Posted on 06/29/2003 1:12:44 AM PDT by AJ Insider
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler
"I believe in spiritual and political redemption. I don't think anyone can excuse some of his earlier positions. But I thought his redemption was genuine. In the later years of his career, he voted for the reauthorization of the Civil Rights act. It serves no purpose to try to second-guess that. I believe his political redemption on the racial matter was genuine."
Since the national media and many liberals and self-loathing right-wingers in the blogosphere seem to be focused solely on what was bad about Strom Thurmond and civil rights, I decided to catalog quotes, accomplishments and other information in an attempt to make sure the full record is heard.
The State Marva Smalls, a longtime black Democratic activist from Florence who became executive vice president and chief of staff of Nickelodeon in New York, said Thurmond "grew on me" in his final years. "He was such a politician, such a public servant, that as times changed, he became more aware of what his world was, and that was service to all the people. . . . He didn’t want his epitaph to be about segregation, but one that embraces the concerns of all South Carolina."
SC Senator Kay Patterson "Paul had an experience on the road to Damascus, and Strom Thurmond also had an experience on the road to Damascus. And after that experience, I always supported Strom Thurmond for political office because he would do constituent service for all South Carolinians, including me."
Armstrong Williams "When you close the door to others, you close the doors to yourself. When people met his heart, they realized he was not the same person. They saw a good man, a nice man. . . . I knew him. I extended my hand. He extended his."
Congressman Jim Clyburn "Senator Thurmond was symbolic of the Old South, but his willingness to change over time set an example for many South Carolinians."
"I fully recognize and appreciate the many substantial contributions of black Americans and other minorities to the creation and preservation and development of our great nation."— Oct. 3, 1983. quoted in Congressional record, discussing why he voted for a federal holiday to honor the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Lee Bandy of The State Though his opposition to integration was a hallmark of Thurmond's early career, his segregationist past seems all but forgotten. Thurmond took steps to reach out to black voters. In 1971, he became the first U.S. senator from the South to hire a black aide. While he did not get a large percentage of the black vote, he worked to improve race relations and bring aid to black communities. In his last election in 1996, Thurmond received more black votes than any other Southern Republican, winning 22 percent.
David Shi, President of Furman University
"He is one of the most prominent examples of the ability of some Southern political leaders to adapt to changing circumstances and changing societal needs. The remarkable reversal from his segregationist years and to his inclusive outlook of his later years testifies to the dramatic changes to his state and his region."
SC Senator Kay Patterson "Once a person changes over and starts showing you that he will deliver services to the people and that he doesn't practice segregation, I don't want to go back to something that happened 60 years ago."
Senator Lindsey Graham "When Strom came out for something, it made it easier for you to come out for something because it gave you cover. When Strom Thurmond appointed the first African-American judge in the history of South Carolina to the federal bench, it made it easier for people in the State House to give appointments to African-Americans‘.‘.‘. When he embraced traditional black colleges and started giving them the same recognition and funding as every other university in South Carolina, it made it easier for the Legislature to improve the quality of life for everybody."
Senator Joe Biden "I believe that Strom Thurmond was a captive of an age and geography. I do not believe that Strom Thurmond at his core was a racist. I believe he changed because the times changed‘.‘.‘. I choose to remember Strom Thurmond in his last 15 years, because I believe that men and women can grow."
Former Democratic Governor John West
"He was an icon. He will be remembered as a great man. He was truly a remarkable man. He changed with the times. He will go down in history as one of South Carolina's greatest leaders of all time."
Former SC Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian "This is a guy whose political positions have been contrary to me my entire life, but I can tell you, as a human being and a man and a father who I got to know in that year, he was a genuine, caring, grieving man -- just a class act."
Jack Bass In calling for "more attention given to Negro education," Thurmond asserted, "The low standing of South Carolina, educationally, is due primarily to the high rate of illiteracy and lack of education among our Negroes. If we provide better educational facilities for them, not only will much be accomplished in human values, but we shall raise our per-capita income as well as the educational standing of our state." He called for industrial development, better conditions for workers and environmental protection against polluters. He advocated free treatment for sufferers of venereal disease and mandatory premarital blood tests. His speech set a progressive direction that South Carolina government would follow for much of the next four decades.Although today's South Carolinians know him as a hard-core political conservative, he campaigned successfully for governor in 1946 as a war hero and New Deal liberal. His 1947 inaugural address --drafted by erudite Charleston lawyer Robert Figg, later dean of the law school at the University of South Carolina --called for ending the poll tax, adopting a state minimum wage law and strengthening child labor laws. It called for free textbooks, expansion of vocational education and support for federal aid to education.
Jack Bass He abandoned his ship of "states rights" opposition to civil rights progress and swam into the mainstream. He voted in 1982 to extend for 25 years the Voting Rights Act he had bitterly opposed. He became a champion of historically black colleges. He supported legislation to make the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday. He reached out, politically and personally, to blacks in South Carolina, recognizing that they too had become constituents who should get service from his office. And he recognized most of all that blacks now voted.But when the tide of changing constitutional law forced the South to abandon the state-enforced system of rigid racial segregation, white Southerners changed their behavior. Changes in attitude followed. Strom Thurmond moved with the tide.
The State The senator endeared himself to African-Americans when he voted for renewal of the Voting Rights Act in 1982 and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in 1983. Also, each year he sponsored legislation designating a week to honor the nation’s black colleges. Over the years he got few black votes, averaging 8 percent each election campaign. But few were strongly against him. They did not form a strong political base for his opponents. One year, all of the state’s black mayors endorsed him for re-election. They remembered him for the water and sewer grants he helped obtain for small towns.But when South Carolina blacks started registering and voting in large numbers after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Thurmond shifted gears, hiring black staffers, appointing blacks to high positions (including a federal judgeship), providing the same assiduous constituency service to black communities as he did for whites.
He credited himself as the governor who abolished South Carolina's poll tax. In 1991, he voted in favor of extending the Voting Rights Act. He supported the 1986 bill that made Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday.In his best molasses mumble, Thurmond explained his change this way: "The whole situation has changed. And you've got to respond to changes. If you can't, you'll get lost in the fight."
Strom Thurmond — In 1975, reacting to violence in Boston over school desegregation"The Boston violence further dispels the notion, held in some parts of this country, that the citizens of Massachusetts have a ‘higher morality’ than the citizens of the Southern states."
Charleston Post & Courier Kelly carried home water in 50-gallon tanks from the fire station because, despite digging well hole after well hole, he hadn't been able to pump good water. Funds had been earmarked for water and sewer service in the town, but Mayor Charles Ross had gotten frustrated dealing with the bureaucracy involved in making the project happen. Ross, a Democrat, told Kelly, "I'll call my friend Strom Thurmond. It doesn't matter that he's a Republican or whatever. If I call him, he'll get it done for me." Though Kelly thought it was strange, he watched as Ross got on the phone and dialed Thurmond directly. "I thought of Strom as a segregationist," Kelly said, adding that Ross set him straight, telling him of people Thurmond worked behind the scenes to help. Ultimately, Lincolnville got its funds. Kelly no longer had to carry water. Marshall Kelly had just been hired to handle building codes in Lincolnville in the early 1980s, a time when people in the tiny old freedmen's town were struggling for drinking water. There was no sewer, and most home wells were so shallow that folks often ended up pumping septic water.
Charleston Post & Courier, 9/27/95 College officials, including five from South Carolina, presented Thurmond, R-S.C., with a lithograph titled, "Old South, New South," at a Capitol Hill ceremony. "The symbolism is very obvious to us," said Dr. Leonard Dawson, president of Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C. "Sen. Thurmond has been very helpful to the historically black colleges and universities over the past several years," he said. Thurmond, 92, has sponsored legislation creating "Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week" for the past 11 years.WASHINGTON--U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, known once as a leading segregationist, was honored Tuesday by presidents of the nation's 103 predominantly black colleges and universities.
When Henrietta Middleton Pinckney of Beaufort heard of Thurmond's death, her thoughts turned to the role the senator played in having a Navy warship named in honor of her husband, William Pinckney, a black Navy cook whose heroism during World War II saved the life of a white shipmate aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.After the guided missile destroyer USS Pinckney was christened at a Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard in June 2002, Thurmond called Pinckney to congratulate her.
"I spoke with him for about 10 minutes, and he said he was glad that my husband was from South Carolina," Pinckney said. "When he died, I felt sad. At least I had a chance to speak with him."
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