Now she plans to make history of a different sort by being one of the few black Americans to seek membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a 170,000-member group of descendants of those who fought for the South in the Civil War.

Her two sons will seek membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for male descendants, her lawyer said, adding that Williams feels such memberships will lead to a new conversation about the nation's rich and interwoven history.

"It is important for all Americans to have the opportunity to know and understand their bloodline," Williams said in a statement. "Through my father's line, I am fortunate to trace my heritage back to the birth of our nation and beyond. On my mother's side, like most African-Americans, my history is broken by the course of human events."

Lowcountry members active in both groups reacted Wednesday with a mix of enthusiasm and restraint. Others questioned why Williams would want to join the Daughters of the Confederacy in the first place.

Reached at the Confederate Museum in Charleston's Market, June Wells, a former national leader of the group, declined comment, saying, "I would be very hesitant right now to talk about that one subject."

Lannette Steed of West Ashley, who has held offices in the Daughters of the Confederacy, said Williams appears to be eligible. Thurmond, once a fierce segregationist, was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

"Well, she had an ancestor. There's no getting around it. I guess she has just as much as the rest of us," Steed said.

Steed knew of no local black members in the Daughters of the Confederacy and couldn't say how Williams' decision might affect the group. "I have no idea. Like I say, with this never coming up before, we haven't discussed it. We haven't thought it out."

State Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he was "delighted" by the news.

"She'll find a welcome home," he said. "We're not a racist organization. All of us who are in that are in it for historic preservation."

As he stood amid Confederate flags and other historical memorabilia in his CSA Galleries store, McConnell said if Williams becomes active in the Daughters of the Confederacy, "she can become a bridge between the majority community and the minority community."

"Sadly, black folks have the idea that the organizations are all white and that heritage is a black-white issue, and it's not," he added.

McConnell said Williams could begin a dialogue that could lead to more understanding and tolerance.

"It was just like when (black state Sen.) Robert Ford came out for the funeral of the (Confederate submarine) Hunley crew. He said he was trying to reach across and creating understanding. And it did. It spoke volumes," McConnell said.

The news intrigued Marvin Dulaney, director of the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture.

"I don't know what to think. Let's just say I wouldn't do it," he said. "Traditionally, those organizations have excluded African-Americans."

Dulaney said he recently learned that his great-great-grandfather was taken by his master to the fields of at least two Civil War battles.

"That would make me eligible for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, but I know, in reality, that my grandfather wasn't there by choice. It was that he had to be there," Dulaney said. "Since I have a choice, I don't want to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans."

Patsy Limpus, national president general of the Daughters of the Confederacy, said if Williams can prove her lineage, "we would be glad to welcome her as a member. We have been in contact with her, and we're just waiting to hear back from her."

Limpus said she didn't know how many of the group's 170,000 members are black, adding, "There is nothing on our application that has anything that says 'race.' "

Williams' lawyer Frank Wheaton said Wednesday he has received only favorable comments since her plans received national attention in The New York Times.

"Her story has been one that has generated an interesting dialogue among all Americans, and it certainly has highlighted our commonalities rather than our differences," Wheaton said.

He said Williams was inspired by Lena Santos Ferguson, a black woman who in 1980 was turned down for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, a group of descendants of those who fought in the Revolutionary War. Ferguson sued and gained admittance several years later.

"As part of the settlement, DAR had to undertake the responsibility to research and find every black soldier that fought in the revolution. What was more important, even though it took them some 15, 17 years, they found 5,000 to 6,000 African-Americans who were directly tied to the revolution," Wheaton said.

Williams also will seek to join the DAR. Eleanor Durgee, regent of Charleston's Rebecca Motte chapter of the DAR, said the society's policy is to welcome any woman who can prove her lineage back to a Revolutionary War patriot.

"We're just trying to enrich America's history by stimulating the interest that will perhaps uncover some information and materials that these richly endowed organizations may contain," Wheaton said. "As an educator, Mrs. Williams is just fulfilling her promise to America, and we hope it will stimulate greater and more important dialogue. That is our ultimate purpose."

Williams also is expected to take a prominent role in the Black Patriots Foundation, a group whose members include actor Ossie Davis and is raising money for a black war veterans monument in Washington, D.C.

"Now that Mrs. Williams has direct, precise and profound lineage, it opens the door to others that have a similar lineage," Wheaton said. "We not only open the dialogue between the North and South, but black and white, male and female, young and old, all of which Mrs. Williams represents. She is the quintessential bloodline of America. She's our conscience."

Williams, whose mother was a black maid in Thurmond's family home, waited until his death to reveal their relationship. Last week, her name was added to Thurmond's monument on the Statehouse grounds in Columbia.

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