Strom Thurmond filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957

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Strom Thurmond filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957
Thurmond sitting in a suit and tie holding a pen
Strom Thurmond, c. 1961
DateAugust 28–29, 1957
Duration24 hours, 18 minutes
VenueUnited States Senate
TypeFilibuster
MotivePrevention of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957
The full text of the filibuster at Wikisource

On August 28, 1957,

Supreme Court decisions, and George Washington's Farewell Address
. Thurmond focused on a particular provision in the bill that dealt with certain court cases, but opposed the entirety of the bill.

Thurmond, an ardent

racist because of its goal of preventing access to voting for black Americans. Nevertheless, the bill passed two hours after the filibuster and was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower
within two weeks.

Background and goals

The

trial by jury for anyone charged with restricting an individual's right to vote.[6] This modified version of the bill passed the House on August 27 by a vote of 279–97.[3]

cloture vote, which requires a certain percentage of senators to agree that a speech should be ended. At the time of Thurmond's speech, the threshold for cloture was a two-thirds majority. Thurmond holds the record for the longest solo filibuster, but longer filibusters have been carried out by groups of senators.[9]

Thurmond's filibuster was primarily focused on a specific provision in the civil rights bill that focused on minor voting rights

U.S. Constitution.[12]

Thurmond had been significantly involved in politics before his senatorship: he had served as

write-in campaign.[13][14] Thurmond's political candidacies were largely based on his opposition to racial integration.[15]

An agreement among the Southern senators to not stage an organized filibuster had been reached in Senator Richard Russell's office on August 24, four days before Thurmond's speech.[16] Thurmond's departure from the senators' agreement was later criticized by party leaders including Russell and Herman Talmadge.[17]

Filibuster

The filibuster began at 8:54 p.m. on August 28, 1957, with a reading of the

swearing-in of William Proxmire, who had been elected following the death of Joseph McCarthy, after which he resumed his speech. Thurmond was also allowed breaks throughout the day by other senators, including some in support of the bill, when they questioned him at length.[24]

Thurmond concluded his filibuster after 24 hours and 18 minutes at 9:12 p.m. on August 29, making it the longest filibuster ever conducted in the Senate as of 2024[update].

stenographers worked together to record the speech for the Congressional Record, which ultimately consumed 96 pages in the Record and cost over $7,000 in printing costs ($76,000 in 2023 dollars).[22][29]

Logistics

Thurmond's filibuster has been described by historian and biographer Joseph Crespino as "kind of a urological mystery".[20] Thurmond took regular steam baths leading up to the filibuster to draw fluids out of his body, thus dehydrating himself and allowing himself to absorb fluids for a longer period of time during the filibuster.[7][30] It has also been rumored within the African American community that Thurmond used other methods to avoid leaving for the restroom.[31] The Chicago Defender stated that Thurmond had worn "a contraption devised for long motoring trips" that allowed him to relieve himself on the stand, and longtime Capitol Hill staffer Bertie Bowman claimed in his memoir that Thurmond had been fitted with a catheter.[20][31] Thurmond was allowed to leave for the restroom one time, approximately three hours into the filibuster. Senator Barry Goldwater quietly asked Thurmond how much longer he could hold off using the restroom, to which he replied, "about another hour". Goldwater asked Thurmond to yield the floor to him for a few minutes, and Thurmond was able to use the restroom while Goldwater made an insertion to the Congressional Record.[32] An aide had prepared a bucket in the Senate cloakroom for Thurmond to relieve himself if the need arose, but Thurmond did not end up using it.[32][33] Thurmond's health had become an item of concern by the evening of the 29th among his aides and the Senate doctor George W. Calver, who threatened to personally remove him from the floor if senatorial staff could not convince Thurmond to end his speech.[23][34]

During the filibuster, Thurmond sustained himself on diced pieces of

pumpernickel bread and small pieces of ground steak.[22] He also brought throat lozenges and malted milk tablets onto the floor with him in his pockets.[7][19] Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois brought Thurmond a pitcher of orange juice as noon approached on the 29th, but a staffer quickly put it out of his reach after Thurmond had drunk a glass to reduce the likelihood of him needing to leave for a restroom.[35]

Outcome and reception

President Eisenhower signs a sheet of paper at a desk
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law on September 9, 1957

The filibuster failed to prevent the passage of the bill, and further failed to change the vote whatsoever.[18] The bill passed two hours after Thurmond finished speaking by a vote of 60–15,[15][36] and was signed into law by President Eisenhower less than two weeks later. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first U.S. civil rights bill passed in 82 years.[3][37]

Thurmond received significant criticism, even from Democrats who signed or were aligned with the goals of the

grandstanding, and Russell denounced it as "personal political aggrandizement".[38] These senators had received several telegrams during Thurmond's speech encouraging them to assist Thurmond in his filibuster by relieving him, and Thurmond's staff received correspondence from hundreds of Southerners congratulating and encouraging him.[22][36] Southern Democratic senators did not join the filibuster, despite its popularity among their constituents, because (as Russell put it) the South had already secured a compromise in the bill which would be jeopardized by a filibuster and there was not enough support to prevent a cloture vote anyway.[36]

In 1964, Thurmond was involved in a second filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[39] Later that year, he switched his affiliation to the Republican Party.[40] The 1964 filibuster was carried out by a group of Southern senators and was only ended by a cloture vote.[41] Thurmond was repeatedly elected and served in the Senate for 48 years, retiring in 2003 at the age of 100 as the oldest U.S. senator ever.[15][42]

Modern reception

Although the filibuster did not use any "overtly racist language" according to The Washington Post's Gillian Brockell in 2021, it has been described as racist by the newspaper because the bill Thurmond filibustered against protected the right of African Americans to vote.[18] In his 2012 biography of Thurmond, Strom Thurmond's America, Crespino noted the impact of Thurmond's filibuster and partial authorship of the Southern Manifesto, a document designed to unify the South against school integration,[43] the previous year. He described these events as "[sealing] Thurmond's reputation as one of the South's last Confederates, a champion of white southerners' campaign of 'massive resistance'" to civil rights.[44] He further argues that the filibuster was a way for Thurmond to uphold Southern ideas about white strength and endurance, while also burnishing his personal image of masculinity and health.[31]

Notes

  1. Eastern time
    .
  2. ^ Alaska and Hawaii were not yet admitted as states at the time of the filibuster.[18]

References

  1. ^ "Black Americans and the Vote". National Archives and Records Administration. October 7, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  2. ^ "Civil Rights Act of 1957". Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d "The Civil Rights Act of 1957". United States House of Representatives. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  4. ^ "Civil Rights Act of 1957, September 9, 1957". Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. July 9, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  5. ^ Glass, Andrew (August 29, 2007). "Congress passes Civil Rights Act Aug. 29, 1957". Politico. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  6. ^ Crespino 2012, p. 112.
  7. ^ a b c "Thurmond Holds Senate Record for Filibustering". Fox News. Associated Press. March 25, 2015. Archived from the original on March 20, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
  8. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 133.
  9. ^ a b c "About Filibusters and Cloture". United States Senate. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
  10. ^ Cohodas 1993, pp. 294–296.
  11. ^ Crespino 2012, p. 113.
  12. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 131.
  13. ^ Welna, David (December 5, 2002). "Strom Thurmond at 100". NPR. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  14. ^ Hamby, Alonzo L. (October 4, 2016). "Harry S. Truman: Campaigns and Elections". Miller Center of Public Affairs. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  15. ^ a b c Clymer, Adam (June 27, 2003). "Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration, Dies at 100". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  16. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 130.
  17. ^ Bass & Thompson 2005, p. 170.
  18. ^ a b c d Brockell, Gillian (March 26, 2021). "Note to Mitch McConnell: The Senate's longest filibuster was definitely racist". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  19. ^ a b c Cohodas 1993, p. 294.
  20. ^ a b c Kelly, Jon (December 12, 2012). "How do you talk for 24 hours non-stop?". BBC News. Retrieved August 30, 2020.
  21. ^ Lachicotte 1966, pp. 133–135.
  22. ^ a b c d Crespino 2012, p. 115.
  23. ^ a b Cohodas 1993, p. 296.
  24. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 136.
  25. ^ Cohodas 1993, pp. 296–297.
  26. ^ Palmer, Landon. "'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' still shapes the filibuster debate. That's a problem". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  27. ^ Byrd 1988, p. 148.
  28. ^ "Wayne Morse Sets Filibuster Record". United States Senate. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  29. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 134.
  30. ^ Bass & Thompson 2005, p. 169.
  31. ^ a b c Crespino 2012, p. 117.
  32. ^ a b Memmott, Mark (March 7, 2013). "How Did Strom Thurmond Last Through His 24-Hour Filibuster?". NPR. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  33. ^ Bass & Thompson 2005, pp. 26, 170.
  34. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 137.
  35. ^ Cohodas 1993, pp. 295–296.
  36. ^ a b c Cohodas 1993, p. 297.
  37. ^ Lachicotte 1966, p. 139.
  38. ^ Crespino 2012, p. 116.
  39. Facing South
    . Retrieved June 10, 2022.
  40. ^ "Senators Who Changed Parties During Senate Service (Since 1890)". United States Senate. Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  41. ^ "Civil Rights Act of 1964". United States Senate. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  42. ^ "Strom Thurmond: A Featured Biography". United States Senate. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  43. ^ Badger 1999, p. 517.
  44. ^ Crespino 2012, p. 103.

Print sources

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