Thurmond, (James) Strom

(1902-2003)

   Born in Edgefield, South Carolina, Strom Thurmond graduated with a degree in horticulture from Clemson College in 1923. After working as a farmer, teacher, and athletics coach, he became education superintendent in Edgefield in 1929. Having been admitted to the bar in 1930, he became the Edgefield town and country attorney that year until 1938. He also served in the state senate from 1933 to 1938, when he became a circuit court judge. Thurmond resigned to join the army in 1941 and won a number of awards for his military service. After World War II, Thurmond was elected as the Democratic governor of South Carolina, but in 1948 he ran as presidential candidate for the States’ Rights Party against Harry S. Truman because of the president’s racial policies. Committed to segregation, Thurmond carried four states and won 39 Electoral College votes with more than 1 million votes. He was defeated in the campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1950 but in 1954 became the first candidate to be elected to the Senate in a write-in vote. He stood for reelection in 1956 and won. He served until his retirement in 2003 as the oldest person to have sat in the Senate. In 1957, Thurmond broke the record for the longest filibuster when he spoke for over 24 hours against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. In 1964, he switched allegiance to the Republican Party. In the 1970s, Thurmond accepted integration, and after his death a black woman was acknowledged by his family as his illegitimate daughter.

   See also Civil rights.