It wasn’t the first time she had said it, but Essie Mae Washington-Williams still sent a shiver through the crowd of 400 Wednesday with her simple declaration.

She is the daughter of Strom Thurmond.

“I am Essie Mae Washington-Williams, and, at last, I feel completely free.”

Washington-Williams, 78, is the biracial daughter of the legendary segregationist and consummate Southern politician who never publicly acknowledged his first-born child.

Before Sunday, the daughter of a black maid in the Thurmond family’s Edgefield home was a rumor, a political legend, and subject of the wink-wink of a complicated man’s complicated past.

But Wednesday, before dozens of television cameras and dozens more reporters, Washington-Williams struck a note of redemption and resignation. In a red suit and purple scarf, it was her first public appearance since news broke in The Washington Post that she was coming forward to claim her heritage.

In a dramatic entrance, she was escorted across the carpeted room, an aide on each arm. Once at the podium, she smiled demurely as the nonjournalists in the room applauded.

She gave an opening statement, her voice quavering at times as she read. But by the time she hit that last note — “I feel completely free” — her voice was strong.

Flanked by her daughter and her lawyer, Washington-Williams reflected on the impact her silence has had on her.

“I am not bitter. I am not angry. In fact, there is a great sense of peace that has come over me in the past year.”

She wants to meet her new, white, family.

“Maybe we could meet with them in a quiet setting,” she said.

The Thurmond family responded with a statement that echoed that sentiment:

“The extended Thurmond family wants to arrange a meeting with Ms. Williams and her children as soon as practicable in a quiet setting.”

Attorney Mark Taylor of West Columbia declined other comment, and Strom Thurmond Jr., the oldest child who has served as head of the family since his father’s death in June, could not be reached for comment.

Next for Washington-Williams is more media attention, which means the meeting with the family might have to wait a few days.

After Wednesday’s news conference, she was to leave for New York City before appearing on NBC’s “Today” show this morning. She also appeared in a taped segment of CBS’ “60 Minutes II” newsmagazine Wednesday night.

But Frank Wheaton, Washington-Williams’ attorney and agent, said later Wednesday that arrangements were being made for a meeting of the families. Part of the problem has been that many of the Thurmonds are out of town.

Paul Thurmond is on his honeymoon; Julia Thurmond Whitmer lives in Washington, D.C.; and Strom Thurmond Jr., the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, is out of town on business.

“We’re definitely coming back to meet the clan shortly,” Wheaton said later.

He said there were at least three Thurmond relatives at Washington-Williams’ news conference, although he declined to identify them.

In an exclusive interview with The State on Monday, Strom Thurmond Jr. said he would like to meet with Washington-Williams in private and establish some sort of relationship with her. He said his father never mentioned her. The one time he asked his father about it, he said, the senator didn’t say yes or no. “I never asked again,” Thurmond said.

Washington-Williams said Wednesday that she and the late Thurmond had a fine relationship, that her father was kind and generous. She said “all of those on his (Senate) staff knew exactly who I was.”

She has been blessed, she said, with four successful children, 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

“Their lives are meaningful and important in American history,” she said. “It is their right to know and understand the right history of their ancestry — black and white. At this juncture in my life, I am looking for closure.”

She told the audience, which included old classmates and assorted curious strangers, her story:

Born in Aiken on Oct. 12, 1925, the daughter of a black teenager, Carrie Butler, and a white man, Strom Thurmond. At 6 months, she was sent to live with her aunt in Pennsylvania, went to public school, and was adopted by an aunt and uncle.

She didn’t meet her mother again until she was 13. It wasn’t until she was 16, in 1941, that she met her father, who by then was a circuit court judge. Later, as a student at S.C. State College in Orangeburg, she was the secret daughter of then-Gov. Thurmond.

Thurmond later became a U.S. senator, a failed presidential candidate who ran as a Dixiecrat espousing segregationist rhetoric, and eventually, the longest-serving senator in history.

Washington-Williams is a retired teacher, living in Los Angeles in the same pink stucco house that has been her home for nearly 40 years. She always kept her “great secret,” she said, not telling her children until they were teenagers. After Thurmond died June 26, she said, her children urged her to come forward.

She finally agreed.

Over the years, she said, Thurmond’s segregationist policies and polarizing statements troubled her.

“I certainly never did like the idea of his being a segregationist, but that was his life and there was nothing I could do about that. I did have mixed emotions about it.”

But she also is not sure that racism drove Thurmond.

“Within his heart, I really don’t think he was” a racist, she said. “I think it had something to do with his political career, because privately he was a completely different person.”

She said he always supported her financially, put her through college and sent her money regularly. Thurmond’s will, filed in October, does not mention Washington-Williams. She does not intend to challenge that will, said Wheaton, her lawyer.

It wasn’t about the money, she said.

“Once I decided that I would no longer harbor such a great secret that many others knew, I feel as though a tremendous weight has been lifted.”

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com