Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond

Synopsis

In this historically momentous memoir, the segregationist senator&’s mixed-race daughter speaks out about her life in the shadows. Breaking nearly eight decades of silence, Essie Mae Washington–Williams comes forward with the dramatic story of her life. Her father, the late Strom Thurmond, had been the nation&’s leading proponent of racial segregation. He famously undertook a twenty-four–hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, a desperate attempt to save 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 explosive civil rights era, this poignant memoir recalls how Essie Mae struggled with the discrepancy between the generous and even affectionate father she knew privately, 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 fascinating portrait of a father who counseled and supported his daughter, yet would not break with the values of his Dixiecrat constituents.

Copyright:

2005

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

187 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780061743085

Related ISBNs:

9780060761424

Publisher:

HarperCollins

Date of Addition:

10/30/23

Copyrighted By:

Essie Mae Washington-Williams and William Stadiem

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.