Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond

by Jack Bass, Marilyn W Thompson

In Strom , Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson deliver a remarkable look at the life of a remarkable -- and complicated -- politician. First elected to public office in 1929, Strom Thurmond was a pivotal figure in the nation's politics for more than seven decades particularly when it came to issues of the Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948, originator of the 1956 "Southern Manifesto" against the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, holder of the record for a Senate filibuster for his opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Bill. Yet as a young man Thurmond had secretly fathered a daughter with the family's black maid, and quietly supported her through college and beyond.

An intense public examination of Thurmond's legacy began when he left the Senate at age 100, continued when he passed away soon after and only grew when Essie Mae Washington-Williams announced in December 2003 that she was the senator's long-rumored black daughter.

Bass and Thompson know Strom better than anyone. They both covered him for years and broke the big stories. In Strom , they tell us a great deal about power and politics in our nation and race's twisted roots in the 20th century South.

Genres: Biography, History, Politics, Nonfiction

440 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2005

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars!

Earlier this year Strom Thurmond was trending in association with Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden. People began pointing out that Joe Biden had been close friends with Strom and had given the eulogy at his funeral. This was seen as proof that the Vice President of the 1st and only Black American President was a racist.

I was intrigued and wanted to know more. Not because I thought that Joe Biden was racist(I don't) but because I realized I didn't know all that much about Strom Thurmond.

Who was Strom Thurmond?

Going into this book the only things I knew about him was:

1)He was a segregationist
2) He had a Black "love child"

The Black "love child" was apparently a widely known about fact among southern Black folks especially those with family in South Carolina(my parents included). It's not unusual for public racist to have secret Black families. It kind of a southern cliché.

And Strom was no different. While campaigning for segregation and racial hate in public Strom was sending money to support his Black daughter. Before picking up this book I knew it would be a tough read but I was surprised by just how fascinating this man was. And it lead me to wonder two things about Strom.

Was Strom Thurmond really a racist?

Or was he just a great strategic politician?

Strom was for the majority of his political career a segregationist and one of the first politicians to be called a "Dixiecrat" ( Pro segregation Democrat). He voted against the Voting Rights bill and the Civil Rights bill. Eventually he switched from being a Democrat to a Republican and spearhead the south's move from being solidly Democratic to solidly Republican. Though Richard Nixon gets credited with developing "The Southern Strategy"(use of racist dog whistles to scare southern white's into voting Republican). It was actually Strom who came up with this.

So obviously he was racist....

But...

Once racism was seen as a bad thing politically(those were the days) Strom suddenly became a champion of the Black race. He became the first U.S. Senator to hire a Black aide. He made sure federal money went to HBCU's. He voted to make Martin Luther King's birthday a holiday and he was generally liked by South Carolina Blacks.

So he wasn't racist???

My own personal opinion is that he was a man of his time.

Did he have racist feelings?

Yes!

Did he care more about reelection than he did about his own racism?

Yes!

So I personally think he was a racist with a Black daughter who was smart enough to do things to win the Black vote. He was a politician before he was a human. He not only was racist but he was homophobic and a sexual harasser as well. I don't like the man but had I actually met him I might have. Strom was extremely charismatic. People who disagreed with him on EVERY SINGLE THING still seemed to like him as a person.
They don't make politicians like him anymore and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Strom put his own racism to the side in order to do things that were beneficial to an important voting block. Seeing as most politicians today don't do anything for anyone at all, I'm conflicted about my thoughts on his political life.

Strom was a complicated man who had some awful views but he also had a major impact on American politics. So that makes him important as well. You don't need to agree with someone in order to read about them.

But also Strom Thurmond can burn in Hell!

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blend equal parts segregation, politics and charisma with a dash of illegitimate child, one gets a recipe for former South Carolina Governor, Strom Thurmond. Strom's whirlwind political career boomeranged from liberal policies embracing New Deal ideology, to racist, segregationist views, back to an epiphany of the true definition of civil rights for all. The life of Thurmond was quite a deceptive one, a selfish attempt of a man who saddled America and rode the backs of people who deserved equal liberties. He dedicated the majority of his political career to promoting the beliefs of a white man's inferiority over race and gender. Prior to his Jekyll and Hyde transformation, Thurmond's paternal racism loomed in the background of liberal, New Deal policies for his state and people, only to surface as a fury of segregationist ideas that divided him from his party and the country. Although, Thurmond never admitted to exploiting racial politics, he voted his way out of it. It is quite clear Thurmond wanted to uphold Southern traditional, oppressive values, but it's a good thing he didn't prevail because the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement would have experienced many more road blocks if he had.

[Dennis Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over all this is a very readable and even-handed biography of Strom Thurmond. The warts are very apparent but so are the virtues. Thurmond never admitted that he was wrong in 1948 but sometimes actions speak louder than words and Thurmond's later record in the Senate shows a definite change of heart. One especially touching section of this book deals with the death of Thurmond's daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. This aging icon becomes all too human as he tearfully tells Vice President Gore over the phone that his baby is dying. The key to a good biography is the ability of the author or authors to make their readers both angry and sympathetic with the subject, a trait that is very apparent in this book. The only gripe that I have is that the authors both appear in the story but are referred to in the third person within the book. For some reason this began to grate on my nerves but otherwise this is an outstanding book that no reader interested in Southern history should miss.