Dear Senator Quotes

“Not inferior. Different! Different! Imagine! To compare me to Hitler. Not that I haven’t heard it in that campaign. I heard everything. But to hear it from you. Essie Mae…You can’t change the South.”

“You don’t want to, sir.”

“Oh yes I do. I’m changing it right now, by having you here, getting a fine education, to get you a fine career. There’s nothing in this country you won’t be able to do, Essie Mae. Nothing at all. Nothing your husband won’t be able to do.”

“We can’t get served at the counter at Woolworth’s.”

“Why would you want to? The food’s no good. I bet these restaurants right over here are much better. They serve good fresh food. I know they do. You can’t get a vegetable at Woolworth’s. I’ve never seen spinach, green beans at the five and dime. What do you want, a hot dog that will kill you?”

“I guess I want the choice, Governor.”
― Essie Mae Washington-Williams, Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond

“Stop saying they lost. They may have lost up where we live now, but down here they think things are the same. They think they won. And look around, child. Maybe they did.”
― Essie Mae Washington-Williams, Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond