James Strom Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902 in Edgefield, South Carolina
He has been a senator for one fifth of the entire history of the United States
He was 17 when women were granted the right to vote
When he was first elected to the U.S. Senate, there were only 48 states in the union
He holds the record for the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history at 24 hours and 18 minutes, in opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Act. He began his filibuster by reading the texts of the election laws of all 48 states.
In 1897, Strom's father Will shot and killed a political foe who called him a "low, dirty, scoundrel". He was acquitted after pleading self-defense
He's old enough to be Bob Dole's father
source: strom watch
makes me so proud of our political system that can allow an old man to sleep through such an important job and never get fired from it by his bosses! What idiots the people of SC must be to have sent him back time and time again. (sorry SCians!) But REALLY!
Yes, he must have had one heck of an ad campaign during election time!
I wouldn't be suprised to hear that he dies pretty soon. I mean, his job pretty much kept him goin'--even if he did sleep through it...
The slogan for his presidential run in 1948 (in which he lost to Truman but carried four Southern states) was "Segregation Forever!"
Here's an exact quote from a stump speech he made during that campaign:
"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."
I grabbed that from Ian's Blawg.com
i realize he changed his tune later on in life, but just the fact of actually having said that once, made it a plank in his platform, is just ... oh man.
I read in the paper that Norway will be 100 in 2005, therefore Strom Thurmond is older than Norway! Isn't that nuts?
He seems to have changed a lot of his views as society in general has changed, and in that he seems to be a mile ahead of some. Even though I'm not a fan of most Republicans I say rock on Thurman! Good luck to anyone who's hanging in there after that long.
well, i'm not really, you know, a fan or anything. in a lot of ways i find him quite frightening.
Oh, I'm not either. I just admire old cranky people who are 100 years old and still holding a job.
I don't think he's as frightening as, oh, Mr. Helms...
Can you imagine how Fritz Hollings feels? Finally, I get to be the senior Senator from SC! ;)
I dunno how much credit I'd give him, really. I mean, I bet there's like a cabal that meets every night to perform chants and dark offerings to keep him going. Clearly the man is made of pure evil (which is not at all like being made of lions).