(Note: these learning modules encompass the
actual class lectures, and are designed for those students who have to miss
class through no fault of their own, and also as a refresher for all students.
Bold print in the notes are what the professor writes on the board.)
LEARNING MODULE: WEEK 5, South Carolina- Strom
Thurmond
We start our study of each of the southern
states by examining South Carolina, a Deep South state, but the one Deep South
state where Republicans made some important early gains. South Carolina was
such an Old South state that it was one of the only four states in the nation
that voted for the States’ Rights Party in 1948 (their Democratic governor, Strom
Thurmond, was its presidential candidate). It also was one of the five Deep
South states that voted for Barry Goldwater in 1964. Yet it broke with the
other Deep South states in 1968 by voting for Republican Richard Nixon instead of Third-Party candidate and segregationist Alabama governor George
Wallace. That is because Senator Strom Thurmond had switched to the Republican
Party in 1964, and he supported Nixon four years later. So, we’re going to
spend a lot of time learning about Strom Thurmond, and this information will
make a great question for the midterm. Also, we want to give you the full
picture of what such segregationists were really like, so we can understand why
so many whites voted for them. The picture is often more complex than the
opinionated people you see on cable TV channels. We’re going to split Thurmond’s
political career into three major eras- before his switch to the Republicans,
what prompted his switch and his first reelection as a Republican, and his
reelections as a Republican since then.
Strom
Thurmond actually had good people skills and initially governed as a
progressive. He learned the importance of pressing the flesh, and offering a
good grip when shaking hands with constituents from his father, who
worked for the segregationist governor “pitchfork” Ben Tillman. Thurmond served
his country in combat in the Army during World War 2, and won medals for
bravery. Military service used to be very important for winning elections, and
the last time we had both major party presidential candidates who had such
service was in 1960 with Kennedy and Nixon (it was also the last time that
America had two presidential candidates who were both very popular). Thurmond
himself was a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as he supported
progressive economic programs. Elected governor in 1946 as a Democrat, he
backed improved worker health programs, established kindergartens,
and improved public education facilities for African Americans.
He also condemned lynching, urged that the perpetrators be brought to
justice, appointed the first woman to the state’s Industrial
Commission, and appointed the first black to the Hospital Advisory
Council. The latter appointment was used against him in his unsuccessful
1950 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Yet Thurmond was incensed when the federal
government under President Truman and the national Democratic party convention
pushed civil rights. He viewed federal intervention in state affairs as leading
to totalitarianism and communism, and used racist rhetoric when
accepting the States’ Rights nomination in 1948: “I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that
there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break
down segregation and admit the
In 1954 he was the first person ever elected to
the U.S. Senate in a write-in campaign (Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the second, years later), as he condemned the state
Democratic Party’s appointment of a political boss to a vacancy instead of
holding a primary, and promised to resign in 1956 so that a fair election could
be held with no candidate benefitting from incumbency. He did indeed resign,
and the voters elected him to the remainder of the senate term, and then to a
full term in 1960. (The only other person to win in a write-in campaign for the
Senate has been Lisa Murkowski from Alaska in 2010, after she had lost the
Republican primary election to a right-wing opponent.)
As
we now turn to Thurmond’s switch to the Republican Party in 1964, the
year that the GOP nominated a very conservative person Goldwater as their
presidential nominee, you can see how racial issues become intertwined with
non-racial issues, so that there can be complex reasons for why conservative
white southerners began to switch to the Republican Party. Thurmond blasted
the 1964 Civil Rights Act which outlawed racial discrimination in public
accommodations and in employment as “the worst, most unreasonable and
unconstitutional legislation that has ever been considered,” and which he felt
had been passed because of “Negro agitators, spurred on by communist
enticements to promote racial strife” (Cohodas book, Strom Thurmond and the
Politics of Southern Change, 1994, p. 351). He was further incensed by Johnson’s
choice of Hubert Humphrey as Vice President, the leader of the liberal ADA
(Americans for Democratic Action), a group he called “Socialist” (Cohodas book,
p. 359), but also the author of the 1948 Democratic civil rights platform plank.
He blasted the Democratic Party for becoming the party of such special
interests as “minority groups, power-hungry union leaders, political
bosses, and businessmen looking for government contracts and favors” (p. 359).
He praised Goldwater for his conservative principles of “fiscal sanity…
Constitutional government,” and his opposition to the “communist enemy”
(Cohodas, p. 362). So racial issues were important in motivating Thurmond’s
switch, but so too was an opposition to a big federal government that appeased
labor union leaders and that engaged in deficit spending, as was his opposition to
communism (during the height of the Cold War). State newspapers actually
praised his party switch for showing his “courage and independence” who
unlike a machine politician made a “direct appeal to the people” (Cohodas, p.
360). The party switch was indeed risky,
since the Old South had been so Democratic that the only other GOP senator at
the time was John Tower in Texas. Thurmond won a landslide Senate re-election as
a Republican in 1966 with full-page ads touting his career and virtues. The racism
card was played by some of his supporters, however, as the state Republican
Party newsletter printed a picture of his Democratic opponent shaking hands
with a black lawyer (violating segregation principles), and an independent
group distributed brochures accusing national Democrats of promoting “Black
Revolution” allegedly leading to urban riots (Cohodas, p. 385).
Strom
Thurmond’s subsequent re-elections from 1972 until the turn of the century
showed a focus on constituency service and helping all of the people of
his state, rather than any racist appeals. (As such, it’s kind of
understandable that poor Trent Lott, who was first elected to Congress in the Nixon
re-election year of 1972, would forget Strom’s segregationist background, as
Lott’s only personal encounter with him was after that.) In 1971 Thurmond beat
the state’s Democratic senator to the punch by appointing the state’s first
African American congressional staff member. He also established the
Strom Thurmond Foundation (which still exists) to dispense college scholarships
to black students from South Carolina with the funds drawn from his speeches
and donations from family and friends. His
1972 reelection campaign showed a great focus on constituency service with his
D.C. office a “fountain of press releases announcing grants to communities
around the state,” with his campaign ads including expressions of thanks
from local officials, and with his making many visits home to announce
federal grants or to attend dedication ceremonies (Cohodas, p. 427). His
1978 campaign stressed his Washington experience, his ability to secure federal
grants that helped his state, and his committee assignments on the
important committees of Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, and Judiciary.
He neutralized the age issue (he was 75) by sliding down a fire pole
at a fire station and by having his four young children campaign for him
(ten years previously, he had married a 22-year-old former Miss South
Carolina). Thurmond had secured federal money for black as well as white
communities, and he even won the endorsement of the state’s African American
mayors. A national columnist covering the election and wondering how any African
American could support a former segregationist encountered two black
constituents who had personally benefitted from Thurmond’s constituency
service, an example being the senator’s diversion of an Air Force plane to
transport a burn victim to a Cincinnati hospital (Cohodas book, p. 448-449).
Ideology was still a motivating factor for the Senator and he used the L word
against his Democratic opponent, blasting the Harvard graduate as a “big-spending
liberal” backed by northerners (Cohodas 1994: 447). Thurmond won all of
his re-elections easily with his lowest vote margin being 55% in his last
election of 1996. (Interesting side note, Strom had had a daughter with his
family’s African American maid back when he was 22 years old. This wasn’t known
until after he had died, but he supported his daughter Essie Mae
Washington-Williams financially including her college career, and her name has
been added to the Strom Thurmond monument on the statehouse grounds.)
Republicans have
been riding high in South Carolina this century. Starting in 2004, they have consistently
held the governorship and both U.S. senate seats. One of their stars, Carroll
Campbell, showed the way when he won two terms as governor starting in 1986.
Campbell was a conservative congressman who focused on economic development,
attracted a large BMW car plant to the state, and made education a priority.
Another prominent Republican governor of South Carolina was Nikki Haley,
who was a conservative woman of color (parents from India), who was governor
when a white racist pictured with the Confederate flag killed nine African
Americans at the historic Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church. Haley was gutsy by successfully fighting to remove
the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds (and destroy the flag pole),
rejecting an effort by the GOP-controlled state legislature to just take the
flag down and let the flagpole remain (she feared a future legislature might
bring the flag back). The African American congregation showed great moral and
religious character by “forgiving” the murderer (Indeed, they inspired Vice President Biden to attend their church after Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer.). Haley attended every funeral of the church shooting victims
and suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome. She had opposed Trump’s nomination
as president, but Trump then picked the independent-minded Haley as our U.N.
Ambassador. Her book With All Due Respect shows her conservative foreign policy
values and her willingness to disagree with Trump, but she also had respect for
him as President, and unlike his critics (John Bolton) she said she just spoke her
mind to him and had no trouble working with him. The last sentence of her book (p. 248) shows the optimism of this daughter of immigrants: "Even on our worst days, we are blessed to live in America." South Carolina’s two U.S. Senators are
both interesting Republicans. Lindsey Graham was a conservative
congressman elected to Thurmond’s seat in 2002. Graham had a reputation for
independence, as he had been part of an effort to depose House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
and he had supported Senator John McCain’s campaign finance reform bill. Graham’s
an interesting guy, sometimes excitable, as he once yelled out about
terrorists: “They want to kill us all.” He was also a Trump critic, saying that
a choice between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz was “like being shot or poisoned.”
Trump as President spent a lot of time talking with Graham over the phone, so Graham became more supportive of him. He was a strong
Trump supporter during the impeachment debate and during the Judge Kavanaugh
confirmation process. Graham was re-elected in 2020, beating the state's first
African American state Democratic party chair (Jaime Harrison), who was well
funded and was actually tied in the polls in early August. The liberal Harrison is currently the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. During the 2021 statewide Virginia elections when Republicans swept all three major races, he accused the Republican gubernatorial candidate of using the "racist dog whistle" of opposing critical race theory and on at least two occasions he has dubbed the Republican Party as the "party of fascism and fear". After the January 6 Trump mob insurrection, Senator Graham blasted Trump's actions. The other Republican
Senator is Tim Scott, an African American appointed by Governor Haley in
2013, who was then re-elected in 2014 and 2016. Scott grew up poor in a single
parent household and relied on faith and hard work to be successful. He served
on Charleston’s county council for 12 years, and in the state house for one
term. In 2010 he had Tea Party and Sarah Palin (a conservative former Alaska governor
who had been McCain’s vice presidential pick) backing to knock off the sons of
Strom Thurmond and Carroll Campbell in the GOP congressional primary, and he
went on to win two general elections to Congress. Scott is a conservative often
interviewed on Fox, but he is very concerned over the injustice of racial
profiling. He has given speeches on the senate floor recounting how he has been
targeted himself by police (even on Capitol Hill), prompting his Republican colleagues
to vote for funds for better police training and city purchases of body
cameras. He has led the GOP police reform bill effort. This year, both Scott and Republican governor Henry McMaster are up for re-election, and both are rated as Solid Republican races. Interesting that four African American women (two state legislators and one county party leader ran in the two Democratic primaries with one nominated by Democrats for the senate race).