Strom Thurmond Remembered | ETV Classics

In this ETV Classic and SCETV Special Report, Charles Bierbauer reviews the life of accomplishments of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond following his passing on June 26, 2003, at 100 years of age. Bierbauer observed that Strom Thurmond was a teacher, a judge, a soldier, a governor, then a senator. 

John Courson, a state senator from Richland County and a close friend of the Thurmond family joined Bierbauer for a celebration of a remarkable life. Strom Thurmond was elected nine times to the United States Senate. Courson was an undergraduate student in 1964 when Thurmond endorsed Barry Goldwater for President, and at the same time, switched parties and became a Republican. 

Film footage, photography, and extensive interviews of Senators on both sides of the aisle highlight the history and legacy of Strom Thurmond who, as Robert Dole (R) of Kansas noted, "was fair, honest and tolerant." Senator Howard Baker, Jr., (R) Tennessee observed that Thurmond felt the responsibility of serving as a President pro tempore of the United States Senate, and chairing both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, noting that Thurmond had grown and was a true senate professional. A recurring message throughout the interviews was Strom Thurmond's devotion and service to his constituents. He did whatever he could to advance the well-being of his beloved state.

It was said in the documentary that Senator Thurmond knew the nation’s capital like he knew the back roads in South Carolina. He was personally fond of conducting senate interns on tours of the building he loved so much. The Senator always added his own personal commentary on these excursions, and they were very popular among the student interns. In 1986 SCETV went along with him on one of his personal senate intern tours. Following the credit roll, we get to watch that very special video and it is a delight to watch Strom Thurmond give a tour to the Senate interns.

Side Notes

• James Strom Thurmond, Sr. (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. Before his 49 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951. Thurmond was officially a member of the Democratic Party in the Senate until 1964, when he joined the Republican Party. He had earlier run for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate in opposition to Democratic president Harry S. Truman, receiving over a million votes and winning four states.
• Career Strom Thurmond - After graduating (1923) from Clemson College (now Clemson University) in South Carolina, Thurmond taught school until 1929, when he became superintendent of education for Edgefield county. During this time, he also began studying law and in 1930 was admitted to the bar. He then served as a city and county attorney until 1938 and was also a state senator (1933–38) and a circuit court judge (1938–41). Thurmond emerged from his military service in World War II as a highly decorated lieutenant colonel.
• Strom Thurmond Filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The filibuster failed to prevent the passage of the bill and further failed to change the vote whatsoever. The bill passed two hours after Thurmond finished speaking by a vote of 60–15 and was signed into law by President Eisenhower less than two weeks later. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first U.S. civil rights bill passed in 82 years.
• Barry Goldwater - was an American politician and major general in the Air Force Reserve who served as a United States senator from 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987 and was the Republican Party's nominee for president in 1964.
• Party Hopping: Strom Thurmond and the Origins of the Modern GOP.
• Richard Nixon - Nixon got the crucial support of Strom Thurmond, a powerful senator from South Carolina who had switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 1964. Nixon won over Thurmond with promises to use a light presidential touch on enforcing school desegregation.
• Letter From Richard Nixon to Strom Thurmond. Transcript of letter, April 22, 1974.
• Dixiecrat - Member of a right-wing Democratic splinter group in the 1948 U.S. presidential election organized by Southerners who objected to the civil rights program of the Democratic Party. It met at Birmingham, Ala., and on July 17, 1948, nominated Gov. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for president and Gov. Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi for vice president. The Dixiecrats, who opposed federal regulations they considered to interfere with states’ rights, carried South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, to receive 39 electoral votes; their popular vote totaled over - 1,000,000.
• Joseph Biden, Jr. - People Change: Biden Remembers Strom Thurmond at White House Event.
• Lee Bandy, Washington Bureau, The State. Thurmond is a super politician.
• Senator Robert Dole (R) Kansas - (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician, attorney, and U.S. Army officer from Kansas who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the United States Senate during the final 11 years of his tenure, including three non-consecutive years as Majority Leader of the United States Senate. Prior to his 27 years in the Senate, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1961 to 1969. Dole was also the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 election and the vice presidential nominee in the 1976 election.
• Jesse Taylor, Dir. SCLC Voting Rights Project.
• SCOPE Project  - SCLC Voting Rights Project.
• Senator John B. Tower (R) of Texas (1925 - 1991) As the first Republican senator elected in Texas since 1870, he was seen by many as heralding the arrival of two-party politics in Texas. He was reelected to the Senate in 1966, 1972, and 1978.
• Senator Howard Henry Baker, Jr., (R) Tennessee (November 15, 1925 – June 26, 2014) was an American politician, diplomat and photographer who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985. During his tenure, he rose to the rank of Senate Minority Leader and then Senate Majority Leader. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was the first Republican to be elected to the U.S. Senate in Tennessee since the Reconstruction era.
• Don Fowler - (September 12, 1935 – December 15, 2020) was an American political scientist, professor, and political operative who served as National Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 1995 to 1997, alongside Chris Dodd as General Chairman during this same period.
• Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887-1966) served as a Virginia state senator (1915–1925), governor (1926–1930), and United States senator (1933–1965), was the father of a U.S. senator, and for forty years led the Democratic political machine known as the Byrd Organization.
• Charles Bierbauer -  Charles Bierbauer, CNN's senior Washington correspondent, has spent more years at the White House than any U.S. president except Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has also traveled with presidents to all 50 states and more than 30 nations. As senior Washington correspondent, Bierbauer reports and provides analysis about events in Washington and around the globe. His position was created in 1992 specifically to take advantage of his expertise in national and presidential politics and policies.