well as Negro descent” and over 25% were probably of “white, Indian and Negro blood” by 1860. He estimated that by 1935 fewer than 25% of black Americans were of “unmixed African descent.”
Interracial liaisons between white men and black women never drew the reactions and great anger that resulted from the more rare liaisons between black men and white women. I grew up in Tennessee where almost every family have certain family members who are “light, bright and damn near white.” Very rarely did a white father claim his black children, even when they looked exactly like him and everybody in the black community knew the “secret.” Today there are black and white families in the same little towns with the same last names, obviously related but unable to claim any kinship.
Claiming such children set up a serious problem with the separated and binary categories of whiteness and blackness. Who and what were these in-between people? Were they white? Were they black? Were they neither? The early ‘one-drop” rule conveniently resolved this ongoing question and problem for white America. Any child born of a white and a black parent was considered black. In fact, one drop of black blood determined your racial status, no matter how white you actually were. Therefore there was no in-between status for children where either parent was black.
Today we still use such binary and problematic categories to define people in this country. We continue to try to determine who is white and who is not. It is important to maintain the binary definitions otherwise whiteness itself and the privilege associated with it will change and very likely have to disappear. Most white people cannot afford that. The Census Bureau has created a myriad of racial categories to attempt to define all of the racial groups in America today. We struggle with the meanings, but significantly all of the categories could be eliminated and replaced with two simple labels. ‘I am white” and “I am not white” would accomplish the task.” This is best seen in the odd way Latinos are divided between who is white and who is not.
Interestingly, what explanation did Ms. Williams’s mother give to her illegitimate daughter about her absent and white father? Did she stress the need to be quiet and not to reveal who he was in order to protect him? Did a young and ambitious Strom Thurman need protecting? How would this be articulated to a little girl so that she too would fear for all of her life to name her father?
Ms. Williams, ironically, but consistent with the history of such relationships, indirectly benefited from her long silence, as it was extremely doubtful that she could have received any of the secret help she did from Strom if she had gone public with her story. The money that Strom forwarded to her was in effect hush money to protect him and had to be a bitter bargain for a poor young black girl.
Ms. Williams’s mother only lived thirty-eight years while Strom made it to 100. Under what conditions did their lives differ so much? Did Ms. Williams and her mother not deserve more?
Langston Hughes, a child of mixed-race describes the complex relationship best in his poem, “Cross.”
My old man’s a white old man
And my old mother’s black
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell
I’m sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house
My ma died in a shack
I wonder where I’m gonna die,
Being neither white nor black
Langston Hughes
Compelling stories such as this one about a white father named Strom Thurmond and his black daughter continues to surprise us Americans, one indicator of our continued preoccupation with race. Race and racism will continue to be a serious problem in America as long as white Americans cannot afford to be non-racist in what we all know is still a very racist society.