Strom Thurmond

Strom Thurmond (1997)

James Strom Thurmond (born December 5, 1902 in Edgefield , South Carolina , †  June 26, 2003 ibid) was an American politician and governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951 . He also represented this state from 1954 to January 2003 almost entirely in the US Senate , from which he resigned at the age of 100. He was a Democrat until 1964 , but joined the Republicans due to his rejection of the Civil Rights Act .

Early years

Thurmond attended Clemson College until 1923 after elementary school . He then worked for six years as a high school teacher. He was then a school board ( Superintendent of Education ) in Edgefield County . At the same time, he completed a law degree and was admitted to the bar in 1930. Until 1938 he was a district attorney in Edgefield County. He then worked as a district judge until 1946. However, he interrupted this activity to serve in the US Army during World War II . He fought in both the Pacific and Europe, becoming Lieutenant Colonel . He later became a major general in the Army Reserve .

politics

Offices in South Carolina

Thurmond served in the South Carolina Senate from 1933 to 1938 .

In 1946 gubernatorial elections were due, with no re-election of an incumbent from 1926 to 1980. The Democratic Party was the dominant force, and Thurmond narrowly beat James McLeod in the intra-party nomination. The actual gubernatorial election on November 5, 1946, he won without an opponent; his term of office lasted until January 1951. Thurmond had promised more transparency and was considered a progressive in a state in which blacks were not allowed to vote. After the lynching of Willie Earle, he made sure that the perpetrators were brought to justice, for which he was congratulated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Governor and candidate for presidency

During his tenure as governor, the judiciary was reformed, including reforms to pardon , probation and detention facilities. The health and school systems have also improved. Against the will of the conservative Thurmond, the courts found that African Americans were allowed to participate in the primaries . At the same time, a federal lawsuit was filed against school segregation . Also during his tenure there was the last lynching in South Carolina in 1947. The first skyscraper in the state was built in Columbia . Since the constitution of South Carolina did not allow direct re-election of the governor at that time, Thurmond could not run again in the gubernatorial election in November 1950. He was succeeded in January 1951 by the former US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes .

During his time as governor, he was run in 1948 by the so-called States' Rights Democratic Party , a conservative split from the Democratic Party, for the presidential elections. As a third party candidate, however, he had little chance of being elected, especially since his racist attitudes were not a majority in large parts of the USA. The racial segregation had been one of his main ideas on the campaign trail. Thurmond criticized incumbent President Harry S. Truman for his decision to abolish racial segregation in the US armed forces . Together with his running mate Fielding L. Wright , he received over 1.1 million votes nationwide on election day, November 2, 1948. This corresponded to a share of the vote of 2.4 percent. In the crucial Electoral College he united 39 electors who came from the states of Mississippi , Alabama , Louisiana and South Carolina . The democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman emerged as the election winner.

Senator for South Carolina

Thurmond in 1961

Senator Thurmond (right) in the Oval Office with President Reagan

In 1950, Thurmond tried to win the internal party nomination of the Democrats for the election of a US Senator. Opponent was the incumbent and predecessor as governor, Olin D. Johnston . Both candidates rejected the Democrat Truman as US president. Thurmond lost with 46% of the vote and initially worked as a lawyer after the end of his tenure.

The second six-year term of the other US Senator, Burnet R. Maybank , who was governor until 1941, ended in 1954. However, he died in early September 1954, two months before the election. The Democrats did not hold primary elections to determine a candidate, but ensured that Charles E. Daniel was appointed Senator and put Edgar A. Brown as a candidate for the Senate election within the party. This “undemocratic” approach by the Democrats met with criticism, so that Thurmond decided to run as an independent candidate. Since it was not on the ballot, voters had to add it themselves, which 63% did, with the support of many newspapers.

On the advice of Governor James F. Byrnes , Thurmond also promised not to serve for the usual six years in the event of an election victory, but to step back two years later at the next election date in order to face regular primaries. Thurmond resigned in early April 1956, after which Thomas A. Wofford was appointed Transitional Senator. Thurmond went back to work as a lawyer and did not have to campaign because no candidate ran against him. He therefore won the Senate by-election in November, after which Wofford immediately gave him the Senate seat again. The rest of the term of office lasted only four years, so that he remained in the prescribed rhythm and, like the other Class II senators, was up for re-election in 1960. This was successful, as were six other and nine Senate elections in total.

He was elected to the US Senate for the first time in 1954, moved there in early 1955 and, with the interruption in 1956, remained a senator until early 2003, as he did not run in 2002. In the Senate, Thurmond made a name for himself primarily through his very conservative views and became known throughout the USA. He repeatedly criticized rulings by the Supreme Court to end racial segregation.

On August 28, 1957, Strom Thurmond gave the longest single speech with a total length of 24 hours and 18 minutes at a filibuster in the Senate. In it he appealed against the civil rights law introduced by Dwight D. Eisenhower . After explaining the matter, he cited the United States ' Declaration of Independence , the Bill of Rights and the electoral laws of all states. During this speech, he also gave a lecture on his grandmother's cake recipes. Thurmond had announced and prepared his filibuster. He had been to a sauna before, and a member of staff was standing in the next room with a bucket so the Senator could have relieved himself while he was still with one leg in the Senate. The senate colleagues had also prepared for the long speech and brought blankets with them. In total, the deliberations on the law lasted 57 days, during which the Senate was unable to pass other resolutions. Thurmond's efforts were ultimately in vain as the law was passed shortly after his speech, but his supporters cheered him for it.

In 1964 he switched from the Democratic Party , which under President Lyndon B. Johnson gradually turned to the side of the civil rights movement , to the Republicans . He was also considered strictly conservative in other social issues, especially women's and family policy.

Last months and death

Thurmond in December 2002 with a cake on the occasion of his 100th birthday

The oldest US Senator in history in terms of years and years of service, he did not stand for re-election in 2002, at the age of 99, after almost 50 years with a Senate seat, and left the Senate on January 3, 2003 at the age of 100. That same year he died on June 26th in a hospital in Edgefield. Thurmond was married twice and had a total of five children.

Shortly after his death it became known that in 1925 he had fathered an illegitimate child with a then 16-year-old black domestic worker of the family. The illegitimate daughter named Essie Mae Washington-Williams from Los Angeles made this information public herself at the age of 78. A DNA test proved their statement. Thurmond never publicly recognized the paternity of his daughter. However, he financed her university education. Thurmond's family has now publicly confirmed paternity after Washington-Williams went public.

literature

• Jack Bass, Marilyn Thompson: Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond. PublicAffairs, New York 2006, ISBN 978-1-58648-392-0 .

Web links

Commons : Strom Thurmond  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Strom Thurmond in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Strom Thurmond in the National Governors Association (English)
• South Carolina Information Highway (English)
• Strom Thurmond in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 13-hour speech in the US Senate: "I will speak until I can no longer". In: Spiegel Online of March 7, 2013 (accessed March 7, 2013).
2. ↑ Essie Mae on Strom Thurmond. Interview transcript at 60 Minutes with Dan Rather from December 17, 2003 (accessed December 3, 2014).