Breaking nearly eight decades of silence, Essie Mae Washington-Williams
comes forward with a story of unique historical magnitude and incredible
human drama. Her father, the late Strom Thurmond, was once the nation's
leading voice for racial segregation (one of his signature political
achievements was his 24-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of
1957, done in the name of saving the South from "mongrelization"). Her
mother, however, was a black teenager named Carrie Butler who worked as
a maid on the Thurmond family's South Carolina plantation.
Set against the explosively changing times of the civil rights movement,
this poignant memoir recalls how she 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 her
publicly. From her richly told narrative, as well as the letters she and
Thurmond wrote to each other over the years, emerges a nuanced,
fascinating portrait of a father who counseled his daughter about her
dreams and goals, and supported her in reaching them-but who was
unwilling to break with the values of his Dixiecrat constituents.
With elegance, dignity, and candor, 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 future generations.
