A long-held secret is revealed

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Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a retired California teacher, has harbored a secret for more than 60 years. Her father is the late J. Strom Thurmond, this nation's longest-serving U.S. senator, a former South Carolina governor and once a presidential candidate on the pro-segregation Dixiecrat ticket.

It's explosive news. Washington-Williams is the fruit of a relationship between a 22-year-old Thurmond and a 16-year-old black family maid. And since 1941, Washington-Williams and Thurmond maintained a secret relationship, where Thurmond provided financial support and maintained regular contact.

The families of Washington-Williams and Sen. Thurmond have handled this revelation with remarkable grace. The Thurmond family has quickly and graciously acknowledged Washington-Williams' claim of her parentage and expressed a desire to meet privately with her.

Washington-Williams has said her only reason for breaking her silence is to set the historical record straight and lay claim to the heritage her children and grandchildren share with the rest of Thurmond's progeny. She deserves both that and the sense of freedom she says going public has given her. It's apparent, through Washington-Williams' public comments over the past week, that she and her powerful father maintained their silence out of mutual affection and respect.

Yet this revelation raises uncomfortable questions for South Carolinians who hold Thurmond in high esteem. For his more than 70 years in public life Thurmond was the standard-bearer among state politicians. And while it's unlikely this revelation will greatly tarnish his legacy of unmatched public service, it's apparent that Thurmond's behavior as a firebrand segregationist was inconsistent with his private life.

A question historians will continue to ponder is whether Thurmond's remarkable political career would have survived such a scandalous revelation, which strikes at the heart of the historical grip race has had on politics in South Carolina. The record now notes that though conducted in secret, Thurmond did the right thing by maintaining a familial relationship with Washington-Williams and providing her with at least some financial support.

During the last third of his life, Thurmond did much to atone for his segregationist past and his actions helped facilitate the integration of our once shamefully divided society. It's undeniable, though, that he could have done even more for racial understanding and harmony by publicly acknowledging Washington-Williams decades ago and asking South Carolinians to more fully appreciate our shared heritage.