In 1957 Thurmond continued his campaign of opposition to desegregation in the South by mounting a filibuster against the civil rights bill. He spoke for just over 24 hours, winning the record for the longest filibuster in Senate history, and became known as one of the most prominent spokesmen against the ideal of equal rights for black and white people in the USA. However, what most of the public did not know was that Thurmond himself had had a sexual relationship with a black woman, and was the father of a mixed-race child. It was not until after his death that the fact became public knowledge, prompting criticism from many quarters that his views had been hypocritical.
The family secret
Thurmond’s daughter, Essie May Washington-Williams was born to an African-American maid, Carrie ‘Tunch’ Butler on 12 October 1925. At the time, Butler was only 16 years old. Thurmond was 22. When their daughter Essie May was born, Carrie moved away from her home town and the situation was hushed up for fear that it would ruin Thurmond’s burgeoning political career. However, Thurmond continued to stay in touch with the mother of his oldest child, even when he himself married. He helped pay for his daughter’s upkeep and education, and even continued the payments when she was an adult.
As an infant, Essie May was fostered briefly by one of her mother’s sisters, from whom she derived her name. As a young girl, she was raised in Pennsylvania by her Aunt Mary (her mother’s sister) and her Uncle John, whom she called Mother and Father, while Carrie continued to work. It was only when she was 16 that Essie May’s biological mother told her that her real father was the famous politician Strom Thurmond. Carrie took Essie May to meet her father in 1941. Her father arranged financial help so that Essie May could attend South Carolina State University, where she graduated with a degree in business. Essie May later moved to California, where she married and raised four children before going on to work in education.
Devout segregationist
While Essie May was growing up, Thurmond went on to marry his first wife, Jean Crouch, who died of cancer. He married his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore, when he was 66 years old, in 1968. She was a beauty queen of only 23 at the time. The couple had four children: Nancy, James, Juliana and Paul. Thurmond and his wife later separated, but never divorced.
It was only when Thurmond died that Essie May came forward and admitted that she was the daughter of one of the most well-known senators in the United States. Up to that time, she said, she had kept silent ‘out of love and respect for her father’. The Thurmond family then publicly acknowledged her parentage, and his staff and close friends said that they had long suspected this to be the case, since Essie May had had frequent access to her father over the years.
Interestingly, during his lifetime Thurmond never denied the relationship when challenged, even though the scandal could have destroyed his career. On 11 October 1972 the Edgefield Advertiser, a small local newspaper in the town where he was born, bore the headline ‘Senator Thurmond is unprincipled – with colored offspring – while parading as a devout segregationist’. However, the story provided no details, and when he was asked to say more the Senator brushed aside the question.
Widespread hypocrisy
The fact that the scandal did not have an adverse affect on his career shows how widespread the hypocrisy was that allowed a white politician to argue for strict segregation while having sexual relations, and even children, with a black person. Although Thurmond called black people ‘niggers’ and dedicated much of his life to trying to block their aspirations for equality, at the same time he was helping his daughter through college. Also, during the 1970s, once the civil rights bill had been established, he endorsed racial integration more quickly than many other senators. He was also noted for employing black members of staff, and for making the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr a federal holiday. Not only this, he enrolled his white daughter in an integrated public school.
In conclusion, it seems that the experience of fathering a black daughter caused Thurmond to change some of the racist views he espoused in his youth, although he never acknowledged this publicly. It would be fair to say that Thurmond was controlled by views at the time about segregation. Consider, if you will, what would have caused a major scandal. For example, Thurmond actually confessing that he loved Carrie Butler or wanting to marry her. Claiming that he wanted to live as Essie Mae’s father and not just her benefactor. At the time racism was based on domination – ironically a man could have sex with women below his class, just so long as he married his ‘own kind’.
Gary Condit
Gary Condit was a Democrat who served in the House of Representatives from 1989 to 2003, representing the district of the San Joaquin Valley in California. In 2001 he was involved in a major scandal when an intern whom he described as ‘a friend’, Chandra Levy, went missing.
‘A Good Example’
Condit was born in Woodland Junction, Oklahoma, on 21 April 1948. His father was a Free Will Baptist minister. (The Free Will church is based on an idea of atonement and follows a theology close to Calvinism. It lays a great deal of emphasis on local independent churches, and is strongest in rural communities in America.) The Condit family, which included Gary’s two brothers and a sister, went to church four times a week. Other than that, there was little else to do in Woodland Junction, which consisted mainly of a school, a church and a country store. At the age of 14, Condit and his family moved to Tulsa, where his father had the opportunity to preach in a larger church. Condit went to Nathan Hale High School where he met his future wife, Carolyn Berry. The pair were married on 18 January 1967, when they were both aged 18. A few months afterwards their son Chad was born. In the same year Condit’s father moved to California in search of better prospects. Gary followed him there, with his wife and child, and lived in the San Joaquin Valley. He gained a degree from California State University, and after a short stint in a public relations firm was elected to the local city council. He began to carve out a career for himself as a politician and became mayor of the town of Ceres, before being elected to the California State Assembly on the campaign theme of ‘A Good Example’. As it turned out, in his personal life Gary was anything but.
In the assembly Condit became a member of the so-called ‘Gang of Five’, a group of ‘Blue Dog’ (moderate or conservative) Democrats. They openly challenged the leadership of the Asembly’s speaker, Willie Brown, but were unable to dislodge him. Although he became unpopular among the Democratic leadership, at home he was revered as a hero, the ‘boy made good’. He made a public show of not drinking or smoking and leading a righteous family life, but those around him knew him as a flamboyant socialiser with an eye for the ladies.
Secret affair
With the election of President George W. Bush to office, Condit’s political fortunes looked set to improve. Bush wanted to build a bipartisan relationship with the ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats, and it looked as though Condit was in the right place at the right time to advance his career. However, it was exactly at this point on 30 April 2001, when Bush made a speech to mark his 100th day in office that Gary Condit’s life began to unravel.
On 11 May the Washington Post published a report on the disappearance of a young woman, Chandra Levy. From a conservative Jewish family in Modesto, California, Levy had earned a degree in journalism at San Francisco State University, and was pursuing a career in politics as an intern in the Bureau of Federal Prisons which meant moving to Washington, D.C. On 1 May 2001, police announced that she had gone missing. Police investigated and a number of suspects were interviewed, including Gary Condit. It was reported on a Washington TV news station that a California congressman had been interviewed about her disappearance, and it later transpired that she and Condit were known to each other. Levy’s parents contacted Condit, asking for help in tracing her. Condit responded by pledging $10,000 in reward money. He confirmed that he had known her and described her as ‘a great person and a good friend’. However, more questions were asked as to what exactly the relationsh
ip between a man in his 50s and a woman in her 20s was, but Condit continued to maintain that they were just good friends.
Lies and deceit
In early July a flight attendant named Anne Marie Smith alleged that she had an affair with Gary Condit that lasted nearly a year. She said that Condit had asked her to sign an affidavit denying the affair, and told her not to talk to the FBI about Chandra Levy’s disappearance. Condit denied that this had happened, but did not deny that he had had an affair with Smith. Then Levy’s aunt, Linda Zamsky, issued a statement to the effect that Levy had told her she was having an affair with Condit. Faced with this allegation, Condit admitted that this was the case. He agreed to let investigators search his apartment, but before they arrived he was seen throwing out a gift box he had received from another woman. By now his reputation was at an all-time low. His efforts to cover up his infidelity had led his detractors to suspect that he had had something to do with Levy’s disappearance; there were even claims that he may have ordered her killing to cover up the affair. There was no evidence to show that this was the case, but his lies to the police did not help his cause and seriously damaged his reputation. As Dick Thornburgh, former US attorney general, said: ‘Sooner or later, the truth is going to come out. And I think unfortunately all congressman Condit has done here is to create an impression that he is unwilling to co-operate with authorities, which in turn leads to a suspicion of some kind of culpability.’
Many media pundits felt that Condit’s career was now over. However, it was also noted that President Bill Clinton had survived the Lewinsky scandal, and that after an absence Condit might well return to office. He was very well liked in his local district, and many refused to believe that he could have been involved in Levy’s death. However, when he ran for re-election he lost and left Congress in January 2003.
Body found
On May 22 Chief Charles Ramsey of the Columbia Police announced that remains matching Levy’s dental records had been found in Rock Creek Park by a man walking his dog. The police declared the death a homicide, and interviewed a man who had been imprisoned for assaulting two women in the park. The man, a Salvadoran national named Ingmar Guandique, denied committing the murder and subsequently passed a polygraph test.
Currently, the Levy homicide has not been solved, although the FBI have connected it with another homicide, that of Joyce Chiang, an attorney. Chiang lived only four blocks away from Levy’s apartment building, and her belongings were found in park land, before her body was washed up in a river nearby. As both women were in their 20s, dark-haired and petite, the theory has been advanced that they were killed by the same person. To date, however, both cases remain unsolved.
In recent years Gary Condit has continued to attract controversy. In February 2005 he opened an ice cream franchise with his wife and children in Glendale, Arizona, but later the franchise was revoked, with the claim that the Condits owed around $14,000. There were also disputes regarding Condit’s congressional financing, and claims that his children, Chad and Cadee, had received payments that were not due to them. For example, they had been paid sums for ‘no discernable work’, and had been commissioned to make a documentary about their father, despite the fact that neither of them had any experience as film makers. Thus, scandal and controversy continue to surround Gary Condit, even though at present he is out of office.
PART FIVE: Religious Scandals
The Spanish Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition took place between the years 1478 and 1834. Inquisitions were used during the decline of the Roman Empire and were run by religious authorities to try and weed out non-believers. However, their methods were scandalous and the Spanish Inquisition was one of the worst on record.
Spain was under a constant strain from the numerous religious organisations – Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Judaism – all of whom had different beliefs. In addition to this, Spain had been oppressed by Islamic control for 800 years and it was only in recent years that it had been liberated, although not entirely as Islam was still in control in Granada up until 1492.
Following the success of the Crusades, Spain needed to find a way to unify its fortified nation, and the marriage in 1469 of royal cousins Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile eventually brought stability. They chose Catholicism as the religion for their country and asked permission of the pope, Sixtus IV, in 1478 to begin the Inquisition in an attempt to purify the people of Spain.
Ferdinand and Isabella began their purification by driving out the Jews, Protestants and other non-believers of the Catholic faith. The main threat to their Inquisition was the conversos (a converted) a Jew or Muslim who had falsely converted to Catholicism but who secretly practised his or her former religion. The job of the Inquisition was also, and perhaps more importantly, to clear the name of the people who had been falsely accused, but who had generally been converted.
Although religion was one of the most predominant reasons for the start of the Spanish Inquisition, it would be fair to say that the Jews and Christians already hated each other before its onset. The Christians were angry because the Jews had crucified Christ, and the Jews were angry because the Christians had changed the Jewish beliefs and called it Christianity. In the end it was the Christians that got their revenge, and they did this by murdering Jews and calling it the Inquisition. At the time the Spaniards considered the Inquisition to be a major triumph for Catholicism, but the costs were high in the terms of lives lost.
Of course, religion was not the only reason for the Inquisition there were strong political undertones as well. Spain used the Inquisition to protect their precious monarchy. Ferdinand and Isabella were aware of the tensions building up between the Jews and the Christians and feared that it could lead to riots, massing killing and possibly a religious civil war. By using the Inquisition they believed they would be able to calm the stormy waters and secure their positions in the monarchy.
The Spanish government and its religious officials, who wanted to maintain a purity of blood, had to find ways of preventing marriage between the different religious groups and they achieved their goal once again through the Inquisition. In addition Government officials also used the Inquisition to gain governmental positions that were held by Jews. They had tried before to get the Jews out of office but had failed, so they supported the Inquisition in every way. They started to spread rumours that the Jews were the reason for any misfortunes that fell upon Spain, which turned out to be a brilliant plan because the public then wanted them killed. This left the way open for the Christians to fill their positions.
Another possible reason behind the start of the Inquisition was the need for money. Spain was suffering economically from the effects of war and they needed to replenish their funds. The Inquisition gave them the excuse to kill thousands of Jews and then take their possessions to refill the government coffers. It was well known that the Jewish community had accumulated a lot of wealth at that time.
the inquisitors
The inquisitors themselves believed that they were saving the Jews from the hideous fate of being delivered to the Underworld. In their distorted belief they felt because the Jews were dying at the hands of one of God’s own children, they would gain the wisdom and knowledge from this person and therefore be allowed to enter Heaven. Although today it is hard for us to comprehend this belief, the inquisitors were raised purely on a religious education and could not reason beyond this belief.
The ruling for the judges of the Inquisition was that they had to be at least 40 years old, have a flawless repution, be renowned for their virtue and wisdom, masters of theology, or doctors or licentiates of canon law, and they must obey the normal ecclesiastical rules and regulations.
The Inquisition was run by using a procedure set up by the Inquisitor-General, by establishing local tribunals. Any accused heretics had to face the tribunal. They were given the chance to confess their heresy against the Catholic Church, and were also encouraged to name other heretics
in return for leniancy. If they were prepared to admit their wrongs and turned in other heretics, they were either released or given a minimal prison sentence. However, if they were not prepared to admit their heresy or indict others, they would be publicly killed or imprisoned for the rest of their life. The Spanish Inquisition turned into a reign of terror.
tomás de torquemada
In 1483 Dominican Tomás de Torquemada became the first Inquisitor General of Spain and confessor to Isabella of Spain, and he turned out to be one of the most evil men in the history of the Inquisition. He was the person who was responsible for establishing the rules and procedures and for creating the various branches of the Inquisition all over Spain. He remained the leader for the next 15 years and is believed to have been responsible for the execution of over 2,000 Spaniards.
There is no doubt that Torquemada’s dedication to his appointed task has become legendary, and in 1492 he persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to expel all the Jews from Spain who were unwilling to convert to Christianity. Spain soon gained the reputation of becoming one of the most intolerant countries in Europe and 160,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes. Ten years later the same demands were made of the Spanish Muslims, and soon the Inquisition spread its wings to Latin America, Portugal and the Spanish Netherlands.
Infamous Scandals Page 17
