Strom Thurmond

James Strom Thurmond Sr. (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician, military officer, and attorney who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. Prior to his 48 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951. Thurmond was a member of the Democratic Party until 1964 when he joined the Republican Party for the remainder of his legislative career. He also ran for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate, receiving over a million votes and winning four states.

Early life and education (1902–1933)
James Strom Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902, in Edgefield, South Carolina. He was second oldest of the six children born to John William Thurmond (1862–1934) and Eleanor Gertrude (1870–1958). His father served as a county supervisor, representative to South Carolina General Assembly, and a Solicitor. In 1902, he unsuccessfully contested the election for United States Congress. Strom's mother came from a well-known Edgefield family. She was a deeply religious woman, known for delivering prayers. Thurmond had the ability to ride ponies, horses, and bulls from an early age. When Thurmond was four, his family moved into a larger home, where they owned about six acres of land. His home was frequently visited by politicians and lawyers. At six years old, he had an encounter with Benjamin Tillman, a senator from South Carolina. Thurmond remembered the handshake with Tillman as his first political skill.

South Carolina Senate (1933–1938)
In 1930, Thurmond was admitted to the South Carolina bar. He was appointed as the Edgefield Town and County attorney, serving from 1930 to 1938. Thurmond supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. Thurmond favored Roosevelt's argument that the federal government could be used to assist citizens in the daily plights brought on by the Great Depression. Thurmond raised money for Roosevelt and following his victory, traveled to Washington to attend Roosevelt's inauguration. In 1933, Thurmond was elected to the South Carolina Senate, serving there until 1938, when he was elected to be a state circuit judge.

Thurmond increased in notability after becoming involved in the middle of a dispute between the Timmermans and Logues. In November 1941, officers arrived at the Logue family home to arrest Sue Logue and her brother-in-law for their hiring of the hit man who murdered Davis Timmerman. George Logue and Fred Dorn ambushed the officers after they were allowed entry into the home, the sheriff and deputy both being fatally wounded by the duo. Thurmond, who learned of the shooting while attending a morning church service, became concerned of further violence and drove to the home. On arriving, he removed his jacket and vest while turning his pockets inside out to show that he was without a weapon, then walked inside the home and confronted a Logue family friend who had aimed a shotgun at him. Sue Logue was convinced to surrender after Thurmond promised he would personally see her safely past the angry mob that had assembled outside following the murders. His act was widely reported across the state in the following days. Cohodas wrote that the incident increased public perception of Thurmond as a determined and gritty individual and contributed to his becoming a political celebrity within the state.

World War II
In 1942, at 39, after the U.S. formally entered World War II, Judge Thurmond resigned from the bench to serve in the U.S. Army, rising to lieutenant colonel. In the Battle of Normandy (June 6 – August 25, 1944), he landed in a glider attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. For his military service, Thurmond received 18 decorations, medals and awards, including the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star with Valor device, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Belgium's Order of the Crown and France's Croix de Guerre. During 1954–55, Thurmond was president of the Reserve Officers Association. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve with the rank of major general.

1948 presidential campaign


During the campaign, Thurmond said the following in a speech met with loud cheers by his assembled supporters:

I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there are 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.

Thurmond quietly distanced himself from the States' Rights Party in the aftermath of the 1948 campaign, despite saying shortly before its conclusion that the party would continue as opposition to the national Democratic Party. After Thurmond missed a party meeting in December of that year in which the States' Rights Democratic Party created a state's rights institute in Washington, columnist John Temple Graves, disappointed in Thurmond's absence, opined that his campaign had been the best argument that the States' Rights Party was a national movement centered around the future of liberty and restrained government. Thurmond concurrently received counsel from Walter Brown and Robert Figgs to break from the party and seek reclaiming credentials that would validate him in the minds of others as a liberal. Biographer Joseph Crespino observed that Thurmond was aware that he could neither completely abandon the Democratic Party as it embraced the civil rights initiative of the Truman administration nor let go of his supporters within the States' Rights Party, whom he courted in his 1950 campaign for the Senate.

Concurrently with Thurmond's discontent, former senator and Secretary of State James F. Byrnes began speaking out against the Truman administration's domestic policies. Walter Brown sought to link the 1950 gubernatorial campaign of Byrnes with the Thurmond Senate campaign as part of a collective effort against President Truman, this effort appeared to have been a success. Byrnes indirectly criticized Thurmond when asked by a reporter in 1950 about his governing if elected South Carolina Governor, saying he would not waste time "appointing colonels and crowning queens"; the remark geared toward the image of Thurmond as not serious and conniving. Brown wrote to Thurmond that the comment was a death to any potential alliance between the two politicians. Thurmond and his wife are described as looking "like they had been shot" when reading the Byrnes quotation in the newspaper.

1950 U.S. Senate campaign in South Carolina
In 1952, Thurmond endorsed Republican Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency, rather than the Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson, but Stevenson still narrowly carried South Carolina in the general election.

U.S. Senate (1954–2003)
Though he was defeated in his first Senate race in 1950, this would be the last electoral defeat of Thurmond's political career. He ran again in 1954 and was elected to represent South Carolina in the United States Senate. Thurmond proceeded to win eight consecutive re-election contests and would go on to serve in the Senate for 48 years.

1960 presidential election
On account of Kennedy known support for Civil Rights, Thurmond refused to support the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1960 United States presidential election. Thurmond himself was up for re-election that year and despite his party disloyalty, he won the South Carolina Democratic Primary with nearly 90% of the vote. Like much of the South during this time period, South Carolina was still effectively a one-party state where winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to victory. In the 1960 South Carolina Senate race, Thurmond ran unopposed in the General Election, a Republican candidate did not even appear on the ballot. As of 2021, 1960 remains the last time a Democrat won South Carolina's Class 2 Senate Seat. In the presidential election, he received 14 electoral votes for the vice president (as Harry Byrd Sr.'s running mate). Though Both Byrd and Thurmond had long since moved on from the States Rights' Democratic Party, they were the decided protest ticket of several southern delegates and unpledged electors, who refused to give their support to Kennedy. Though their actual level of electoral support is difficult to determine, "the ByrdThurmond ticket" or "Unpledged candidate", won a plurality of the vote of the vote in Mississippi, finished second (ahead of Nixon) in Alabama and third in Louisiana with 20% of the vote.

Johnson administration
Following the election, Johnson continued to push through Civil Rights legislation, most notably the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which committed the federal government to enforce voting rights of citizens by the supervision of elections in states with noted record of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Thurmond stated that his opposition to the Voting Rights Act was due to not favoring its authorization of the federal government to determine the processes behind how statewide elections are conducted and insisted he was not opposed to black voter turnout. During floor debate on the bill, Republican Senate Leader Everett Dirksen spoke in favor of the VRA, calling it a means to ensure that the rights granted by the Constitution could be afforded to every American, Thurmond retorted that the VRA would lead to "despotism and tyranny."

The Voting Rights Act passed into law by a slightly larger margin than the Civil Rights Act had. Thurmond's opposition to Civil Rights legislation proved no more successful as a Republican than it did as a Democrat. In the Senate, Thurmond had gone from being one of twenty-one Democrats to vote against the Civil Rights Act to being one of only two Republicans to vote in opposition to the VRA.

In 1966, former governor Ernest "Fritz" Hollings won South Carolina's other Senate seat in a special election. He and Thurmond served together for just over 36 years, making them the longest-serving Senate duo in American history. Thurmond and Hollings had a very good relationship, despite their often stark philosophical differences. Their long tenure meant their seniority in the Senate gave South Carolina clout in national politics well beyond its modest population.

Supreme Court nomination
Thurmond decried the Supreme Court opinion in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education (1969), which ordered the immediate desegregation of schools in the American South. This had followed continued Southern resistance for more than a decade to desegregation following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Thurmond praised President Nixon and his "Southern Strategy" of delaying desegregation, saying Nixon "stood with the South in this case".

1968 presidential election
Thurmond was an early supporter of a second presidential campaign by Nixon, his backing coming from the latter's position on the Vietnam War. Thurmond met with Nixon during the Republican primary and promised he would not give in to the "depredations of the Reagan forces. At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Thurmond, along with Mississippi state chairman Clarke Reed, former U.S. Representative and gubernatorial nominee Howard Callaway of Georgia, and Charlton Lyons of Louisiana held the Deep South states solidly for Richard M. Nixon despite the sudden last-minute entry of Governor Ronald Reagan of California into the race. Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York was also in the race but having little effect. In the fall 1968 general election, Nixon won South Carolina with 38 percent of the popular vote and gained South Carolina's electoral votes. With the segregationist Democrat George Wallace on the ballot, the South Carolina Democratic voters split almost evenly between the Democratic Party nominee, Hubert Humphrey, who received 29.6 percent of the total vote, and Wallace, who received 32.3 percent. Other Deep South states swung to Wallace and posted weak totals for Nixon.

Thurmond had quieted conservative fears over rumors that Nixon planned to ask either liberal Republicans Charles Percy or Mark Hatfield to be his running mate. He informed Nixon that both men were unacceptable to the South for the vice-presidency. Nixon ultimately asked Governor Spiro Agnew from Maryland—an acceptable choice to Thurmond—to join the ticket.

Nixon administration
Thanks to his close relationship with the Nixon administration, Thurmond was able to deliver a great deal of federal money, appointments and projects to his state. With a like-minded president in the White House, Thurmond became a very effective power broker in Washington. His staffers said his goal was to be South Carolina's "indispensable man" in Washington, D.C.

In the 1970 gubernatorial election, Thurmond's preferred candidate, U.S. Representative Albert W. Watson, was defeated by his more moderate opponent, Democrat John C. West, the outgoing lieutenant governor, who had opposed Thurmond's initial write-in election to the Senate. Watson had defected to the Republicans in 1965, the year after Thurmond's own bolt, and had been politically close to the senator. Watson lost mainly after several Republican officials in South Carolina shied away from him because of his continuing opposition to civil rights legislation. Watson's loss caused Thurmond slowly to moderate his own image in regard to changing race relations.

A short time after Mississippian Thad Cochran entered the Senate in late 1978, Thurmond gave him advice on how to vote against bills intended to aid African-Americans but not lose their voting support: "Your black friends will be with you, if you be sure to help them with their projects."

Intelligence reform
During this period, the NSA reportedly had been eavesdropping on Thurmond's conversations, using the British part of the ECHELON project.

In May, Thurmond made a joint appearance with President Carter in the Rose Garden in a show of bipartisan support for proposed foreign intelligence surveillance legislation. Thurmond stated he had become convinced the legislation was needed from his service on the Armed Services Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee the previous year and lauded the bill for concurrently protecting the rights of Americans, as a warrant would have to be obtained from a judge in order to fulfill any inquiries.

Foreign policy
Throughout his entire political career, Thurmond's stance on foreign policy was characterized by his staunch opposition to communism.

Judiciary
On October 10, President Carter signed the Federal Magistrate Act of 1979, an expansion of the jurisdiction of American magistrates in regards to civil and criminal cases. Carter noted Thurmond as one of the members of Congress who had shown leadership on the measure, without whose efforts it would have never passed. Senate sources reported in October that Ted Kennedy had asked Majority Leader Robert Byrd to bring the Illinois Brick bill to the floor, the controversial antitrust measure attracting the opposition of Thurmond, who joined Orrin Hatch in threatening a filibuster of the bill. In their stance against the bill, Thurmond and Hatch argued the bill's enactment would result in businesses being exposed to endless litigation as well as the possibility of duplicative awards of damages to direct and indirect purchasers.

Reagan administration
In 1970, African-Americans constituted about 30 percent of South Carolina's population. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans were legally protected in exercising their constitutional rights to register and vote in South Carolina.



Sixth term (1985–1991)
In September 1983, President Reagan attended a fundraising dinner for Thurmond's re-election campaign in the Cantey Building at the South Carolina State Fairgrounds in Columbia, South Carolina. Reagan delivered an address both praising Thurmond and noting the similarities in his views and that of the administration.

Running for a sixth full term in 1984, Thurmond faced his first primary challenge in 20 years, from retired CIA agent Robert Cunningham, and won the Republican nomination on June 12, 1984. Cunningham charged Thurmond with being a follower who no one could validate the seriousness of as a candidate since he had not been challenged in eighteen years, furthering that the South Carolina Republican Party had been involved with the decline in his opposition. Cunningham said that Thurmond had a "bad track record" and noted his past comments on race, saying that he would not be crushed like Thurmond's past opponents and was getting much encouragement in his bid to unseat him.

Thurmond addressed the issue of age during the primary, the 81-year-old senator stating that he exercised each day for an hour and a half and that he was in the same shape as a person in their 30s or 40s. Cunningham received less than 6% of the primary vote. Thurmond then defeated Melvin Purvis III in the general election, the latter receiving half of the votes cast for Thurmond. Purvis, noted to have few differences in ideology with Thurmond, cited the latter's age as reason to retire him from the Senate.

In 1986, President Reagan nominated Antonin Scalia for Associate Justice to replace William Rehnquist as the latter ascended to Chief Justice of the United States following the retirement of Warren E. Burger. During the hearings held in July, Thurmond questioned Scalia on his view of the Supreme Court's ruling in Miranda v. Arizona, that both inculpatory and exculpatory statements made in response to interrogation by a defendant in police custody would be admissible at trial only if the prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney before and during questioning and of the right against self-incrimination before police questioning, and that the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them. Scalia told Thurmond, "As a policy matter, I think – as far as I know everybody thinks – it's a good idea to warn a suspect what his rights are as soon as practicable."

In early 1990, Thurmond sponsored a crime bill concurrent with another measure of the same intent, his version receiving the support of President Bush. Thurmond charged the Democratic proposal with aiding criminals and furthering the loss of rights on the part of victims. In June, the bill was nearly doomed following a procedural vote that forced Senate leaders to work toward modifying its provisions. Thurmond proposed that his fellow senators accept portions of the bill that the Senate had already passed including provisions expanding the number of federal crimes for which the death penalty could apply from 23 to 30 and restrictions on the number of appeals a condemned inmate may file in Federal courts, and the ban on the sale and manufacture of nine types of semiautomatic weapons. Thurmond additionally called for the Senate to oversee a limited number of amendments on outstanding issues in the crime package like the proposal to allow evidence gathered with an improper warrant to be used in trials and the Department of Justice being reorganized. In 1992, the Senate voted on an anti-crime bill, Thurmond predicting that it would not pass due to what he considered its lack of strength: "This weak bill expands the rights of criminals. It is a fraud. It is a sham." He stated that President Bush had told him in advance of his intent to veto the bill if it passed.

In March 1990, Thurmond endorsed reducing the number of ways applicants to jobs needed to submit to verify they were legal citizens, as various forms were required to be submitted by all applicants under the Immigration Reform and Control Act.

Thurmond joined the minority of Republicans who voted for the Brady Bill for gun control in 1993. He voted against the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994.

Thurmond stumped for President Bush during the 1992 South Carolina Republican primary. In early 1992, Thurmond stated his intent to become the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, replacing John Warner. He traced his ambitions for the post to an interest in maintaining a strong defense as well as welfare for "the men and women who serve our nation so well." In October 1992, Hollings stated that Thurmond would learn, in the event of his retirement, that he did not have "a home, a hometown, and would quickly discover he doesn't have any real friends." The comment caused Representative Tommy Hartnett to rebuke Hollings, demanding that he apologize for insulting Thurmond.

In June 1993, after the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted to close the Navy base and naval shipyard in Charleston, South Carolina, Thurmond said the decision was "probably the worst disaster that's happened to Charleston in my lifetime", citing that the people of Charleston had stood by the Navy more than any others in the world, and called the decision worse than Hurricane Hugo.

In June 1993, President Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Associate Justice to replace the retiring Byron White. Thurmond had been the only member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against Ginsburg in 1980, prior to her confirmation as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Thurmond listed concerns about Ginsburg as it pertained to her views on abortion and the death penalty, though he voted to support her, calling Ginsburg "a person of integrity".

Seventh term (1991–1997)
Thurmond launched his campaign for a seventh term on February 12, 1990, citing that he had never before felt "a stronger obligation to continue my work for the future of our state and our nation." Thurmond, then age 87, billed himself as having the health of a man in his fifties. The South Carolina Democratic Party faced difficulty recruiting a candidate which they believed had a chance of defeating Thurmond.

In the general election, Thurmond defeated retired intelligence officer Bob Cunningham, who had been his Republican primary opponent in 1984. (Cunningham had switched parties in 1990.)

Clarence Thomas nomination
President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for Associate Justice on the Supreme Court to replace the retiring Thurgood Marshall. In a visit with Thurmond, Thomas stated that he had been fortunate as a result of the Civil Rights Movement assisting him in getting out of poverty, a departure from his previous position of African-Americans achieving success through hard work and individual initiative. The New York Times observed, "Judge Thomas's remarks in Mr. Thurmond's office were not in response to reporters' specific questions and were clearly intended to rebut critics, including some by members of civil rights organizations, who say he should not be confirmed because of his vociferous opposition to affirmative action and racial quotas in hiring." In September, as Thomas appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thurmond interrupted a line of questioning by Howard Metzenbaum to defend Thomas against a complaint that Thomas had answered questions about cases except for abortion, with the assumption that it would harm his nomination's appeal to supporters of Roe v. Wade. Thurmond voted for Thomas's confirmation, and the latter was confirmed by the Senate in October 1991.

Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee
Following the 1994 Republican Revolution, in which the Republican Party gained eight seats in the Senate and gained a majority in both chambers, Senator Bob Dole stated that Thurmond would head the Armed Services Committee. In December, after President Clinton's announcement that he would seek a 25 billion increase in defense spending over the following six years, Thurmond called it a correct move but one which validated claims that the president had hastily cut the Pentagon budget.

In February 1995, during an interview, Thurmond stated that he had survived "a little power play" orchestrated by fellow Republicans, enabling him to continue serving as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman. At the end of June, when the Senate Armed Services Committee unveiled a bill that would eliminate funding proposed by the House in its version of the 1996 National Defense Authorization Act while purchasing parts and continuing production of B-2 bombers, Thurmond called it an effort to "achieve the appropriate balance of readiness, modernization and quality of life program." In late 1995, Thurmond joined a bipartisan coalition of politicians in supporting a petition intending "to loosen the rules governing the prescription drug methlyphenidate". Thurmond attended the December 1995 funeral of South Carolina state senator Marshall Williams.

On December 5, 1996, Thurmond became the oldest serving member of the U.S. Senate, and on May 25, 1997, the longest-serving member (41 years and 10 months), casting his 15,000th vote in September 1998. In the following month, when astronaut and fellow Senator John Glenn was to embark on the Discovery at age 77, Thurmond, who was his senior by 19 years, reportedly sent him a message saying; "I want to go too."

On October 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 into law, an authorization of "appropriations for military activities of the Department of Defense, military construction, and defense activities of the Department of Energy." Clinton stated that the bill being named after Thurmond was a "well-deserved and appropriate tribute" due to his thirty-six years in the U.S. Army Reserve and his primary focus in the Senate being on U.S. national defense.

Toward the end of Thurmond's Senate career, critics suggested his mental abilities had declined. His supporters argued that, while he lacked physical stamina due to his age, mentally he remained aware and attentive, and maintained a very active work schedule, showing up for every floor vote. He stepped down as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the beginning of 1999, as he had pledged to do in late 1997.

Eighth term (1997–2003)
Thurmond received primary opposition from Harold G. Worley and Charlie Thompson. Throughout his 1996 campaign, the question of age appeared again, given that he was 93 years old at the time, with Thurmond even remarking that the issue was the only one expressed by members of the press. Kevin Sack observed, "As Mr. Thurmond campaigns for history, polls show that the vast majority of South Carolinians believe it is far past time for him to retire." Worley stated that the issue of age should be dealt with in the primary as opposed to the general election, encouraging Thurmond to be dropped as the seat's continuous nominee.

In the general election, Thurmond received 53.4 percent of the vote to the 44 percent of Democrat Elliott Springs Close.

In February 1999, Thurmond introduced legislation barring health messages on wine bottles, the measure intended to reverse what he called "erroneous and irresponsible" action of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The legislation transferred authority over labeling to the Department of Health and Human Services from the Treasury Department and increased taxes on wine. Thurmond admitted that he did not usually "favor increased taxes" but maintained that "the only way in which we will be able to finance adequate, impartial and trustworthy research into alcohol-induced diseases such as hypertension, breast cancer and birth defects is to generate a new revenue flow that will be used specifically for investigating such killers." On May 26, 1999, the Senate voted on an amendment to a spending bill exonerating Husband E. Kimmel and Walter C. Short of charges of failing to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor that led to American involvement in World War II. Thurmond was noted as one of five Senate members to have been a World War II veteran and back the measure and called Kimmel and Short "the last victims" of Pearl Harbor. In August, Thurmond underwent surgery for an enlarged prostate. In September, Thurmond was admitted to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center for tests, his press secretary John DeCrosta saying in a statement that doctors were interested in the source of Thurmond's fatigue and giving him evaluations.

In October 2000, Thurmond collapsed while lunching with a staff member and an acquaintance at a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia and was admitted to Walter Reed; his spokeswoman Genevieve Erny stated that the collapse was found to have been unrelated to previous illnesses.

In January 2001, Thurmond endorsed his son Strom Thurmond Jr. for federal prosecutor in South Carolina in a recommendation to the Senate. In March, Thurmond voted for an amendment to the campaign finance reform bill of John McCain and Russ Feingold. Thurmond had initially opposed the measure and changed his vote at the last minute. On the morning of October 3, Thurmond was admitted to Walter Reed after fainting at his Senate desk. He was accompanied in the ambulance by fellow Republican and retired heart transplant surgeon Bill Frist. Declining to seek re-election in 2002, he was succeeded by then-Representative and fellow Republican Lindsey Graham.

Thurmond's 100th birthday was celebrated on December 5, 2002. Some remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott during the event were considered racially insensitive: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, Mississippi voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either." Fifteen days later, on December 20, Lott resigned as the Senate Republican leader effective on January 3, 2003, the beginning of the next congressional session.

Personal life
Thurmond was married twice and fathered five children.

First daughter with Carrie Butler
Six months after Thurmond's death in 2003, Essie Mae Washington-Williams (1925–2013) publicly revealed she was his daughter. She was born on October 12, 1925, to Carrie "Tunch" Butler (1909 or 1910 – 1948), who had worked for Thurmond's parents and was 15 or 16 years old when she gave birth.

Essie Mae Washington was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle, and was not told that Thurmond was her father until she was in high school, when she met him for the first time. She later married, took on the last name Washington-Williams, had a family, and retired as a Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school teacher with a master's degree. Though the Thurmond family never publicly acknowledged Washington-Williams as his daughter while he was alive, he helped pay her way through a historically black college in South Carolina and continued to give her financial support well into her adult life. Washington-Williams said she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to the advantage of either one of us". She kept silent out of respect for her father and denied the two had agreed she would not reveal her connection to him.

After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family attorney acknowledged her parentage. Her name has been added to those of his other children on a monument to Thurmond installed at the statehouse grounds. Many close friends, staff members, and South Carolina residents had long suspected that Washington-Williams was Thurmond's daughter, as they had noted his interest in her. The young woman had been granted a degree of access to Thurmond more typical of a family member than to a member of the public.

Washington-Williams later said she intended to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, and did apply to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as she was eligible through her Thurmond ancestry. Thurmond was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. Her UDC application was not approved while she was alive.

Washington-Williams died on February 4, 2013, in Columbia, South Carolina, at age 87.



First marriage
Thurmond was 44 when he married his first wife, Jean Crouch (1926–1960),in the South Carolina Governor's mansion on November 7, 1947. In April 1947, when Crouch was a senior at Winthrop College, Thurmond was a judge in a beauty contest in which she was selected as Miss South Carolina. In June, upon her graduation, Thurmond hired her as his personal secretary. On September 13, 1947, Thurmond proposed marriage by calling Crouch to his office to take a dictated letter. The letter was to her, and contained his proposal of marriage. Thirteen years later in 1960, Crouch died of a brain tumor at age 33; they had no children.

Second marriage
Thurmond married his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore, on December 22, 1968. He was 66 years old and she was 22. She had won Miss South Carolina in 1965. Two years later, he hired her to work in his Senate office. Although Nancy did not particularly enjoy politics, she nevertheless became a popular figure on Capitol Hill. At age 68 in 1971, Thurmond fathered the first of four children with Nancy, who was then 25. Thurmond and Nancy's children are: Nancy Moore Thurmond (1971–1993), a beauty pageant contestant who was killed by a drunk driver; James Strom Thurmond Jr. (born 1972), a former U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina and Solicitor for the 2nd Judicial District of South Carolina. Juliana Whitmer (born 1974), and Paul Reynolds Thurmond (born 1976), a South Carolina State Senator.

Thurmond's children remained in South Carolina with relatives, and Nancy commuted back and forth. Nancy and Strom separated in March 1991, after Nancy claimed that they no longer had a real marriage, stating "At this point in my life I would like to be able to pursue several career options and some measure of independence." She returned to South Carolina, where her children were living. Although Nancy casually dated other men during the early stages of the separation, neither she nor her husband considered divorce, and they reportedly remained close. It was alleged that she spoke with her husband several times each day, and he stayed at her house several times each month, whenever he returned to South Carolina. Thurmond and his wife continued attending events together. However, they were also reported as estranged in 1996 when Nancy was facing trial for drunk driving. In 2001, they were still reported to be estranged when Nancy refused an offer to succeed Strom in the U.S. Senate.

Sexual misconduct allegations
According to NBC News in 2017, it was widely acknowledged around Congress that Thurmond inappropriately touched women throughout his career. Thurmond's colleague, Senator Patty Murray, stated that in early 1994, Thurmond, then 91, tried to fondle her breast in an elevator. According to The New York Times, Thurmond had been known for fondling women in Senate elevators, and did not realize Murray was a fellow senator. The alleged incident prompted a statement from Thurmond's office, saying that he had not engaged in any inappropriate behavior, and that he was showing gentlemanly courtesy by assisting Murray into the elevator. Female Senate staffers from the late 1980s and early 1990s recalled that Thurmond was on an informal list of male senators who were known for harassing women regularly, such as while alone in elevators.

Political reporter Cokie Roberts said in 2017 that Thurmond kissed her on the mouth, while she was live on the air at a political convention. Roberts stated that Thurmond "was in the category of his own" when it came to politicians and sexual harassment.

Death
Thurmond died of heart failure in his sleep at 9:45 p.m. on June 26, 2003, at a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina. He was 100 years old. After lying in state in the rotunda of the State House in Columbia, his body was carried on a caisson to the First Baptist Church for services, at which then-Senator Joe Biden of Delaware delivered a eulogy, and later to the family burial plot in Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield, where he was interred. At the time of his death, he was the earliest-serving living former governor in the country.

Legacy
Former Slate senior writer Timothy Noah wrote that Thurmond's most significant political contribution was his backing of segregation and myths had been construed on the part of his contemporaries to explain his continued wielding of national influence. South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson referred to Thurmond as South Carolina's greatest statesman in the 20th century.

Thurmond's racially charged language during the earlier part of his career left him with a mixed reputation among African Americans, receiving only 20% of their vote in his last election in 1996. In 2003, political scientist Willie Leggett stated, "As black people make assessments of friends and enemies – of those who supported racial equality and those who didn't – Thurmond falls on the side of those who did not. Thurmond is not going to be a hero for black people because he never became a proponent of black rights."
 * The Strom Thurmond Foundation, Inc., provides financial aid support to South Carolina residents in financial need. The Foundation was established in 1974 by Thurmond with honoraria received from speeches and donations from friends and family.
 * A reservoir on the Georgia–South Carolina border is named after him: Lake Strom Thurmond.
 * The University of South Carolina is home to the Strom Thurmond Fitness Center, one of the largest fitness complexes on a college campus. The new complex has largely replaced the Blatt Fitness center, named for Solomon Blatt, a political rival of Thurmond. In July 2021, the university's Presidential Commission on University History recommended removing Thurmond's name from the building.
 * Charleston Southern University has a Strom Thurmond Building, which houses the school's business offices, bookstore, and post office.
 * Thurmond Building at Winthrop University is named for him. He served on Winthrop's Board of Trustees from 1936 to 1938 and again from 1947 to 1951 when he was governor of South Carolina.
 * A statue of Strom Thurmond is located on the southern grounds of the South Carolina State Capitol as a memorial to his service to the state.
 * The Strom Thurmond Federal Building and United States Courthouse is named after him.
 * Strom Thurmond High School is located in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina.
 * Al Sharpton was reported on February 24, 2007, to be a descendant of slaves owned by the Thurmond family. Sharpton has not asked for a DNA test.
 * The U.S. Air Force has a C-17 Globemaster named the Spirit of Strom Thurmond.
 * The mobilization complex at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (commonly known as 'Green Ramp') is named in his honor.
 * In 1989, he was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan.
 * Strom Thurmond Boulevard, located in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, is named in his honor.
 * In 1993, he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush.
 * The Strom Thurmond Institute is located on the campus of Clemson University.

Articles

 * Strom Thurmond's family confirms paternity claim, by David Mattingly, CNN.com, December 15, 2003


 * The Scarred Stone: The Strom Thurmond Monument by Joseph Crespino, Emory University, April 29, 2010

Obituaries

 * Tribute to Strom Thurmond from The State — June 26, 2003
 * , CNN, June 26, 2003
 * Strom Thurmond Dead at 100, by James Di Liberto Jr., Fox News, June 26, 2003