THURMOND, (JAMES) STROM

born , Dec. 5, 1902, Edgefield, S.C., U.S. Thurmond, 1948 American politician, a prominent states' rights and segregation advocate who ran for the presidency in 1948 on the Dixiecrat ticket and afterward became a longtime member of the U.S. Senate. Thurmond graduated from Clemson College, Clemson, S.C., in 1923. He taught school for six years and was admitted to the bar in 1930. He then served as a city and county attorney until 1938 and was also a state senator (193338) and a circuit court judge (193841). Thurmond emerged from his military service in World War II a highly decorated lieutenant colonel. He was elected governor of South Carolina in 1946 and proceeded to initiate several liberal reforms, including a notable expansion of the state educational system. At the Democratic National Convention of 1948, however, Thurmond led the bolt of Southern delegates angry over the civil rights plank in the party platform. The Southerners formed the States' Rights Democratic Partypopularly known as the Dixiecratsand nominated Thurmond as their presidential candidate. He won 39 electoral votes. Elected by write-in vote to the Senate in 1954, Thurmond quickly established himself in the Southern conservative mold as a vigorous champion of increased military power and spending and an archfoe of civil rights legislation. He was reelected in 1960, but in 1964 he again left the Democratic Party in support of the conservative Republican presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater. Reelected as a Republican in 1966, 1972, 1978, and 1984, he continued to seek Southern conservative support for the GOP. In 1980 he became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and in 1981 he was elected president pro tempore of the Senate.