Strom Thurmond

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Overview

This is a book about the white side of the civil rights struggle - the fascinating story of the South's political evolution over the past fifty years, told through the life and career of Strom Thurmond, one of the South's most provocative and enduring politicians. Virtually all books that explore the American civil rights movement do so from the perspective of black America, chronicling the collective march to black empowerment through the experiences of individual black leaders. Strom Thurmond and the Politics ...
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More About This Book

Overview

This is a book about the white side of the civil rights struggle - the fascinating story of the South's political evolution over the past fifty years, told through the life and career of Strom Thurmond, one of the South's most provocative and enduring politicians. Virtually all books that explore the American civil rights movement do so from the perspective of black America, chronicling the collective march to black empowerment through the experiences of individual black leaders. Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change approaches this explosive era from the point of view of those for whom the sharing of power was most wrenching - the Southern white politicians. With full access to Thurmond and his archives, and with more than twelve years of research on Thurmond to her credit, Nadine Cohodas here gives a compelling account of an era of tumultuous change in America. State senator, judge, governor, and states rights candidate for president before he came to serve in Washington, Senator Thurmond was to many the embodiment of white supremacy and a classic, die-hard segregationist. The leading Dixiecrat whose 24-hour-18-minute filibuster against a 1957 civil rights bill set a record that still stands, Thurmond eventually underwent a striking metamorphosis: he was the first South Carolina politician to hire a black staff member, he presided over the crucial 1982 extension of the Voting Rights Act, and he ultimately threw his unqualified support behind the law that honors Martin Luther King, Jr., his longtime nemesis. Switching party allegiances and adapting to new realities, Thurmond changed the rules of Southern politics forever. Today he is one of the Senate's respected elder statesmen, held in high regard by leaders and trusted by his constituents, black and white alike. Strom Thurmond's life and work take us through a century of historic terrain, from the age of Jim Crow through the turmoil of civil rights to the present day. With Thurmond, we meet a c
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This respectful biography traces South Carolina Senator Thurmond's career from his status as a ``consummate white reactionary'' to that of a savvy politician who courts black voters. Cohodas, a former staffer for Congressional Quarterly , reconstructs Thurmond's long political career, from judge to governor to senator, and describes his political strategies, including his pork-barrel politics. And she interweaves Thurmond's career with the story of civil rights conflicts in the South. But her interviews with Thurmond reveal little, and she does not probe his colleagues. Also, while Cohodas occasionally sees ironies in Thurmond's political transformation, her conclusion that his support of black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas symbolizes a major change is undermined by Thomas's conservatism. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)
Library Journal
The life of Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina almost spans the 20th century. (He was born in 1902.) In addition to his service in the Senate, Thurmond was both a governor of South Carolina and the Dixiecrat (a state's rights movement) candidate for the presidency in 1948. Examining Thurmond's career, Cohodas pays particular attention to his strong opposition to racial integration and his role in the development of the Republican Party as a viable force in the once solidly Democratic South. She has written a readable, well-documented account of the Southern battle over integration from the perspective of one of its most highly visible conservative opponents. For an examination of how a liberal Southern Congressman reacted to many of the same challenges, readers may consult Carl Elliot and Michael D'Orso's The Cost of Courage: The Journey of an American Congressman ( LJ 2/1/92).-- Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette
Booknews
Reprint of the Simon & Schuster edition originally published in 1993. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780865544468
  • Publisher: Mercer University Press
  • Publication date: 6/1/1995
  • Pages: 592
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 1.32 (d)

Table of Contents

Preface 9
Ch. 1 Standing with the People 11
Ch. 2 The Legacy of Pitchfork Ben 1870-1928 18
Ch. 3 On the Move 1929-1937 37
Ch. 4 Insulation Against the Turmoil 1938-1946 53
Ch. 5 Making Choices 1947 93
Ch. 6 Irreversible Course January 1948-June 1948 126
Ch. 7 Candidate by Default July 1948-December 1948 154
Ch. 8 In the Shadow of the Court 1949-1953 194
Ch. 9 The Year of Precedents 1954 239
Ch. 10 Resistance and Resolve 1955-1960 268
Ch. 11 Breakthrough 1961-1964 315
Ch. 12 The Center Cannot Hold 1965-1970 363
Ch. 13 Readjustment 1971-1979 414
Ch. 14 Back over the Rubicon: A Man Redeemed, a Life Remembered 1980-1992 454
Abbreviations Used in Source Notes 499
Notes 501
Bibliography 547
Acknowledgments 554
Index 557
Picture Credits 575
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