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I attended the Strom Thurmond birthday party in Washington on December 5th and enjoyed renewing friendships with Mr. and Mrs. Tom Moss of Orangeburg and seeing Mr. and Mrs. James Graham of Washington. With the exception of the five of us, one other young lady who I did not recognize, and one or two military personnel, I saw no other people of color there.
Tom Moss and I are good friends, and our families enjoy cordial relationships. He went to work on Thurmond’s staff in 1971 two or three months after I joined the staff of Governor John C. West. Strom always had a great political antenna, and had responded to the times and circumstances by hiring Tom.
Mr. Graham, Senator Thurmond’s long-time driver, approached me just after my arrival in Congress and offered to be of whatever assistance he could to help make my service pleasant and productive. I think I know when a gesture is genuine, and his was.
I interacted with many others at that occasion and was pleasantly surprised at the number who identified themselves as Republicans, but who said they supported and always voted for me. I stood in the receiving line for 45 minutes, shook hands with the Senator and Thad Strom, the Senator’s cousin and coordinator of the event, and hugged Nancy Thurmond and Maxie Haltiwanger who helped with event coordination. I was not in the room when Trent Lott made his extraordinary, but not surprising, remarks that have re-ignited a firestorm across the country.
This, of course, is not the first time Senator Lott has tilled the seemingly fertile soil of intolerance and racial insensitivities. Speaking to the Council of Conservative Citizens a few years ago, Mr. Lott stated, “The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let’s take it in the right direction and our children will be the beneficiaries.” The Council makes no apologies for their policies of white supremacy and advocacy of a white, Christian-only nation.
Although they claim to be strict constructionists when it comes to the Constitution of the United States and true believers in Biblical scriptures, they have no problem ignoring the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. They also ignore the Master’s parable of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10:25-35, where Christians are taught that status nor ethnicity are determining factors in what makes us neighbors. In fact, one could very well say President Bush’s advisors used this particular scripture in fashioning him as a “compassionate conservative.”
All of us in attendance at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party were there to honor an historic personality and consummate politician. I hope, maybe with the exception of Senator Lott, that none of us were there to embrace the intolerant and insensitive policies and practices of segregation and second class citizenship for 30% of South Carolinians and 12% of our nation’s citizens.
“Son,” my dad once said to me while I was trying to explain some inappropriate behavior “what you did spoke so loudly, I cannot hear a word you say.” That holds true for me in this instance. Were it not for some of Senator Lott’s actions, and Senate Republicans’ 11th hour maneuver last month to stop the passage of HR 1606 -- my bill to provide much deserved and often denied financial support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities -- I might find it easier to accept his apology for his words. Words that unfortunately, went far beyond honoring Strom Thurmond the personality, to embrace policies and practices for which Senator Thurmond rejected and even apologized for years ago.
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U.S. Congressman 
