(James) Strom Thurmond - Early career, Senate career, Biracial daughter, Political timeline, Trivia
US senator, born in Edgefield, South Carolina, USA. He studied at Clemson University, and was a teacher and superintendent of education before turning to the law, becoming a judge of the state's circuit court (193842). After serving with the US army in World War 2, he became Democratic Governor of South Carolina (194751). Although relatively progressive as a governor, he was opposed to the 1948 Democratic civil rights programme, and led the walkout of the Southern Democrats at the 1948 convention. Originally appointed a Democrat to the US Senate in 1954, he was elected on his own in 1956; switching to the Republican Party in 1964, he continued to be re-elected, and became a prominent force in the emergence of a conservative Republican Party in the South. He was appointed chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 105th Congress (1997). He did not contest a Senate seat in 2002, the year he celebrated his 100th birthday. He was the oldest person ever to have served in Congress and was a Senate member longer than anyone else in US history.
| James Strom Thurmond | |
| U.S. Senator, South Carolina | |
|
Term of office: January 1954–January 2003 |
|
| Political party: |
Republican (1964–2003) Democrat (1947–1948, 1954–1964) Dixiecrat 1948 |
|---|---|
| Preceded by: | Charles E. Daniel |
| Succeeded by: | Lindsey Graham |
| Born: |
December 5, 1902 Edgefield, South Carolina |
| Died: |
June 26, 2003 Edgefield, South Carolina |
| Spouse: |
(1) Jean Crouch (dec.) (2) Nancy Janice Moore (sep.) |
| Religion: | Southern Baptist |
James Strom Thurmond (December 5, 1902–June 26, 2003) represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to April 1956 and November 1956 to 1964 as a Democrat and from 1964 to 2003 as a Republican. Byrd of West Virginia surpassed Thurmond's record of length of senatorial service, but not age in the Senate, on June 12, 2006. Thurmond would later moderate his views on race, but never actually repudiated his defense of segregation.
Early career
After attending Clemson College (now Clemson University), where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity (Eta Alpha Chapter), and graduating in 1923, Thurmond joined the United States Army Reserve in 1924;
Following the outbreak of hostilities against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan in 1941, Judge Thurmond resigned his seat on the bench to serve with the U.S. Army during World War II.
Thurmond's political career extended from the days of Jim Crow laws, and South Carolina had strongly resisted any attempts at integration. Running as a Democrat, Thurmond was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1947 and supported preserving the state's existing segregation laws. In 1948, after Harry S Truman desegregated the US Army, Thurmond became a candidate for President of the United States on the third party ticket of the Dixiecrat Party, which had split from the Democrats over the issue of segregation and racism. Thurmond carried four states and received 39 electoral votes.
Thurmond ran for the United States Senate in 1950 against Senator Olin Johnston. But, Johnston defeated Thurmond by a count of 186,180 votes to 158,904 votes (54% to 46%). It is the only statewide election Thurmond would ever lose.
In 1952, Thurmond endorsed Dwight Eisenhower for the Presidency.
Senate career
1950s
In 1954 he became the only person ever to be elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate, campaigning on the pledge to face a contested primary in the future.
Thurmond supported racial segregation with the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator on the Senate floor, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes in an unsuccessful attempt to derail the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Southern Senators, who had agreed as part of a compromise not to filibuster this bill, were upset with Thurmond because they thought his solo filibuster made them look bad to their constituents. Thurmond, increasingly at odds with the national Democratic party over racial integration switched his party affiliation, becoming a Republican. In South Carolina and other states of the Deep South, white segregationists supported Goldwater in 1964 instead of Johnson, whose support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and integration rankled the segregationists.
Thurmond played an important role in South Carolina's support for Republican presidential candidates Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Richard Nixon in 1968.
South Carolina had supported Democrats in every national election from the end of Reconstruction through 1960. In 1968, despite the presence of George Wallace on the ballot, Richard Nixon, running the first GOP "Southern Strategy" campaign appealing to disaffected southern white voters, was able to garner South Carolina's electoral votes, running slightly ahead of Wallace.
1970s
In the 1970s, Thurmond endorsed racial integration earlier than many other southern politicians. Thurmond also hired African American staffers, enrolled his daughter in an integrated public school, and supported blacks for federal judgeships. In 1970, the Washington Post reported that a Thurmond staffer advised him to abandon his segregationist views after one of his proteges, Congressman Albert Watson, was badly defeated in a race for governor of South Carolina. Watson had run an openly racist campaign in South Carolina, and Thurmond had strongly supported him.
Later career
Thurmond became President Pro Tempore of the Senate in 1981, and held the largely ceremonial post for three terms, alternating with his longtime rival Robert Byrd depending on the partisan composition of the Senate. On December 5, 1996, Thurmond became the oldest serving member of the U.S. Senate, and on May 25, 1997, he became the longest serving member (41 years and 10 months).
There was some controversy towards the end of Thurmond's Senate career over his mental condition.
Thurmond did not seek re-election in 2002 and left the Senate in January of 2003, as America's longest-serving senator.
Biracial daughter
Shortly after Thurmond's death on June 26, 2003, Essie Mae Washington-Williams publicly revealed that she was Strom Thurmond's illegitimate daughter.
Thurmond met Washington-Williams when she was 16. Washington-Williams has stated that she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to either advantage of either one of us" and that she kept silent out of love and respect for her father.
After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family publicly acknowledged her parentage. Many close friends and staff members had long suspected this to have been the case, stating that Thurmond had always taken a great amount of interest in Washington-Williams and that she was granted a degree of access to the Senator more appropriate to a family member than to a member of the public.
User Comments Add a comment…