The media didn't know Strom Thurmond had an out of wedlock daughter with his 15-year old maid?

[NNN0LHI]

Who believes not one reporter was ever tipped to this story for over 50 years?

This is one of those cover ups that many people had to know about but was still kept hidden for over 5 decades.

Think about that. 5 decades. That is unbelievable.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3842554/

Sex and Race in the American South

The story of Strom Thurmond and his black maid

By Retha Hill

updated 4:34 p.m. CT, Sun., Jan. 4, 2004
No one knows for sure that it was rape.

In fact, they barely mention the girl at all, just some vague reference to a "relationship" that resulted in a baby girl named Essie Mae. What is known of the mother is this: Carrie Butler was 15 and worked as a maid in Strom Thurmond's parents' house. Strom Thurmond hailed from one of Edgefield, South Carolina's most prominent homes, run by a well-connected lawyer who once killed a man.

She was from Edgefield's legendarily impoverished Black part of town and was poor even by Negro Edgefield standards – so poor, in fact, that when Strom's baby came, she couldn't even afford to clothe or feed her. While Strom, who lived to the ripe old age of 100 – dying just this past June – was just beginning to make a name for himself as a staunch segregationist, Carrie Butler died in poverty and pain at the young age of 38.

The real story

For most of the media, that's the end of that part of the story and the real questions have to do with Thurmond's political legacy as in, how could a man with a staunch segregationist history have fathered a child with a Black girl? snip

"She was 15 at the time and institutionally vulnerable and economically and socially vulnerable, and that was driven by her race and gender," Rose continues. "The fact that it is not at the center of the story is a sign of the deep denial and unconscious response that this nation has to this part of the nation's history." snip

"It is very interesting that the media picked this story up and promoted the idea that the family had worked it out, and she had been acknowledged and that was the end of it. What doesn't get discussed is that this is a woman who was underage, working for a family and he was five years older, and it meets the criteria for rape.

[dem629]

1. Retha Hill is really on top of the pressing news of the day!

[crikkett]

21. dateline on the story is 2004. It was pressing at the time. n/t

[dem629]

22. Yes, it changed all of our lives.

Somehow.

Or something.

I guess....

[NNN0LHI]

25. Having a segregationist US Senator in DC instead of in jail where he belonged did change our lives

And not for the better either.

Don

[dem629]

26. What crime did he commit?

I mean, actual crime, not the "he must have" type of evidence discussed here.

[FSogol]

2. C'mon, who doesn't have an out of wedlock daughter with one of their maids?`

:sarcasm:

[raccoon]

3. I wonder if he remembered Essie Mae in his will, and if so to what extent. Recd nt

[GoCubsGo]

5. I believe he did.

How much, I am not sure. I don't think they ever stated an amount, but IIRC, what she was given was reasonably significant.

[GoCubsGo]

4. They covered up FDR's paraylsis, too.

As well as JFK's health problems. That being said, the local media DID know about Essie Mae. So did everyone else around here. But, the local media are mostly right-wing bigots, so it's not surprising they'd protect one of their own from their national counterparts. Strom brought big bucks into the state (I-20, Savannah River Site), and they didn't want to risk losing the piles of cash he brought here. As much as I despised the man, I have to say that if he was still in office during the past five years, I would still have my old job. Ditto for Fritz Hollings. Their replacements are feckless, little assholes, who aren't fit to lick the boots of either of their predecessors. And, when one considers that Sperm Thurmond was one of their predecessors...well, you get the idea.

[raccoon]

6. They covered up JFK's affairs, too, while he was in office. nt

[NNN0LHI]

9. Affairs between consenting adults and the rape of a child is a little different though

Wouldn't you say?

Don

[raccoon]

17. I'm just pointing out that the media has covered up lots of things.

Another thing, the media led the public to believe that Prince Charles and Diana were madly in love with each other when they got married.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. It used to be that the media did not report on the private lives of politicians.

Even if something like this was known by some (or was common knowledge to all) it was not reported. Whether right or wrong, their privacy was respected.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Rape of a child goes way beyond someones private lives

This guy was writing laws for chrissake.

The bar should be a little higher it would seem.

Don

[Arkansas Granny]

16. You would think that's the way it should be, but that wasn't the practice until recent years.

[NNN0LHI]

20. How recent?

I am 54, be 55 in March, and I can't remember any time during my life when raping a child was considered acceptable behavior.

Don

[Arkansas Granny]

23. Of course the rape of a child is not acceptable. Nevertheless, the media

covered up a great many sins of the rich and famous in years past.

Also, the legal age of consent used to be much lower than it is today and it may be that she was not even considered a child at the time this happened. IIRC, some states had a legal age of consent of 12 years, maybe even lower. Back in the 50's it wasn't uncommon for 16 year old girls to be married and with parent's consent they could marry even younger.

[Triana]

8. THe lame$tream media is notorius for willful ignorance - and for ignoring all or part

of any story according to what fits their agenda. Whether it's Michael Jackson, Strom Thurmond, Health Care, Climate Change or whatever the issue or story is - they are notorius for leaving part or all of the story completely out, and/or for twisting or taking out of context what of it they do bother reporting. Truth be damned - they exist strictly for self-service (profit, primarily via ratings and protecting their corprat interests via propaganda aimed at shaping public opinion), NOT public service.

"Medialoids" - news media infected by tabloid journalism - the same entities that parrot "death panels" and the like....and the same ones who film and repeatedly play "huge" crowds of teabaggers at health care town halls - whilst ignoring thrice the number of decent folk at these gatherings - to give the impression that "teabaggers" are a majority when what they really are is an ignorant and very loud minority. (some of the same corprats who own the media are also in the health care industry - selling devices, insurance, etc. so they have an interest in seeing HCR NOT passed)...

You are NOT going to get the truth from them about anything or anyONE - much less the whole story. Stop expecting it.

[Jamastiene]

11. There was once a time when MSM did not serve as a giant crotch sniffing dog.

It is none of the public's business if anyone has a child out of wedlock, politician, celebrity, or not.

I had hoped DU wasn't the type of place that was obsessed with whether or not someone is born out of wedlock, but I guess there are always nosy, judgmental, bible thumping busy bodies around, even on DU.

This BASTARD isn't amused.
:eyes:

[NNN0LHI]

12. Does that mean you think men having sex with children is no ones business?

Interesting.

Don

[Jamastiene]

18. Go ahead and rant and rave against bastards. You know you want to.

You were complaining about people born out of wedlock.

Go ahead and tell us how fucking evil we are, Reverend Zimmerman, who was a child molester too. "If you don't have a father, you don't belong to God. You are the spawn of Satan." Yup, remind me once again what that racist shit Christian school preacher said to me when I was 9 years old.

You know you agree with him.

Something tells me you have more of a problem with the out of wedlock part than the child molestation part.

[NNN0LHI]

19. Why did you avoid my question?

Does that mean you think men having sex with children is no ones business?

Just curious about that one.

Don

[HughBeaumont]

13. If only ALL media were as great as the Onion:

Strom Thurmond Begins Preparing Cabinet

Strom Thurmond Drafts Bill Prohibiting Telegraph Porn

Strom Thurmond Calls For Construction Of Transcontinental Railroad

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[SidDithers]

14. Rec for visibility...

an amazing story.

Sid

[struggle4progress]

15. How could a segregationist have sex with a black woman? It's no mystery: the whole point of Jim Crow

was to create an exploitable underclass. There was really nothing else involved: the racial theorizing and pseudo-Biblical jabber were simply intended to obscure and mystify the exploitation, so that nobody would think too clearly about what they could see with their own eyes whenever they just looked. The system reduced some people to powerless poverty so other people could use them -- and, of course, everyone who could took advantage of the situation

[Brickbat]

24. As I understand it, quite a few reporters had their suspicions, but Thurmond was good at never

leaving a paper trail. Neither he nor Essie Mae would accept questions about it. It was very much a different time, and a rape of a 15- or 16-year-old black maid by a 22-year-old white man just wasn't a driving story. It's terrible, but that's how it was.