Yankeefan, yes, Strom Thurmond had an illegitimate daughter, but he DID NOT refuse to recognize her. He even put her through college (S.C. State.) What he DIDN'T do is acknowledge publicly that he had an illegitimate daughter, although, might I add, it wasn't the best-kept secret on the face of the planet.
And, yes, he was a segregationist at one time, and probably a stereotyplical racist. But by the time of his death, he had changed. Like Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who was actually at one time a membership recruiter for the KKK, men change. You need to judge them by what is ultimately in their hearts and the TOTALITY of their work, not just is what on their public records from a half century ago.
At least one of our founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson) also reportedly fathered a child out of wedlock (does the name Sally Hemmings ring any bells?), Benjamin Franklin was a sexist playboy DAWG. They all accepted slavery, although some of them did express reservations about it.
Strom Thurmond did a lot for the State of South Carolina over the years, and while many would like to point to the U.S. Senate as the driving force behind the end of institutionalize segregation in the fact of strong opposition from SOUTHERN Democrats, Sen. Brooke of Massachusets actually became the first African-American U.S Senator since Reconstruction only in the late 1960s or early 1970s. (In case you missed it, he was the one who was fooling around with Barbara Walters, as she admitted in her recent book.) And when it came time for those massive race riots many so feared, they took place not in places like Atlanta and Birmingham, but in places like Boston, and Detroit, and Los Angeles.
Judge Sen. Thurmond by the totality of his life and his accomplishments, please, just as you would judge former Sen. Fritz Hollings, who has always been a Southern Conservative Democrat. Hollings, you know, was the Governor of South Carolina who put that Confederate Battle Flag above the State House in the early 1960s anyway. He was also a segregationist, but he grew, and he changed, and he accepted.
It was a different time, and it is both both difficult and unfair to judge mid-20th Century political figures through 21st Century eyes. And for Republicans who used to be Southern Democrats, Strom Thurmond is a very good example.
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Yank
