Grandmama used to say what is done in the dark will eventually come to light.
Over the past week, America was introduced to the daughter Strom Thurmond fathered
with a black woman when he was twenty-two. The revelation is significant on a number
of levels, but especially what it reveals about the legacy of interracial sexuality in America.
What’s the big deal? In the first place, it shows Thurmond’s hypocrisy, saying one thing
and living another, campaigning for the continued denigration of a group of people which included
his own flesh and blood. Secondly, it is another high-profile intersection of race, politics, and
human sexuality, a lá Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, which proves that no matter how rigidly
the lines between black and white were constructed, they were regularly crossed.
Another more disturbing revelation of this story is that Essie Mae was born to a sixteen-year-old girl,
who may have been younger than that when she was impregnated. She was a young black teenager working
as a maid for the Thurmond family. Sixteen years old. She was not even fully out of her girlhood.
By today’s standards, Strom Thurmond would have been guilty of statutory rape. But 1925 is a long way
from here.
The mystery of Essie Mae’s mother is just one in a number involving the issue of interracial sexuality
in America and its impact on black women. Black women in the United States have been burdened by both
their race and their sex. It is no secret that under the institution of slavery, black women were often
the victims of rape, a real occurrence although not legally classified as such by the laws of that time.
While slavery came to an end, the legacy of this sexual exploitation and the negative stereotypes about
black women continued to dominate the American imagination. It was a commonly accepted precept that black
women were Jezebels -- unchaste and lascivious, no matter their background, upbringing, or education.
For many white men, having sex with a black woman was a rite of passage. The Black Women’s Club Movement
of the early 20th century began as an effort to collectively defend the reputation and character of black
womanhood against such stereotypes. In the ensuing decades, black women have continued to battle against
these issues.
Despite their efforts, little could be done to change the daily realities of life for black women, particularly
in the South. It is a fact that the majority of black women in the South during the early 20th century worked
as domestics. They performed backbreaking work – laundry, cooking, childcare, and cleaning – for often no
more than a few dollars a week, while still having to return home and perform the same tasks for their own
families. Aside from being financially exploited, for some black women working in white homes the situation
could become sexuality exploitative as well. There is no doubt that countless young women loss their innocence
because of these circumstances. These situations were the subject of rumors and hushed conversations in many
black Southern homes, much of which has been lost to history. Essie Mae’s story reminds of the harsh realities
of a not-so-distant past.
I can’t help but wonder about the circumstances surrounding Essie Mae’s conception. Could her mother, a young
black girl, resist the advances of a man whose family controlled her livelihood? Did she have a choice? At its
very best, the relationship between Strom Thurmond and his baby’s mama could have been a brief romantic interlude.
At the very worst, it was a powerful white man capitalizing on the youth, inexperience, and vulnerability of a
young black girl. If it were the case, no black man could defend her honor without risking death. The chances
of law enforcement investigating the alleged rape of a black female were slim to none. Even though speculation
is all that is available at this point, the fact that Essie Mae was put up for adoption rather than raised by her
birth mother could indicate that there was an element of shame involved. Whatever the circumstance, it was another
in a line of peculiar twists that surround this entire situation.
Almost as sad as the circumstances that black women have faced in the past is the more recent crisis of how black
female sexuality is portrayed in contemporary society. There are more and more cases in popular culture and the
music industry of young black women embracing the image of scantily clad video vixens. The lyrics of popular
music are filled with references to the power of a woman’s sexuality. If used the ‘right’ way, this power could
bring her material satisfaction in the way of jewels and clothing. This concept is particularly dangerous when
consumed by young pre-adolescent girls in the midst for forming their ideas about sexuality. Recently in his
speech at FAMU’s fall commencement, Bill Cosby urged the younger generation of black men to stop participating
in the verbal abuse of black women. Cosby’s warning is real: the dignity of our women was a long time coming
and ever effort should be made to protect such a precious thing. However, for a generation that grew up in the
decades after the Civil Rights Revolution, such matters are taken lightly, if they are considered at all.
Our foremothers faced hard times and hard choices, if they had choices at all. We should be more than sexual
conquests or props in the misogynistic fantasies portrayed in music videos. The story of Essie Mae should remind
us of how far black womanhood in America has come. Tragically, in some ways, we have moved from rejecting Jezebel
to embracing her, while our foremothers spin in their graves.
***********************************
Tameka Bradley Hobbs
Assistant Professor of History
Florida A&M University
Tallahassee, Florida 32307
mailto:tameka.hobbs@famu.edu
(850) 599-3374
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