why did strom thurmond changed parties

It was alleged that she spoke with her husband several times each day, and he stayed at her house several times each month, whenever he returned to South Carolina. [220], In December 1984, as the United States and Israel moved to negotiate a free-trade pact where tariffs between the two countries would eventually be wiped out following the Reagan administration receiving congressional approval to negotiate such an agreement, Thurmond wrote a letter to United States trade representative Bill Brock calling on Brock to "reformulate" the negotiating position of the US as the senator had been informed by his aides that the American position in the negotiation was "more generous" than the one specified to Congress. On August 28, 1957, Strom Thurmond, then a Democratic United States senator from South Carolina, began a filibuster intended to prevent the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.The filibusteran extended speech designed to stall legislationbegan at 8:54 p.m. and lasted until 9:12 p.m. the following day, a duration of 24 hours and 18 minutes. [65] In spite of Thurmond voting against him, the nomination was approved. [316][317], Diane Norman of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal called Thurmond "a political icon depicted in life-size statues in Columbia and Edgefield and whose name graces seven public buildings, a shopping mall, a high school, a National Guard armory, a lake, a dam and an interstate highway. [123] After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans were legally protected in exercising their constitutional rights to register and vote in South Carolina. "[318] Former Slate senior writer Timothy Noah wrote that Thurmond's most significant political contribution was his backing of segregation and myths had been construed on the part of his contemporaries to explain his continued wielding of national influence. [73], On September 16, 1964, Thurmond confirmed he was leaving the Democratic Party to work on the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater, charging the Democrats with having "abandoned the people" and having repudiated the U.S. "[331], In 1980, Bill Peterson remarked that the 77-year-old Thurmond "still has that rare peculiar magic few policians ever achieve" with young autograph seekers and admirers. [87] Thurmond won election with 62.2 percent of the vote (271,297 votes) to Morrah's 37.8 percent (164,955 votes). He was staunchly anti-communist and supported the segregation of . This Month in South Carolina History: Strom Thurman switches parties Thurmond was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. After a successful military career in World War II, he was elected governor. He pledged that if he won, he would resign in 1956 to force a primary election and won the 1954 election easily. She had won Miss South Carolina in 1965. "[157] In late August 1977, The New York Times wrote "President Carter can be grateful that the opposition to his compromise Panama treaty is now being led by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Answer (1 of 3): He was protesting the Democratic Party's overwhelming support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Thurmond doubted Panama's ability to govern alone: "There is no way that a Panarnaniain government could be objective about the administration of an enterprise so large in comparison to the rest of the national enterprise, public and private. [232] Purvis, noted to have few differences in ideology with Thurmond, cited the latter's age as reason to retire him from the Senate. [247], In September 1986, Thurmond sponsored a drug law package that included a provision imposing the death penalty for some drug offenses and federal crimes of "treason, espionage and killing American hostages in a terrorist attack". Thurmond and his wife continued attending events together. [205] President Reagan stated his support for tightening control of textile imports,[206] and the following year, vetoed H.R. As of 2022, 1960 remains the last time a Democrat won South Carolina's Class 2 Senate seat. The decision of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina to change his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican has at least candor and consistency to recommend it. James Strom Thurmond was born December 5, 1902 in Edgefield, South Carolina. Some remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott during the event were considered racially insensitive: "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we [Mississippi] voted for him. info), 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.[a][6]. Strom Thurmond had an odd beginning to his Senate career. He was elected to a full term as a write-in candidate in November 1954, then appointed . This page was last edited on 29 July 2023, at 21:33. He began to pay attention to South Carolina's black politicians and their constituents. The Billy Carter controversy also was favored by Democrats wishing to replace Carter as the party's nominee in the general election. After lying in state in the rotunda of the South Carolina State House in Columbia, his body was carried on a caisson to the First Baptist Church for services, at which then-Senator Joe Biden of Delaware delivered a eulogy,[315] and later to the family burial plot in Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield, where he was interred. [329], By the 1970s, Thurmond had helped established scholarships for black students at four South Carolina colleges and his influence in federal bureaucracy gave him an advantage in "announcing federal grants and bird-dogging federal projects of particular interest to black voters. Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures, via Associated Press . [213] Also in 1981, Thurmond was one of the leaders in opposition to extending the Voting Rights Act,[214] and said parts of the law were discriminatory toward states' rights as well as too strict toward communities that had adhered to it in the past. [95] Later that year, Thurmond attributed the 1967 USS Forrestal fire to being precipitated by communists,[96] and warned against enacting any of the three proposed Panama Canal treaties on the grounds that they would lead to Communist control of the waterway if enacted. One of the filibuster leaders was Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who switched his party allegiance to Republican and backed Goldwater for president. The White House responded that Ford was too busy to meet with Solzhenitsyn, while later sources indicate Ford declined the meeting at the counsel of his advisors. [263] In June, the bill was nearly doomed following a procedural vote that forced Senate leaders to work toward modifying its provisions. [145] Later that month, Thurmond and Jesse Helms wrote to President Ford requesting he meet with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ahead of a speech on June 30 during an AFLCIO dinner. In 1964, he switched parties and gave his support to Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. "[259] Thurmond, then age 87, billed himself as having the health of a man in his fifties. [262] Thurmond charged the Democratic proposal with aiding criminals and furthering the loss of rights on the part of victims. [275] In the following month, when astronaut and fellow Senator John Glenn was to embark on the Discovery at age 77, Thurmond, who was his senior by 19 years, reportedly sent him a message saying; "I want to go too. David Barton: Strom Thurmond Became a Republican Because 'He Became Strom Thurmond | Biography & Facts | Britannica [175] In October, President Carter signed the Federal Magistrate Act of 1979, an expansion of the jurisdiction of American magistrates in regards to civil and criminal cases. [56] This did not happen, and an aide for Senator Joseph S. Clark Jr. said there was never an intention to pursue recourse against Thurmond, though in his opinion Thurmond should no longer be a member of the party. In July 1973, Thurmond was one of ten Republican senators in a group headed by Carl T. Curtis invited to the White House to reaffirm their support for President Nixon in light of recent scandals and criticism of the president within his own party. But he did meet with them in Birmingham as they organized the States' Rights Democratic Party, or Dixiecrats. Two years later, he hired her to work in his Senate office. The Foundation was established in 1974 by Thurmond with honoraria received from speeches and donations from friends and family. The Bush campaign subsequently won other Southern states and the nomination, leading Michael Oreskes to reflect that Dole "was hurt by an endorsement that led him astray. [173] In July 1979, after the Carter administration unveiled a proposed governing charter for the FBI, Thurmond stated his support for its enactment, his backing being seen by The New York Times as an indication that the governing charter would face little conservative opposition. [118] Years later, at a 1977 hearing, Thurmond told Haynsworth, "It's a pity you are not on the Supreme Court today. [291], After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family attorney acknowledged her parentage. Later, Nixon's "southern strategy" and Reagan's conservatism moved the . "[156] In the late 1970s, Thurmond advocated for forging a new relationship with Panama but against the U.S. giving up sovereignty to the Canal Zone. In the 1960 South Carolina Senate race, Thurmond ran unopposed in the general election; a Republican candidate did not even appear on the ballot. 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[62] In February 1963, Thurmond stated that "the brush curtain around Cuba is a formidable Soviet strategic military base" and estimated between 30,000 and 40,000 Cuban troops were under the leadership of a Soviet general. Thurmond had pretty much been the leader of the conservative "Dixiecrat" wing of the party certainly since 1948 when he ran for President against the Democratic incumbent (Truman) on the "Dixiecrat" party l. [90] In June 1967, Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to be the first African-American Justice on the Supreme Court,[91] Thurmond joining Sam Ervin, Spessard Holland, and James Eastland in calling Marshall a "Constitutional iconoclast" in Senate debate. [138] They are discussed in the documentary film, The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006). After the party splintered, Strom Thurmond ran as the candidate of the States' Rights Party. He left the Democrat Party because of their positions, so when they point to Strom Thurmond, you've also got to look at the fact that he changed his policy positions and he was no longer comfortable with their party. [142] Nixon resigned on August 9 in light of near-certain impeachment. President Lyndon Johnson was elected in. [331] NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said Thurmond's sole legacy was of "durability and opposition to civil rights" and called Thurmond "a relic of Americas shameful past, who had long overstayed his welcome. Strom Thurmond: From Segregationist to Servant of the Regime carol ashton satterfield - 12/27/2010 . [185], After Republicans won a majority in the 1980 Senate election,[186] Thurmond pledged that he would seek a death penalty law,[187] and stated his conviction that "the death penalty is a deterrent to crime" in an interview the following year. In March, Thurmond voted for an amendment to the campaign finance reform bill of John McCain and Russ Feingold. Thurmond also predicted that Nixon would carry Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Tennessee. [94] Marshall was still confirmed by the Senate at the end of that month. Then, in 1954, South Carolina Sen. Burnet Maybank died unexpectedly, and Thurmond was a popular write-in candidate. In the commercial, Thurmond said Ford (who was born in Nebraska and spent most of his life in Michigan) "sound[ed] more like a Southerner than Jimmy Carter". Thurmond organised a write-in campaign for the vacant Senate seat. Terms in this set (16) On July 17, 1948, three weeks after Clarence Thomas was born, South Carolina Gov. [121] and a few days later, Thurmond named executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party Donald L. Fowler as the individual who had spread the story, a charge that Fowler denied. [291] Washington-Williams said she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to the advantage of either one of us". One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a work in the public domain: "Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act". AP. [109] Nixon carried each of these states with the exception of Texas. Filibuster - HISTORY Thurmond's influence in national politics allowed him to have correspondence with staffers from the Nixon administration which gave him "a unique advantage in announcing federal grants and bird-dogging federal projects of particular interest to black voters. Thurmond responded to the charges by stating that he thought the state had made advancements in its education system. [152] Sorensen withdrew from consideration days later, before a vote could be had. [249] President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 on October 27, 1986, noting Thurmond as one of the "real champions in the battle to get this legislation through Congress". Thurmond Joins the G.O.P. - The New York Times [188] Following the presidential election, Thurmond and North Carolina senator Jesse Helms sponsored a Senate amendment to a Department of Justice appropriations bill denying the department the power to participate in busing, due to objections over federal involvement, but, although passed by Congress, was vetoed by a lame duck Carter. The unusual tactic takes advantage of a U.S. Senate . "[332] In 2003, political scientist Willie Leggett stated, "Thurmond is not going to be a hero for black people because he never became a proponent of black rights.

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why did strom thurmond changed parties