Strom Thurmond 2003 Deaths

Strom Thurmond

South Carolina politician who was the longest-serving U.S. senator in history, holding the office from 1954 to 2003. Early in his career Thurmond was an avowed segregationist; he ran for president in 1948 as the nominee of the Dixiecrat States' Rights Party. Before being elected to the Senate, Thurmond was a state senator, a circuit-court judge, and governor of South Carolina. Thurmond eventually moderated his views on race; he hired a black aid who worked for him for about 25 years, and he voted to expand the Voting Rights Act.