Newspaper Page Text
December 25-31, 2003 Vol. 23, No. 1138
Miss Savannah charged
with murder
Twenty-one year old
Sharron Nicole Red
mond has garnered
national attention after
shooting her boyfriend to
death. Police say the
atrack was motivated by
jealousy. Page 3A
Was it rape?
Black leaders chime in
on the revelation that
segregationist Strom
Thurmond fathered a
mixed race child, suggest
ing that it was a case of
statutory rape and not an
interracial affair. Page 2A
Home’s a hospital for
the holidays
The Yuletide Season is
especially challenging for
children who are sick and
in the hospital. MCG is
working its own brand of
holiday magic to make
the season brisht for its
youngest patients. Page
3A
RA U RA R A RTR WY
OPINION
Bob Young, a misguid
ed Grinch '
Bob Young’s recent call
for the state to take back
the remainder of a S2O
‘million grant aimed at
revitalizing the inner city
earns him the ‘Grinch
with a political stench’
award. Page 8A
R M A TSI P RSB AR SRR
ARTBEAT
‘Jim Crow’ comes to
South Carolina
The paintings of John
nie . Lee Gray "depicting
the Jim Crow era will be
exhibited at the South
Carolina State Museum
beginning January. Page
1B
to local charities
Jim Hudson Lexus dis
played the true meaning
of Christmas in donating
SII,OOO to seven lucky
agencies.. Page 4A :
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Strom T.....:m0nd had
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By SEAN YOES
Special to the NNPA
BALTIMORE (NNPA) - After decades of silence, 78-year
old Essie Mae Washington-Williams has proclaimed to the
world that she is the daughter of the late segregationist politi
cian, Strom Thurmond.
“I am Essie Mae Washington-Williams, and at last, I feel
completely free,” she said during a recent press conference in
Columbia, S.C.
However, the Baltimore Afro-American newspapers reported
in 1948, the same year South Carolina’s then-Gov. James Strom
Thurmond was the presidential nominee of the segregationist
Dixiecrat Party, that he had several Black relatives, including an
uncle and two cousins.
The AFRO initially reported in the edition dated Aug. 17,
1948, that a man named Robert Thurmond, from Morristown,
N.J., was Strom Thurmondss first cousin.
“I certainly do know Strom, and he knows me, and he knows
of our relationship because we were the only Thurmonds in
Edgefield [South Carolina],” stated Robert Thurmond.
Edgefield was the home of Strom Thurmond and his father,
James E. “Snip” Thurmond, and, according to AFRO reporter
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“It's about helping those less fortunate and about being your brother's keeper. And | encourage everyone out
there to become involved and support what we’re doing to help these kids have a very, merry Christmas,” James
Brown told reporters during his annual toy giveaway held a few days before Christmas at the Imperial Theater.
Parents and children lined the block waiting for one of hundreds of toys given away by the Godfather of Soul.
Mavor’s motives questioned after attack on ANIC
y q
By HALEY A. DUNBAR
And THERESA MINOR
Augusta Focus Staff Writers
Members of the Augusta
Neighborhood Improvement
Corporation (ANIC) board
of directors are questioning
whether or not the mayor is
attempting to derail the
organization for his own
political gain.
Board members were out
raged to learn that Mayor
Bob Young had accused
ANIC of reneging on its
pledged allocation of
$750,000 to the city to be
used toward the construction
of the Augusta Common.
The accusation came in a let
ter delivered to Gov. Sonny
Perdue in which Young
requested that there be “an
immediate investigation into
the use of S2O million of state
money by ANIC and the
Development Authority of
Richmond County.”
However, there was a major
Subscribe to the Augusta Focus, Call (706) 722-4222, extension 225
omission in the mayor’s letter
—the fact that the city had
already received the first of
four payments, totaling
$187,500. In a letter dated
Oct. 2, Public Works Direc
tor Teresa Smith confirmed
receipt of the payment and
praised the collaboration
between ANIC and the city
as a “good example of success
ful partnership between the
City and the private sector.”
ANIC board members
wasted no time in refuting
the accusation, criticizing the
mayor’s move and question
ing his motives during a
meeting on Monday, Dec.
e
“That attack on ANIC
reminded me of a parade I
witnessed in 1941. I had to
go up and take the hood off
one of the marchers to see
who was really underneath,”
said board member Leamon
Grier.
Roscoe Williams followed
— cautioning fellow board
Douglas Hall, Edgefield was the home to several other Thur
monds, many of whom were Black.
At the end of August in 1948, Hall traveled to Edgefield to
find the rest of Strom Thurmond’s Colored clan.
In the Aug. 24, 1948, edition of the AFRO, he reported the
existence of the Rev. James R. Thurmond, a half-cousin of
Strom Thurmond, Eva Thurmond Smith, another cousin, and
Thomas Thurmond, Strom Thurmond’s uncle.
“Why, I remember well when Gov. Thurmond’s father used
to visit my grandfather. I remember asking my grandfather, why
did that white man always visit our home?
My grandfather [Thomas Thurmond] told me that they were
brothers,” claimed Rev. Thurmond.
Douglas Hall reported further: “It seems like everybody up
there [Edgefield, S.C.] are Thurmonds. They are of all colors.
Some are so White that you cannot tell them from the original
Thurmonds. The only thing that surprises Colored Thurmonds
is, why is it so important that they are related to the White
Thurmonds? It is an old story and ‘everybody in these parts
knows it.”
In 1948, Essie Mae Washington was 23 years old and she
allegedly had known about her father for seven years. The ques
tion is, did she know about her father’s other Colored kin?
members not to lose sight of
ANlC'’s goal to improve the
living conditions among the
poor and elderly in Augusta’s
downtown.
“We must keep our eyes on
the project and not be dis
tracted by these baseless
attacks,” Williams said.
Some board members
openly speculated that the
mayor’s request for an investi
gation, preceded by a barrage
of negative news articles in
the Augusta Chronicle, was in
fact a part of a carefully
orchestrated plan. ANIC
officials suggested that it
comes down to what has
become a contentious strug
gle by some city officials to
prevent the fire department
and the Housing and Neigh
borhood Development
Department from relocating
to ANIC’s office building
now under construction on
Laney-Walker Boulevard.
Those departments are cur
rently leasing office space
ww.augustafocus.com
from a company run by
Augusta Chronicle publisher,
William Morris. Morris’
company stands to lose in
excess of $300,000 if the relo
cation takes place. Ironically,
negative media coverage in
the Augusta Chronicle was the
only justification offered by
Young in asking for the inves
tigation.
According to ANIC Presi
dent and CEO Robert
Cooks, Mayor Young’s
request is an “overtly political
move” based on a “complete
disregard for factual represen
tation” by local media. In
A Des 19 loiter »
Gov. Perdue’s office, Cooks
explained that despite
ANlC'’s arrangement with the
City of Augusta, the media
continues to perpetuate the
“totally unsubstantiated claim
that ANIC has somehow
been delinquent in (their)
donation of state grant funds
to the Augusta Common
construction project.”
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
PAID
AUGUSTA GA
PERMIT NO 302
FIFTY CENTS
Roommate of
Thurmond’s
black daughter
held secret, too
By HALEY A. DUNBAR
Augusta Focus Staff Writer
AIKEN, S.C. - When
Essie Mae Washington-
Williams came out earlier
this month with the
painfully long kept secret
that she is the Black daugh
ter of the late Sen. J. Strom
Thurmond, hers wasn’t the
only burden lifted. Her
college roommate and
sorority sister Lula Harper
felt as if the weight of their
shared secret had been
taken off of her shoulders as
well.
“When I heard that Essie
came out and got all of that
off of her, it was like 1 was
healed, too. It was really a
blessing and I'm thankful to
God that she was able to do
it,” said Mrs. Harper.
Harper, who now resides
in Aiken, roomed with
Williams at South Carolina
State College during the
1940’5. She said their rela
tionship mirrored that of
sisters and although they
never discussed the “family
secret’, she always knew
that Thurmond was
Williams’ father. Harper
also explained that she ben
efited from being the room
mate of then Governor
Thurmond’s daughter.
“Senator Thurmond gave
me a job as messenger for
the president of State Col
lege and it paid for my
room and board and for me
to eat,” she said.
The job helped secure
Harper’s education but
See Thurmond, page 10A
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Mayor Bob Young
Cooks' letter went on to say
that “as late as December 18,
the Augusta Chronicle contin
ues to report that ANIC is
delinquent in this matter.”
The CEO also included with
his letter copies of the Chron
icle articles in question and
the correspondence from
Smith regarding the agree
ment between the two enti
ties.
ANIC plans to submit a
point-by-point rebuttal to the
Governor’s office addressing
all claims made against the
non-profit organization in
the past few weeks.