Editing Strom Thurmond (section)

=== 1950s ===
The incumbent U.S. senator from South Carolina, [[Burnet R. Maybank]], was unopposed for re-election in 1954, but he died two months before election day. The state Democratic Party selected [[Edgar A. Brown]] to replace Maybank without conducting a primary election.

Thurmond organized a [[United States Senate election in South Carolina, 1954|write-in campaign]] for the vacant Senate seat. He pledged that if he won, he would resign in 1956 to force a primary election. Easily winning the 1954 election, he was the first person to be elected to the [[South Carolina United States Senate election, 1954|U.S. Senate]] as a [[write-in candidate]].{{Efn|It has only been repeated once, in 2010, by [[Lisa Murkowski]].}} In January 1955, Thurmond expressed his view that federal encroachment on states' rights was among the biggest threats to American life and violated the Constitution.<ref>{{cite news|date=January 9, 1955|title=Solon Says States' Rights Great|work=[[The Times (Shreveport)|The Times]]|publisher=Monroe Morning World|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83088256/solon-says-states-rights-great/|access-date=August 9, 2021|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> In July, Thurmond supported the Republican [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower Administration]]{{'s}} bill for an expanded military reserve law over the alternate plan proposed by fellow Democratic Senator [[Richard Russell Jr.|Richard Russell]].<ref>{{cite news|date=July 11, 1955|title=Sen. Thurmond Backs Fight For Military Reserve Law|newspaper=[[The Tuscaloosa News]]|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FSYeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0pkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2787%2C1216950|access-date=August 9, 2021}}</ref>

Thurmond co-wrote the first version of the [[Southern Manifesto]], stating disagreement with the 1954 [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruling in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' that declared that segregated public schools were unconstitutional and ordered them integrated.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crespino|first=Joseph|date=April 29, 2010|title=The Scarred Stone: The Strom Thurmond Monument|url=https://southernspaces.org/2010/scarred-stone-strom-thurmond-monument|journal=[[Southern Spaces]]|doi=10.18737/M7P315|doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024 |access-date=August 9, 2021|doi-access=free|archive-date=August 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809055137/https://southernspaces.org/2010/scarred-stone-strom-thurmond-monument|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Woods|first=Randall Bennett|url=https://archive.org/details/lbj00rand/page/303|title=LBJ: Architect of American Ambition|publisher=Free Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0684834580|location=[[New York (state)|New York]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/lbj00rand/page/303 303]|lccn=2006041259|ol=7721570M|access-date=August 9, 2021|url-access=registration}}</ref> In early 1956, Thurmond  resigned from the Senate, keeping the promise he had made two years earlier.<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 4, 1956|title=Thurmond Resigns His Senate Seat to Keep Promise He Made|work=[[Springfield News-Leader|The Springfield News-Leader]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83088971/thurmond-resigns-his-senate-seat-to/|access-date=August 9, 2021|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> He won the primary as well as the general election unopposed. Thereafter, he returned to the Senate in November 1956.

In 1957, the Eisenhower administration introduced an amended version of the Civil Rights Bill, imposing expansion of federal supervision of integration in Southern states.<ref>{{cite book|last=Newton|first=Jim|url=https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerwhiteh00newt/page/242|title=Eisenhower: The White House Years|publisher=Doubleday|year=2011|isbn=978-0385523530|page=[https://archive.org/details/eisenhowerwhiteh00newt/page/242 242]|lccn=2011010759|ol=25045949M|access-date=August 9, 2021|url-access=registration}}</ref> In an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the bill{{'s}} passage,<ref>{{cite news|date=August 31, 1957|title=Thurmond's Filibuster Angers Dixie Senators|work=[[The Herald Journal]]|publisher=|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19570831&id=PWssAAAAIBAJ&pg=3968,4300592|access-date=August 9, 2021}}</ref> Thurmond [[Filibuster in the United States Senate|filibustered]] the bill, [[Strom Thurmond filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957|speaking for a total of 24 hours and 18 minutes]], in what was then the longest speech ever given by a single senator. This record was surpassed by Senator Cory Booker who held the floor for 25 hours and four minutes from March 31 to April 1, 2025.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/2025/04/01/nx-s1-5347318/cory-booker-senate-speech | title=Cory Booker breaks a 68-year-old Senate record with a 25-hour speech | work=NPR | last1=Treisman | first1=Rachel }}</ref> Other Southern senators, who had agreed as part of a compromise not to filibuster this bill, were upset with Thurmond because they thought his defiance made them look incompetent to their constituents.<ref>{{cite book |last=Caro |first= Robert |date= 2002|title= [[Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson]]|location= New York|publisher= Knopf|chapter= Chapter 41 Omens|pages=997–998|isbn=0-394-52836-0}}</ref> Despite his efforts, the Congress passed the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957]] on August 29.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2007/08/congress-passes-civil-rights-act-aug-29-1957-005470|title=Congress passes Civil Rights Act Aug. 29, 1957|date=August 29, 2007|work=Politico}}</ref> During his filibuster, Thurmond relied on the book ''The Case for the South'', written by W. D. Workman Jr.; Thurmond had known the author for fifteen years. Workman had covered both Thurmond's tenure as South Carolina governor and his presidential campaign, in addition to having served in the military unit which Thurmond had organized in Columbia. He had turned down an offer by Thurmond to serve as his Washington, DC office press secretary.<ref name="shermer"/>

Thurmond sent a copy of ''The Case for the South'' to each of his Senate colleagues and then-vice president [[Richard Nixon]]. The book was described in 2013 by [[Loyola University Chicago|Loyola]] history professor and author Elizabeth Shermer as "a compendium of segregationist arguments that hit all the high points of regional apologia".<ref name="shermer">{{cite book|last=Shermer|first=Elizabeth Tandy|title=Barry Goldwater and the Remaking of the American Political Landscape|publisher=[[University of Arizona Press]]|year=2013|isbn=978-0816521098|pages=152–153|lccn=2012029636|ol=25404808M}}</ref>

In January 1959, the Senate held a debate over changing the rules to curb filibusters. Thurmond expressed the view that the Senate should return to the rule prior to 1917, when there were no regulations on the time for debate.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Z610oKUqOA4C&dat=19590113&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|title=Liberals Claim South Won Filibuster Battle|date=January 13, 1959|newspaper=Gadsden Times}}</ref>