Strom Thurmond

South Carolina segregationist-turned-Republican whose 1957 filibuster set the solo record and whose service reached 100.

Overview

Thurmond began as a Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948, was elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate in 1954, and set the one-person filibuster record, 24 hours and 18 minutes against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. He switched to the Republican Party in 1964 over the Civil Rights Act, symbolizing the partisan realignment of the South, and as Judiciary and Armed Services chair steered federal installations to his state and moderated his public racial positions while supporting Black staff. Oldest and longest-serving member ever at his retirement at 100 in 2003, he died months later.