Strom Thurmond was a U.S. senator representing South Carolina. He was an opponent of civil rights and gave the longest filibuster in US history in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
After he died, his daughter came forward. She was biracial, the daughter of a fifteen-year-old Black girl who worked for his family. He was twenty-two and even if she was a willing partner, she was younger than the age of consent which was sixteen then. Even if she consented, he was a rapist. Asking if she consented ignores the fact that there was no way she could refuse in 1924.
- WNYC: The racist filibuster we can’t afford to forget
- The Nation: Was Strom Thurmond a Rapist? at Web Archive
- Washington Post: The Still Untold Story of the Senator’s Child
July 10, 2020
This is such diligent work on your part. Well done.
Thank you!