Editing Strom Thurmond (section)

===First daughter with Carrie Butler===
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?179613-1/washingtonwilliams-news-conference Essie Mae Washington-Williams news conference, December 17, 2003], [[C-SPAN]]| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?185233-1/words-essie-mae-washingtonwilliams ''After Words'' interview with Williams on her book ''Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond'', February 6, 2005], [[C-SPAN]]| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?186622-1/dear-senator-memoir-daughter-strom-thurmond Presentation by Williams at the Palm Springs Book Festival, April 16, 2005], [[C-SPAN]]}}
[[File:Strom Thurmond's statue with Essie Mae added.jpg|thumb|In the text accompanying Strom Thurmond's statue at the [[South Carolina State House|Statehouse grounds]], the phrase: "The father of four children", had the "four" replaced with "five" after Thurmond's fatherhood of [[Essie Mae Washington-Williams]] became public.]]
[[File:Ford B2348 NLGRF photo contact sheet (1976-11-29)(Gerald Ford Library) (cropped2).jpg|thumb|right|The Thurmond family with [[President of the United States|President]] [[Gerald Ford]] in 1976]]
[[File:President George W. Bush wishes Sen. Strom Thurmond happy birthday during a birthday celebration at the White House.jpg|thumb|right|President [[George W. Bush]] with Thurmond on his 100th birthday in 2002]]

Six months after Thurmond's death in 2003, [[Essie Mae Washington-Williams]] (1925{{ndash}}2013) publicly revealed she was his daughter. She was born on October 12, 1925, to Carrie "Tunch" Butler (1909 or 1910{{snd}}1948), who had worked for Thurmond's parents and was 15 or 16 years old when she gave birth.<ref name=rape?>{{cite news | publisher = thenation.com | date = March 15, 2004 | title = Was Strom a Rapist? | quote = ...Butler was born in 1909 or 1910. The only way the conclusion of statutory rape could be avoided is if Butler was born no later than early January 1909, and conception occurred just after her sixteenth birthday. | author = Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw | url =  https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/was-strom-rapist/#:~:text=Any%20serious%20inquiry%20into%20the,in%20print%20and%20electronic%20media.}}</ref>

Essie Mae Washington was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle, and was not told that Thurmond was her father until she was in high school, when she met him for the first time. She later married, took on the last name Washington-Williams, had a family, and retired as a [[Los Angeles Unified School District]] elementary school teacher with a master's degree. Though the Thurmond family never publicly acknowledged Washington-Williams as his daughter while he was alive, he helped pay her way through a [[historically black college]] in South Carolina and continued to give her financial support well into her adult life.<ref name="60min">{{Cite interview|title=Essie Mae On Strom Thurmond|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/essie-mae-on-strom-thurmond/|date=February 11, 2009|first=Essie Mae|last=Washington-Williams|type=Transcript|publisher=CBS|access-date=November 28, 2011|interviewer=[[Dan Rather]]|work=[[60 Minutes]]}}</ref> Washington-Williams said she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to the advantage of either one of us".<ref name="60min"/> She kept silent out of respect for her father<ref name="foxnews.com">{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Thurmond's Family 'Acknowledges' Black Woman's Claim as Daughter|date=December 17, 2003|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105820,00.html|publisher=Fox News|access-date=December 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103012430/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105820,00.html|archive-date=November 3, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> and denied the two had agreed she would not reveal her connection to him.<ref name="60min"/>

After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family attorney acknowledged her parentage. Her name has been added to those of his other children on a monument to Thurmond installed at the statehouse grounds.<ref name="jet">[https://web.archive.org/web/20050525033029/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_3_106/ai_n6153480 "Daughter of late Sen. Strom Thurmond to join Confederacy group"], ''Jet'', July 19, 2004, retrieved March 26, 2009</ref> Many close friends, staff members, and South Carolina residents had long suspected that Washington-Williams was Thurmond's daughter,<ref name="Kin">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/national/16STRO.html?ex=1231218000&en=0509c5d87e66cd7a&ei=5070 | work=The New York Times | title=Thurmond Kin Acknowledge Black Daughter | first=Michael | last=Janofsky | date=December 16, 2003}}</ref> as they had noted his interest in her. As a young woman, she was granted a degree of access to Thurmond more typical of a family member than a member of the public.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.frankkwheaton.com/uploads/INTRODUCTORY_REMARKS.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711023428/http://www.frankkwheaton.com/uploads/INTRODUCTORY_REMARKS.pdf |url-status=dead |title=Essie Mae Washington-Williams|archive-date=July 11, 2011}}</ref>

Washington-Williams later said she intended to join the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]], and did apply to join the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]], as she was eligible through her Thurmond ancestry. Thurmond was a member of the [[Sons of Confederate Veterans]], a similar group for men.<ref>{{cite news |title=Thurmond's Biracial Daughter Seeks to Join Confederacy Group |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/national/02daughter.html|work=The New York Times|date=July 2, 2004 |first1=Shaila K.|last1=Dewan|first2=Ariel|last2=Hart|quote=Evidently she is eligible: Senator Thurmond, once a fierce segregationist, was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men.}}</ref> Her UDC application was not approved while she was alive.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Secret Fight to Save Confederate Monuments |journal=[[Glamour (magazine)|Glamour]] |date=August 16, 2018 |url=https://www.glamour.com/story/the-secret-fight-to-save-confederate-monuments |access-date=June 25, 2021}}</ref>

Washington-Williams died on February 4, 2013, in [[Columbia, South Carolina]], at age 87.<ref>{{cite news|title=Strom Thurmond's Daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, Dies |url=http://www.wltx.com/news/article/220051/2/Strom-Thurmonds-Daughter-Essie-Mae-Washington-Williams-Dies- |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130217021947/http://www.wltx.com/news/article/220051/2/Strom-Thurmonds-Daughter-Essie-Mae-Washington-Williams-Dies- |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 17, 2013 |first=Tony |last=Santaella |publisher=WLTX-TV |access-date=February 5, 2013 |date=February 4, 2013 }}</ref>