Thurmond, Strom, 1902-2003

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Thurmond, Strom, 1902-2003

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Name Components

Surname :

Thurmond

Forename :

Strom

Date :

1902-2003

eng

Latn

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rda

Thurmond, James Strom, 1902-2003

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Surname :

Thurmond

Forename :

James Strom

Date :

1902-2003

eng

Latn

alternativeForm

rda

Genders

Male

Exist Dates

Exist Dates - Date Range

1902-12-05

1902-12-05

Birth

2003-06-26

2003-06-26

Death

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Biographical History

James Strom Thurmond Sr. (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American military officer and politician who served for 48 years as a United States Senator from South Carolina. He ran for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate on a States' rights platform supporting racial segregation. He received 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes, failing to defeat Harry Truman. Thurmond represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 until 2003, at first as a Southern Democrat and, after 1964, as a Republican.

A magnet for controversy during his nearly half-century Senate career, Thurmond switched parties, primarily because of his vehement opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and endorsed Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. In the months before switching, he had "been critical of the Democratic Administration for ... enactment of the Civil Rights Law", while Goldwater "boasted of his opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and made it part of his platform." Thurmond left office as the only member of either chamber of Congress to reach the age of 100 while still in office, and as the oldest-serving and longest-serving senator in U.S. history (although he was later surpassed in the latter by Robert Byrd and Daniel Inouye). Thurmond holds the record as the longest-serving member of Congress to serve exclusively in the Senate. He is also the longest-serving Republican member of Congress in U.S. history. At 14 years, he was also the longest-serving Dean of the United States Senate in U.S. history.

In opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, he conducted the longest speaking filibuster ever by a lone senator, at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length. In the 1960s, he opposed the civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965 to end segregation and enforce the constitutional rights of African-American citizens, including basic suffrage. Despite being a pro-segregation Dixiecrat, he insisted he was not a racist, but was opposed to excessive federal authority, which he attributed to Communist agitators.

Starting in the 1970s, he moderated his position on race, but continued to defend his early segregationist campaigns on the basis of states' rights in the context of Southern society at the time. He never fully renounced his earlier positions.

Six months after Thurmond died at the age of 100 in 2003, his mixed-race, then 78-year-old daughter Essie Mae Washington-Williams (1925–2013) revealed he was her father. Her mother Carrie Butler (1909–1948) had been working as his family's maid, and was either 15 or 16 years old when 22-year-old Thurmond impregnated her in early 1925. Although Thurmond never publicly acknowledged Essie Mae Washington, he paid for her education at a historically black college and passed other money to her for some time. She said she kept silent out of respect for her father and denied the two had agreed she would not reveal her connection to Thurmond. His children by his marriage eventually acknowledged her. Her name has since been added as one of his children to his memorial at the state capitol.

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Latn

External Related CPF

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10582380

https://viaf.org/viaf/5734142

https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q324719

https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50011902

https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n50011902

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Languages Used

eng

Latn

Subjects

Advertising, political

Education

Agriculture

Agriculture and state

Alcohol

Anti-communist movements

Anti-missile missiles

Arms control

Automobile dealers

Ballistic missile defenses

Busing for school integration

Political campaigns

Censorship

Civil defense

Civil rights

Commercial crimes

Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

Elections

Elections

Farm tenancy

Federal aid to education

Finance, Public

Foreign trade and employment

Foreign trade regulation

Gear industry

Governor

Governors

Governors

Governors

Governors

Harbors

Health

Interstate agreements

Judges

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Labor

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Legislators

Legislators

Legislators

Legislators

Loyalty oaths

Lynching

Military bases

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Military pensions

Military policy

Military service, Voluntary

Military spouses

Military supplies

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Missing in action

New Deal, 1933-1939

Patronage, Political

Piers

Politics, Practical

Postage-stamp albums

Postal service

Presidents

Presidents

Presidents

Presidents

Pressure groups

Prisoners of war

Propaganda, Anti-communist

Public welfare

Radio advertising

Railroads

Railroads

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Rural electrification

School integration

Segregation

Social security

Soldiers

State rights

States' rights (American politics)

Taxation

Television advertising

Textile industry

Veterans

Vietnam War, 1961-1975

Vietnam War, 1961-1975

Weapons systems

World War, 1939-1945

World War, 1939-1945

World War, 1939-1945

Nationalities

Americans

Activities

Occupations

Army officers

Teachers

Farmers

Governors

Judges

Senators, U.S. Congress

State politicians

Superintendents of schools

Legal Statuses

Places

Charleston

SC, US

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Edgefield

SC, US

AssociatedPlace

Death

Aiken

SC, US

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Edgefield

SC, US

AssociatedPlace

Birth

District of Columbia

DC, US

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Convention Declarations

<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>

General Contexts

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Identity Constellation Identifier(s)

w66v1b4m

84485737