James Strom Thurmond was a United States Senator from South Carolina who served from 1954 to 1956 and from 1956 to 2003. An avid segregationist, he was the States' Rights Democratic Party ("Dixiecrat") candidate in the 1948 presidential election against Harry S. Truman and Thomas E. Dewey, finishing in third place with 2.4% of the popular vote. Thurmond was originally a Southern Democrat who turned to the Republican Party amid his support for presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and following...

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