Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond

Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond by Thompson, Marilyn W.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781586482978.

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 nations politics for more than seven decades particularly when it came to issues of race: 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 familys black maid, and quietly supported her through college and beyond. An intense public examination of Thurmonds 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 senators 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 races twisted roots in the 20th century South.