Strom Thurmond

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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. He served as Senator through his 90s, and left office at age 100 as the longest-serving senator ever. However, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia surpassed Thurmond's record of length of senatorial service, but not age in the Senate, on June 12, 2006.

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; and practiced law in South Carolina, later becoming an elected judge.

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. As a Captain, in the Battle of Normandy (June 6 - August 25, 1944), Thurmond crash landed his glider in Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division. For his military service, he earned 18 decorations, medals and awards, including the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star Medal with Valor device, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Belgium Order of the Crown, and the French Croix de Guerre.

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 States Rights Democratic Party, better known as 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. His primary campaign platform was the perpetuation of segregation. One 1948 speech, met with cheers by supporters, included the following:

"I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."

— ([listen] ([Media helphelp]·[info]))

Senate career

In 1954 he became the only person ever to be elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate. He resigned in 1956 to fulfill a pledge of his write-in campaign: to face a contested primary. He won the primary, and was elected to the Senate vacancy caused by his resignation. The rest of his career in the Senate remained uninterrupted until his retirement 46 years later, despite his mid-career party switch.

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.Caro, Robert (2002). Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, New York: Knopf. ISBN 0394528360

On September 16, 1964; Thurmond, increasingly at odds with the national Democratic party over racial integration switched his party affiliation, becoming a Republican. In 1964 South Carolina and other states of the Deep South, white segregationists supported Goldwater 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. Goldwater, running against the Democrats' support of the Civil Rights Acts and the Voting Rights Act, won the state by a large margin in 1964. In 1968, the 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. Due to the antagonism of South Carolina whites towards the national Democratic Party, Hubert Humphrey received less than 30% of the total vote, carrying only black areas.

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. Some believe this change of policy was a calculated political move designed to extend his Senate career in a changing social environment. 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 himself had been a Democrat who turned Republican after being stripped of his seniority for backing Goldwater. Watson had run an openly racist campaign in South Carolina,^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} 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). He cast his 15,000th vote in September 1998. He was more moderate than fellow Southern Republicans such as Senator Jesse Helms, being among the minority of Republicans to vote for the Brady Bill.

There was some controversy towards the end of Thurmond's Senate career over his mental condition. Some, including some close friends, claimed that he had lost mental acuity and should not have been serving in the Senate. Concern was also raised whenever he served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, which is third in line for the presidency. However, his supporters claimed that, while he lacked physical stamina due to his age, mentally he remained aware and attentive and maintained a very active work schedule in showing up for every floor vote.

Thurmond did not seek re-election in 2002 and left the Senate in January of 2003, as America's longest-serving senator. On June 26, 2003, he died at 9:45 p.m at the age of 100, at a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield, where he had been living since retiring.

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. She was born to an African American maid, Carrie Butler, on October 12, 1925, when Butler was 16 and Thurmond was 22. Butler had been a servant in the Thurmond household. The specific relationship between Thurmond and the maid has of yet never been made totally clear.

Thurmond met Washington-Williams when she was 16. He helped pay her way through college and later paid her sums of money in cash or, through a nephew, checks. These payments extended well into her adult life. [link] 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" [link] and that she kept silent out of love and respect for her father. [link] She denies that there was an agreement between the two to keep her connection to Thurmond silent. [link]

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.

Political timeline

• Governor of South Carolina (1947-1951)
• States Rights Democratic presidential candidate (1948)
• Eight-term Senator of South Carolina, USA (December 1954-April 1956 and November 1956-January 2003)
• *Democrat (1954-April 1956 and November 1956-September 1964)
• *Republican (September 1964-January 2003)
• *President pro tempore (1981-1987; 1995-January 3, 2001; January 20, 2001-June 6, 2001)
• *Set record for the longest Congressional filibuster (1957)
• *Set record for oldest serving member at 94 years (1997)
• *Set record for longest tenure in the Senate at 43 years (1997)
• *Became the only senator ever to serve at the age of 100

Trivia