http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2658526 Thurmond daughter uses family ties Late senator's biracial child seeks to join Confederate history group By LAUREN MARKOE Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON -- The biracial daughter of the late Strom Thurmond is pursuing membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy -- a group founded to honor the memory of those who fought for the South in the Civil War. Essie Mae Washington Williams will make the application based on her relationship to Thurmond, whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy. Male members of her family also will seek to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of which Thurmond was a member, said Frank Wheaton, her attorney. "Through my father's line, I am fortunate to trace my heritage back to the birth of our nation and beyond," Williams said. "On my mother's side, like most African-Americans, my history is broken by the course of human events." To join the Confederate group, Williams must show she is related by blood to descendants of men or women who served honorably in the Army, Navy or Civil Service of the Confederate States of America or gave material aid to the cause. Williams, 78, came forward in December as the unacknowledged daughter of the late senator, who ran for president in 1948 as a segregationist but later abandoned that position. Her mother, Carrie Butler, was a black maid in the Thurmond family's Edgefield, S.C., home. As Thurmond's daughter, Williams is also seeking membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. . . . .
