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Senate Years of Service: 1954-1956; 1956-2003 Party: Democrat; Republican
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THURMOND, James Strom, a Senator from South Carolina; born in Edgefield, S.C., December 5, 1902;
attended the public schools; graduated, Clemson College 1923; taught in South Carolina high schools
1923-1929; Edgefield County superintendent of education 1929-1933; studied law and was admitted
to the South Carolina bar in 1930; city and county attorney 1930-1938; member, State senate
1933-1938; circuit judge 1938-1946; served in the United States Army 1942-1946, in Europe and in
the Pacific; major general, United States Army Reserve; Governor of South Carolina 1947-1951;
unsuccessful States Rights candidate for President of the United States in 1948; unsuccessful candidate
for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator in 1950; practiced law in Aiken, S.C.,
1951-1955; appointed as a Democrat to the United States Senate to complete the term of Charles E.
Daniel, who resigned, and served from December 24, 1954, to January 3, 1955; had been previously
elected as a write-in candidate in November 1954 for the term commencing January 3, 1955, and
ending January 3, 1961, but due to a promise made to the voters in the 1954 election, he resigned as of
April 4, 1956; again elected as a Democrat on November 6, 1956 to fill the vacancy caused by his
own resignation and took the oath of office on November 7, 1956; reelected in 1960, 1966, 1972,
1978, 1984, 1990 and 1996 and served from November 7, 1956, to January 3, 2003; was not a
candidate for reelection in 2002; changed from the Democratic to the Republican Party on September
16, 1964; President pro tempore of the Senate (January 5, 1981-January 5, 1987, January 4, 1995 to
January 3, 2001, January 20 to June 6, 2001); President pro tempore emeritus (June 6, 2001-January
3, 2003); chair, Committee on the Judiciary (Ninety-seventh through Ninety-ninth Congresses);
Committee on Armed Services (One Hundred Fourth Congresses); turned 100 years old on
December 5, 2002, while still in office, the oldest person ever to serve in the U.S. Senate; died in
Edgefield, South Carolina on June 26, 2003; interment in Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield.
BibliographyCohodas, Nadine. Strom Thurmond & The
Politics of Southern Change. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1994.
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