December 17, 2003, it was revealed that the late and longest-serving senator Strom Thurmond, a staunch segregationist, had fathered an illegitimate child with his family’s African-American housekeeper, Carrie Butler. Butler was 16 and he was 22. That’s one helluva skeleton in the closet for someone who launched a 24-hour filibuster against the 1957 Civil Rights Act and who ran for president as a Dixiecrat.

Their daughter is Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who waited until age 78 to confirm rumors she and her father had earlier denied. Thurmond’s family affirmed, offering no apology for shunning their relatives: Essie was whisked away to her aunt and uncle’s when she was 6 months old. Her mother died poor and silent to her last.

On January 30, Essie shares her story of Strom as a father and the cultural dynamics that compelled her to silence while bearing the racial oppression Strom promoted as a politician.

[Essie Mae Washington-Williams with Dr. Gail Saltz: 01/30/06]