It's heartening and historically significant that the "official" family of Strom Thurmond this week readily acknowledged and accepted Essie Mae Washington-Williams, 78, of Los Angeles, as a member of their family. Only a few days after Williams publicly announced that she is the mixed-race daughter of the late senator and governor, Strom Thurmond Jr. welcomed her to the family, noting, "I feel good, because that's a feeling you get from doing the right thing."

Thurmond Jr.'s generous acknowledgment effectively breaks generations of tradition regarding the mixed race offspring of prominent Southern men. Their white sons and daughters typically grew up under the umbrella of privilege, carrying on the family name when their parents died. Their mixed-race children, meanwhile, grew up in the shadows and went unacknowledged after the patriarch's death, while white brothers and sisters often pretended they didn't exist.

The speed with which the Thurmonds recognized Williams' claim to her family heritage marks, we hope, a new, more honest era, not only in the South but also nationwide. Americans, Southern and Northern, must move past the notion that biracial children somehow are misbegotten and therefore deserve a lifetime of shame and inferior status. This is one of the many unjust myths with which racism has been perpetuated.

Children are children regardless of parentage, and each one deserves recognition as a member in good standing of his or her family, no matter who the forebears may be. With their generosity toward Williams, the Thurmonds have given that agenda the legitimacy and urgency it deserves.