Thurmond’s past invites new scrutiny: Revelation of his mixed-race daughter will cause re-examination
The State
by Joseph S. Stroud
On July 31, 1948, two weeks after he became the Dixiecrats’ candidate for president, Strom Thurmond wrote a letter inviting the governor of the Virgin Islands for a stay at the Governor’s Mansion in Columbia.
When Thurmond learned William Hastie was black, he revoked the invitation. According to an article in Newsweek that year, Thurmond said he had extended the same invitation to other fellow governors who had been absent from a national gathering.