Strom Thurmond
Official Senate picture, 1997
1st President pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate
In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	Warren G. Magnuson
Succeeded by	John C. Stennis
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Robert Byrd
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
In office January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001
Preceded by	Robert Byrd
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
United States Senator from South Carolina
In office November 7, 1956 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Thomas A. Wofford
Succeeded by	Lindsey Graham
In office December 24, 1954 – April 4, 1956
Preceded by	Charles E. Daniel
Succeeded by	Thomas A. Wofford
103rd Governor of South Carolina
In office January 21, 1947 – January 16, 1951
Lieutenant	George Bell Timmerman, Jr.
Preceded by	Ransome Judson Williams
Succeeded by	James F. Byrnes
Personal details
Born	(1902-12-05)December 5, 1902 Edgefield, South Carolina
Died	June 26, 2003(2003-06-26) (aged 100) Edgefield, South Carolina
Resting place	Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield, South Carolina
Political party	Republican (1964-death) States Rights Democratic Democratic
Spouse(s)	Jean Crouch (1947–1960) Nancy Moore (1968–2003)
Children	Essie Mae Washington-Williams Nancy Moore Thurmond James S. Thurmond, Jr. Juliana Whitmer Paul Reynolds Thurmond
Profession	Teacher Lawyer
Religion	Southern Baptist
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army United States Army Reserves
Years of service	1924–1964[1]
Rank	Major General
Battles/wars	World War II *Normandy Campaign
Awards	Legion of Merit (2) Bronze Star with valor Purple Heart World War II Victory Medal European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal Order of the Crown Croix de Guerre

James Strom Thurmond (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician who served for 48 years as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes. Thurmond later represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 until 2003, at first as a Democrat and after 1964 as a Republican. He switched out of support for the conservatism of Republican presidential candidate and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who shared his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.^[2] He left office as the only senator to reach the age of 100 while still in office and as the oldest-serving and longest-serving senator in U.S. history (although he was later surpassed in the latter by Robert Byrd).^[3] Thurmond holds the record for the longest-serving Dean of the United States Senate in U.S. history at 14 years.

He conducted the longest filibuster ever by a lone senator, in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, at 24 hours and 18 minutes in length, nonstop. In the 1960s, he continued to fight against civil rights legislation. He always insisted he had never been a racist, but was merely opposed to excessive federal authority. However, he infamously said that "all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, into our schools, our churches and our places of recreation and amusement", while attributing the movement for integration to Communism.^[4] Starting in the 1970s, he moderated his position on race, but continued to defend his early segregationist campaigns on the basis of states' rights in the context of Southern society at the time,^[5] never fully renouncing his earlier viewpoints.^[6][7]

Six months after Thurmond's death in 2003, it was revealed that at age 22 he had fathered a daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, with his family's African-American maid Carrie Butler, then 16. Although Thurmond never publicly acknowledged his daughter, he paid for her college education and passed other money to her for some time. His other children eventually acknowledged her.^[8]

Early life and career[link]

James Strom Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902, in Edgefield, South Carolina, the son of John William Thurmond (May 1, 1862 – June 17, 1934) and Eleanor Gertrude Strom (July 18, 1870 – January 10, 1958). He attended Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina (now Clemson University), where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Thurmond graduated in 1923 with a degree in horticulture.

After Thurmond's death in 2003, an attorney for his family confirmed that in 1925, when he was 22, Thurmond fathered a mixed-race daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, with his family's housekeeper, Cassie Butler, then 16 years old. Thurmond paid for the girl's college education and provided other support.^[9]

He was a farmer, teacher and athletic coach until 1929, when he was appointed Edgefield County's superintendent of education, serving until 1933. Thurmond studied law with his father and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1930. He served as the Edgefield Town and County attorney from 1930 to 1938. In 1933 Thurmond was elected to the South Carolina Senate and represented Edgefield until he was elected to the Eleventh Circuit judgeship.

World War II[link]

In 1942, after the U.S. formally entered World War II, Judge Thurmond resigned from the bench to serve in the U.S. Army, rising to Lieutenant Colonel. In the Battle of Normandy (June 6 – August 25, 1944), he landed in a glider attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. For his military service, he received 18 decorations, medals and awards, including the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star with Valor device, Purple Heart, World War II Victory Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Belgium's Order of the Crown and France's Croix de Guerre.

During 1954–55 he was president of the Reserve Officers Association. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserves with the rank of Major General.

Governor of South Carolina[link]

Thurmond's political career began in the days of Jim Crow laws, when South Carolina strongly resisted any attempts at integration. Running as a Democrat, Thurmond was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1946, largely on the promise of making state government more transparent and accountable by weakening the power of a group of politicians from Barnwell, which Thurmond dubbed the Barnwell Ring led by House Speaker Solomon Blatt. Thurmond was considered a progressive for much of his term, in large part due to his influence in arresting all those responsible for the lynch mob murder of Willie Earle. Though none of the men were found guilty by the jury, Thurmond was congratulated by the NAACP and the ACLU for his efforts.^[10]

Run for President[link]

In 1948, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the U.S. Army, proposed the creation of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission, supported the elimination of state poll taxes, and supported drafting federal anti-lynching laws. Thurmond became a candidate for President of the United States on the third party ticket of the States' Rights Democratic Party. It split from the national Democrats over what was perceived as federal intervention in the segregation practices of the Southern states, which, among other issues, had largely disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites by constitutional amendments and electoral requirements from 1890 to 1910. Thurmond carried four states and received 39 electoral votes. One 1948 speech, met with cheers by supporters, included the following: listen (help·info)

I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.^[5]

Early runs for Senate[link]

As Thurmond was constitutionally barred from seeking a second term as governor in 1950, he mounted a Democratic primary challenge against first-term U.S. Senator Olin Johnston. Both candidates denounced President Truman during the campaign. Johnston defeated Thurmond 186,180 votes to 158,904 votes (54% to 46%). It was the only statewide election Thurmond lost.

In 1952, Thurmond endorsed Republican Dwight Eisenhower for the Presidency, rather than the Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson. This led state Democratic Party leaders to block Thurmond from receiving the nomination to the Senate in 1954, forcing him to run as a write-in candidate.

Senate career[link]

1950s[link]

Incumbent U.S. Senator Burnet R. Maybank was unopposed for re-election in 1954, but died in September of that year. Democratic leaders hurriedly appointed state Senator Edgar A. Brown, a member of the Barnwell Ring, as the party's nominee to replace Maybank. The Brown campaign was managed by future Governor John C. West. Widespread criticism of the party's failure to elect the nominee in a primary led to Thurmond announcing that he would mount a write-in campaign. He campaigned, at the recommendation of Governor James Byrnes, on a pledge that he would resign in 1956 to trigger a contested primary. Thurmond won overwhelmingly, becoming the first person to be elected to the U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate against ballot-listed opponents.^[11] Following through on his campaign promise, he resigned in 1956 and then won the Democratic primary—in those days, the real contest in South Carolina—for the special election triggered by his own vacancy. His career in the Senate remained uninterrupted until his retirement 46 years later, despite his mid-career party switch.

Thurmond vehemently supported racial segregation with the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single senator, speaking for a total of 24 hours and 18 minutes in an unsuccessful attempt to derail the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Cots were brought in from a nearby hotel for the legislators to sleep on while Thurmond discussed increasingly irrelevant and obscure topics, including his grandmother's biscuit recipe. Other Southern senators, who had agreed as part of a compromise not to filibuster this bill, were upset with Thurmond because they thought his defiance made them look incompetent to their constituents.^[12]

According to journalist Jeff Sharlet, he was a member of the Family (also known as the Fellowship), described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most politically well connected Christian organizations in the U.S.^[13]

1960s[link]

Strom Thurmond, c. 1961

Throughout the 1960s, Thurmond generally received relatively low marks from the press and his fellow senators in the performance of his Senate duties, as he often missed votes and rarely proposed or sponsored noteworthy legislation.

Thurmond was increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party. On September 16, 1964, he switched his party affiliation to Republican. He played an important role in South Carolina's support for Republican presidential candidates Barry Goldwater in 1964 and Richard Nixon in 1968. South Carolina and other states of the Deep South had supported the Democrats in every national election from the end of Reconstruction, when white Democrats re-established political control in the South, to 1960. However, discontent with the Democrats' increasing support for civil rights resulted in John F. Kennedy's barely winning the state in 1960. After Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson's strong support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and integration angered white segregationists even more. Goldwater won South Carolina by a large margin in 1964.

In 1968, Richard Nixon ran the first GOP "Southern strategy" campaign appealing to disaffected southern white voters. Although segregationist Democrat George Wallace was on the ballot, Nixon ran slightly ahead of him and gained South Carolina's electoral votes. Due to the antagonism of white South Carolina voters toward the national Democratic Party, Hubert Humphrey received less than 30% of the total vote, carrying only majority-black districts.

At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Thurmond played a key role in keeping Southern delegates committed to Nixon, despite the sudden last-minute entry of California Governor Ronald Reagan into the race. Thurmond also quieted conservative fears over rumors that Nixon planned to ask either Charles Percy or Mark Hatfield—liberal Republicans—to be his running mate, by making it known to Nixon that both men were unacceptable for the vice-presidency to the South. Nixon ultimately asked Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew—an acceptable choice to Thurmond—to join the ticket.

At this time, too, Thurmond took the lead in thwarting Johnson's attempt to elevate Justice Abe Fortas to the post of Chief Justice of the United States. Thurmond's conservatism left him unhappy with the Warren Court. He was glad to simultaneously to disappoint Johnson and to leave the task of replacing Warren to Johnson's presidential successor Richard Nixon.

Thurmond decried the Supreme Court opinion in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, which ordered the immediate desegregation of schools in the American South.^[14] Thurmond praised President Nixon and his "Southern Strategy" of delaying desegregation, saying Nixon "stood with the South in this case".^[14]

1970s[link]

Thanks to his close relationship with the Nixon administration, Thurmond found himself in a position to deliver a great deal of federal money, appointments and projects to his state. With a like-minded president in the White House, Thurmond became a very effective power broker in Washington. His staffers said that he aimed to become South Carolina's "indispensable man" in Washington, D.C.

In the 1970 gubernatorial election, Thurmond's preferred candidate, conservative U.S. Representative Albert W. Watson, was defeated by the more moderate opponent, Democrat John C. West, who had opposed Thurmond's initial write-in election to the Senate and the then outgoing lieutenant governor. Watson had defected to the GOP in 1965, the year after Thurmond's own bolt and had been politically close to the senator. Thereafter, Watson's defeat caused Thurmond slowly to moderate his own image in regard to changing race relations.

On February 4, 1972, Thurmond sent a secret memo to William Timmons (in his capacity as an aide to Richard Nixon) and United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, with an attached file from the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee urging that British musician John Lennon (living in New York City at the time) be deported from the United States as an undesirable alien, due to Lennon's political views and activism. The document claimed that Lennon's influence on young people could affect Nixon's chances of re-election, and suggested that terminating Lennon's visa might be "a strategy counter-measure". Thurmond's memo and attachment, received by the White House on February 7, 1972, initiated the Nixon administration's persecution of John Lennon that threatened the former Beatle with deportation for nearly five years from 1972 to 1976. The documents were discovered in the FBI files after a Freedom of Information Act search by Professor Jon Wiener, published in Weiner's book Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files (2000),^[15] and are discussed in the documentary film The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006).

It was claimed that during this period the NSA had been eavesdropping Thurmond's conversations, using the British part of the ECHELON project.^[16]

In 1976, Thurmond appeared in a campaign commercial for incumbent U.S. President Gerald Ford in his race against Thurmond's fellow Southerner, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. In the commercial, Thurmond declared that Ford (who was born in Nebraska and spent most of life in Michigan) "sound[ed] more like a Southerner than Jimmy Carter".^[17]

Post-1970 views regarding race[link]

In 1970, blacks constituted some 30 percent of South Carolina's population.^[18] After the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was implemented, African Americans were protected in exercising their constitutional rights to register to vote without harassment. This voting bloc, combined with increasing numbers of whites who supported civil rights, could no longer be ignored by state politicians.

Thurmond appointed African American Thomas Moss to his staff in 1971, described as the first appointment by a member of the South Carolinian congressional delegation (also incorrectly reported by many sources as the first senatorial appointment of an African American, but Mississippi Senator Pat Harrison had hired clerk-librarian Jesse Nichols in 1937). In 1983, he voted to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. a federal holiday.^[5] In South Carolina, the honor was diluted, for until 2000 the state offered employees the option to celebrate this holiday or substitute one of three Confederate holidays instead. Despite his actions, Thurmond never explicitly renounced his earlier views on racial segregation.^{[6][19][20][21]}

Later career[link]

Thurmond, right, campaigns for Ronald Reagan in South Carolina in 1980

Thurmond became President pro tempore of the US Senate in 1981, and held the largely ceremonial post for three terms, alternating with his longtime rival Robert Byrd depending on the party composition of the Senate. During this period, he maintained a close relationship with the Reagan White House.

Thurmond served as the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991 and worked closely with Joe Biden, then the chairman. He also joined the minority of Republicans who voted for the Brady Bill in 1993.

On December 5, 1996, Thurmond became the oldest serving member of the U.S. Senate, and on May 25, 1997, the longest-serving member (41 years and 10 months), casting his 15,000th vote in September 1998. In 1999, when astronaut John Glenn was to embark on the Discovery at age 77, Thurmond, who was his senior by 19 years, reportedly sent him a message saying; "I want to go too."^[22]

Thurmond with Reagan in the Oval Office

Towards the end of Thurmond's Senate career, there was controversy over his mental condition. His supporters argued that while he lacked physical stamina due to his age, mentally he remained aware and attentive and maintained a very active work schedule in showing up for every floor vote. He stepped down as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the beginning of 1999, as he had pledged to do in late 1997.

Thurmond and Margaret Thatcher at a state dinner in 1981

Declining to seek re-election in 2002, he was succeeded by fellow Republican Lindsey Graham.

Thurmond left the Senate in January 2003 as the United States' longest-serving senator (a record later surpassed by Senator Byrd). In his November farewell speech in the Senate, Thurmond told all his colleagues "I love all of you, especially your wives," the latter being a reference to his flirtatious nature with younger women.

At his 100th birthday and retirement celebration in December, Thurmond stated "I don't know how to thank you. You're wonderful people, I appreciate you, appreciate what you've done for me, and may God allow you to live a long time.^[23]

Thurmond's 100th birthday celebration, however, became controversial after Mississippi Senator Trent Lott made comments that were viewed as racially insensitive: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, [Mississippi] voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either." These comments led to Lott's ouster as Senate Majority Leader.

Eric Shinseki and Thurmond in 2002

Personal life[link]

Marriages and children[link]

Thurmond married his first wife, Jean Crouch (July 14, 1926 – January 6, 1960)^[24] in South Carolina's Governor's mansion^[25] on November 7, 1947^[26]. In April 1947, when Crouch was a senior at Winthrop College, Thurmond was a judge in a beauty contest in which she was selected as Miss South Carolina. In June, upon her graduation, Thurmond hired her as his personal secretary. On September 13, 1947, Thurmond proposed marriage by calling Crouch to his office to take a dictated letter. The letter was to her, and contained his proposal of marriage.^[27] Crouch died of a brain tumor 13 years later; there were no children.

He married his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore (born 1946), Miss South Carolina of 1965, on December 22, 1968. He was 66 years old and she was only 22. She had been working in his Senate office off and on since 1967. They separated in 1991, but never divorced. The two remained married and close friends until his death.^{[citation needed]} He even considered resigning during his last term, but only if the Governor would appoint his wife to the seat as his replacement.^{[citation needed]}

At age 68 (with his wife Nancy at age 25) Thurmond fathered what was then believed to be his first child. His four children with Nancy are: beauty pageant contestant Nancy Moore Thurmond (1971–1993), who was killed when a drunk driver hit her in Columbia, South Carolina; former U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina and current South Carolina 2nd Judicial Circuit Solicitor James Strom Thurmond Jr. (born 1972);^[28][29] Washington, D.C., homemaker Juliana Gertrude Thurmond Whitmer (born 1974);^[30] and Charleston County, South Carolina, council member Paul Reynolds Thurmond (born 1976).

Death[link]

Thurmond died in his sleep on June 26, 2003, at 9:45 p.m. of heart failure at a hospital in Edgefield, South Carolina. He was 100 years old. After lying in state in the rotunda of the State House in Columbia, his body was carried by a caisson to the First Baptist Church for services, where then-Senator Joe Biden delivered a eulogy, and later to the family burial plot in Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield, where he was interred.^[31][32]

Another daughter[link]

Six months after Thurmond's death, a retired Los Angeles Unified School District elementary teacher and African American woman of fair complexion, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, publicly revealed that she was Strom Thurmond's daughter. She was born to Carrie "Tunch" Butler (1909–1948), a maid who had worked for Thurmond's parents, on October 12, 1925, when Butler was 16 years old and Thurmond, 22. He helped pay his daughter's way through college. Though Thurmond never publicly acknowledged Washington-Williams while he was alive, he continued to support her financially. These payments extended well into her adult life.^[33] Washington-Williams has stated that she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to the advantage of either one of us".^[33] She kept silent out of love and respect for her father^[8] and denies that there was an agreement between the two not to reveal her connection to Thurmond.^[33]

After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family publicly acknowledged her parentage. Many close friends, staff members, and South Carolina residents had long suspected Washington-Williams was his daughter,^[34] saying that Thurmond had always taken a great deal of interest in her. The young mixed-race woman had been granted a degree of access to Thurmond more appropriate to a family member than to a member of the public.^[35] Washington-Williams is eligible for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy through her Thurmond ancestry. Thurmond was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men.^[36]

Political timeline[link]

• Governor of South Carolina (1947–1951)
• States' Rights Democratic presidential candidate (1948)
• Eight-term senator from South Carolina (December 1954 – April 1956 and November 1956 – January 2003)
  • Democrat (1954 – April 1956 and November 1956 – September 1964)
  • Republican (September 1964 – January 2003)
  • President pro tempore (1981–1987; 1995 – January 3, 2001; January 20, 2001 – June 6, 2001)
  • Set record for the longest one-man Congressional filibuster (1957)
  • Set record for oldest serving member at 94 years (1997)
  • Set the then-record for longest cumulative tenure in the Senate at 43 years (1997), increasing to 47 years, 6 months at his retirement in January 2003, surpassed by Robert Byrd in July 2006
  • Became the only senator ever to serve at the age of 100

Electoral history[link]

Legacy[link]

• The Strom Thurmond Foundation, Inc. provides financial aid support to deserving South Carolina residents who demonstrate financial need. The Foundation was established in 1974 by Thurmond with honoraria received from speeches, donations from friends and family, and from other acts of generosity. It serves as a permanent testimony to his memory, and to his concern for the education of able students who have demonstrated financial need.
• Thurmond is mentioned in a 1993 Frasier episode entitled "Here's Looking at You". In the episode Frasier's son Frederick is afraid that Thurmond is hiding in his bedroom closet.
• A reservoir on the Georgia–South Carolina border is named after him: Lake Strom Thurmond.
• The University of South Carolina is home to the Strom Thurmond Fitness Center, one of the largest fitness complexes on a college campus. The new complex has largely replaced the Blatt Fitness center, named for Solomon Blatt, a political rival of Thurmond.

Thurmond receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George H.W. Bush, 1993

• Charleston Southern University has a Strom Thurmond Building, which houses the school's business offices, bookstore, and post office.
• Thurmond Building at Winthrop University is named for him. He served on Winthrop's Board of Trustees from 1936 to 1938 and again from 1947 to 1951 when he was governor of South Carolina.
• A statue of Strom Thurmond is located on the grounds of the South Carolina State Capitol as a memorial to his service to the state.
• Strom Thurmond High School is located in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina.
• Al Sharpton was reported on February 24, 2007, to be a descendant of slaves owned by the Thurmond family. Sharpton has not asked for a DNA test.^[37][38][39]
• The U.S. Air Force has a C-17 Globemaster named The Spirit of Strom Thurmond.
• In 1989 he was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan.
• In 1993 he was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush.^[40]
• The Strom Thurmond Institute is located on the campus of Clemson University. George H. W. Bush was on hand at the ground breaking ceremony while he was the Vice President.
• Appears in the 2008 award-winning documentary on Lee Atwater, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Finley, Keith M. Delaying the Dream: Southern Senators and the Fight Against Civil Rights, 1938–1965 (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2008).
• "Abe Fortas: A Biography", by Laura Kalman: Yale University Press, 1990.
• Dear Senator: A Memoir by the Daughter of Strom Thurmond by Essie Mae Washington-Williams, William Stadiem: Regan Books (February 1, 2005). ISBN 0-06-076095-8.
• The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932–1968 by Kari Frederickson: University of North Carolina Press (March 26, 2001). ISBN 0-8078-4910-3.
• "The Faith We Have Not Kept", by Strom Thurmond: Viewpoint Books, 1968.
• Ol' Strom: An Unauthorized Biography of Strom Thurmond by Jack Bass, Marilyn Walser Thompson: University of South Carolina Press (January 1, 2003). ISBN 1-57003-514-8.
• Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond by Jack Bass and Marilyn Walser Thompson: Public Affairs 2005. ISBN 1-58648-297-1.
• Strom Thurmond & the Politics of Southern Change by Nadine Cohodas: Mercer University Press (December 1, 1994). ISBN 0-86554-446-8.
• Pietrusza, David 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Changed America, Union Square Press, 2011.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Strom Thurmond

• Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University
• U.S. Senate historical page on Strom Thurmond
• SCIway Biography of Strom Thurmond
• NGA Biography of Strom Thurmond
• Oral History Interview with Strom Thurmond from Oral Histories of the American South
• Strom Thurmond Foundation, Inc.
• Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Citizens Medal – January 18, 1989
• Booknotes interview with Nadine Cohodas on Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change, April 4, 1993.

Articles[link]

• Strom Thurmond's family confirms paternity claim, By David Mattingly, CNN.com, December 15, 2003

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• The Scarred Stone: The Strom Thurmond Monument by Joseph Crespino, Emory University, April 29, 2010

Obituaries[link]

• Tribute to Strom Thurmond from The State — June 26, 2003
• Strom Thurmond dead at 100 at the Wayback Machine (archived June 29, 2003), CNN, June 26, 2003
• Strom Thurmond Dead at 100, By James Di Liberto Jr., Fox News, June 26, 2003
• "Strom Thurmond". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7623767. Retrieved August 4, 2008. 

v t e Governors of South Carolina J. Rutledge Lowndes J. Rutledge Mathews Guerard Moultrie T. Pinckney C. Pinckney Moultrie Vanderhorst C. Pinckney E. Rutledge Drayton J. Richardson P. Hamilton C. Pinckney Drayton Middleton Alston D. Williams A. Pickens Geddes Bennett Wilson Manning I Taylor Miller J. Hamilton Hayne McDuffie Butler Noble Henagan Richardson II Hammond Aiken Johnson Seabrook Means J. Manning Adams Allston Gist F. Pickens Bonham Magrath Perry Orr Scott Moses Chamberlain Hampton Simpson Jeter Hagood Thompson Sheppard Richardson III Tillman Evans Ellerbe McSweeney Heyward Ansel Blease Smith Manning III Cooper Harvey McLeod Richards Blackwood Johnston Maybank Harley Jefferies Johnston R. Williams Thurmond Byrnes Timmerman Hollings Russell McNair West Edwards Riley Campbell Beasley Hodges Sanford Haley

v t e United States Senators from South Carolina Class 2 P. Butler Hunter Pinckney Sumter Taylor W. Smith R. Hayne Calhoun Huger Calhoun Elmore Barnwell Rhett De Saussure Evans A. Hayne Chesnut Robertson M. Butler Tillman Benet Pollock Dial Blease Byrnes Lumpkin Peace Maybank Daniel Thurmond Wofford Thurmond Graham Class 3 Izard Read Colhoun P. Butler Gaillard Harper W. Smith Miller Preston McDuffie A. Butler Hammond Sawyer Patterson Hampton Irby Earle McLaurin Latimer Gary E. Smith Hall Johnston Russell Hollings DeMint

v t e Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate Langdon • Lee • Langdon • Izard • H Tazewell • Livermore • Bingham • Bradford • Read • Sedgwick • Laurance • Ross • Livermore • Tracy • Howard • Hillhouse • Baldwin • Bradley • Brown • Franklin • Anderson • Smith • Bradley • Milledge • Gregg • Gaillard • Pope • Crawford • Varnum • Gaillard • Barbour • Gaillard • Macon • Smith • L Tazewell • White • Poindexter • Tyler • W R King • Southard • Mangum • Sevier • Atchison • W R King • Atchison • Cass • Bright • Stuart • Bright • Mason • Rusk • Fitzpatrick • Bright • Fitzpatrick • Foot • Clark • Foster • Wade • Anthony • Carpenter • Anthony • Ferry • Thurman • Bayard • Davis • Edmunds • Sherman • Ingalls • Manderson • Harris • Ransom • Harris • Frye • (Special: Bacon • Curtis • Gallinger • Brandegee • Lodge) • Clarke • Saulsbury • Cummins • Moses • Pittman • W H King • Harrison • Glass • McKellar • Vandenberg • McKellar • Bridges • George • Hayden • Russell • Ellender • Eastland • Magnuson • Young • Magnuson • Thurmond • Stennis • Byrd • Thurmond • Byrd • Thurmond • Byrd • Stevens • Byrd • Inouye

v t e Deans of the United States Senate Gunn/Langdon • Foster • Brown • Hillhouse • Anderson • Gaillard • Ruggles • King • Benton • Mangum • Pearce • Bayard/Foot • Foot • Wade • Sumner • Chandler • Anthony • Edmunds • Morrill • Allison • Hale • Frye • Cullom • Gallinger • Lodge • Warren • Simmons • Smoot • Borah • Smith • McKellar • George • Hayden • Russell • Ellender • Aiken • Eastland/McClellan • Eastland • Magnuson • Stennis • Thurmond • Byrd • Inouye

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chase • Crittenden • Burrill • Smith • Van Buren • Berrien • Rowan • Marcy • Wilkins • Clayton • Grundy • Wall • Berrien • Ashley • Butler • Bayard • Trumbull • Edmunds • Thurman • Edmunds • Hoar • Pugh • Hoar • Platt • Clark • Culberson • Nelson • Brandegee • Cummins • Norris • Ashurst • Van Nuys • McCarran • Wiley • McCarran • Langer • Kilgore • Eastland • Kennedy • Thurmond • Biden • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Specter • Leahy

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services Military Affairs Committee (1816–1947) J. Williams Troup J. Williams Jackson Harrison Benton Preston Crittenden Benton Davis Shields Weller Davis Wilson Logan Spencer Randolph Logan Hawley Walthall Hawley Warren du Pont Johnston Chamberlain Wadsworth Reed Sheppard Reynolds Thomas Naval Affairs Committee (1816–1947) Tait Sanford Pleasants Lloyd Hayne Dallas Southard Rives R. Williams Mangum Bayard Fairfield Yulee Gwin Mallory J. Hale Grimes Cragin Sargent McPherson Cameron McPherson Cameron E. Hale Perkins Tillman Swanson Page F. Hale Trammell Walsh Armed Services Committee (1947–) Gurney Tydings Russell Saltonstall Russell Stennis Tower Goldwater Nunn Thurmond Warner Levin Warner Levin Warner Levin

Abe Fortas
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
In office October 4, 1965[1] – May 14, 1969
Nominated by	Lyndon Johnson
Preceded by	Arthur Goldberg
Succeeded by	Harry Blackmun
Personal details
Born	Abraham Fortas (1910-06-19)June 19, 1910 Memphis, Tennessee
Died	April 5, 1982(1982-04-05) (aged 71) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Carolyn Eugenia Agger[2]
Alma mater	Yale Law School, Rhodes College
Religion	Judaism

Abraham "Abe" Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale, and subsequently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then worked at the Interior Department under Franklin D. Roosevelt, and subsequently Harry Truman appointed him to delegations that helped set up the UN. Later, in private practice, Fortas represented Lyndon Johnson in an electoral dispute, and formed close ties with the president-to-be. Fortas also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case involving the right to counsel. As a Johnson appointee to the Court, Fortas maintained a close working relationship with the president, and in 1968 Johnson tried to elevate Fortas to the position of Chief Justice, but that nomination faced a filibuster due at least in part to ethics problems that later caused him to step down from the Court. Fortas returned to private practice, sometimes appearing before the judges with whom he had served.

Early years[link]

Fortas was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was the youngest of five children. His father, a native of Great Britain, was an Orthodox Jew who worked as a cabinetmaker. Abe Fortas acquired a life-long love for music from his father, who encouraged his playing the violin, and was known in Memphis as "Fiddlin' Abe Fortas". He attended public schools in Memphis, graduating from South Side High School in 1926. He then attended Southwestern at Memphis (now known as Rhodes College), graduating in 1930.

Fortas left Memphis to enroll in Yale Law School. He graduated second in his class in 1933 (second only to another Memphian, Luke Finlay) and was Editor in Chief of the Yale Law Journal. One of his professors, William O. Douglas, was impressed with Fortas and arranged for him to stay at Yale and become an assistant professor.

Shortly thereafter, Douglas left Yale to run the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C. Fortas commuted between New Haven and Washington both teaching at Yale and advising the SEC.

Personal life[link]

Fortas's former residence (left) in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

In 1935, Fortas married Carolyn E. Agger, who would become a successful tax lawyer. They had no children and after he became a Supreme Court justice, they lived in Georgetown; they also had a summer home in Connecticut.^[3]

Fortas was an amateur musician who played the violin in a quartet, called the "N Street Strictly-no-refunds String Quartet" on Sunday evenings. It often included notable musicians passing through town, such as Isaac Stern.^[3]

Early career[link]

He served as general counsel of the Public Works Administration and as Undersecretary of the Interior during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. While he was working at the Department of the Interior, the Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes, introduced him to a young congressman from Texas, Lyndon Johnson. In 1945, Fortas was granted a leave of absence from the Department of Interior to join the armed forces. However, according to his official biography, within a month, Fortas was discharged because of an arrested case of eye tuberculosis. Later in 1945, he was appointed by President Harry Truman as an advisor to the U.S. delegation during the organizational meeting of the UN in San Francisco and at the 1946 General Assembly meeting in London.^[4]

Private practice[link]

After leaving government service, Fortas founded a law firm with Thurman Arnold in 1946, then known as Arnold & Fortas. Former FCC commissioner Paul A. Porter joined the firm in 1947, and after Fortas ascension to the Supreme Court the firm dropped his name and is now known as Arnold & Porter. For many years, it has been one of Washington's most influential law firms,^[5] and today is among the largest law firms in the world.

In 1948, Lyndon Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination for one of Texas' seats in the U.S. Senate. He won the primary by only 87 votes. His opponent, former Texas governor Coke R. Stevenson, convinced a federal judge to issue an order taking Johnson's name off of the general election ballot while the primary results were being contested; there were serious allegations of corruption in the voting process, including 200 Johnson votes that had been cast in alphabetical order. Johnson asked Fortas for help, and Fortas persuaded U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to overturn the ruling. Johnson became a U.S. senator, winning the general election.

During the Red Scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s, Fortas came to widespread notice as the defense attorney for Owen Lattimore. In 1950, Fortas often clashed with Senator Joseph McCarthy when representing Lattimore before the Tydings Committee and later before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.

[edit] Durham v. United States

Fortas was known in Washington circles to have a serious interest in psychiatry, still a controversial science at the time. In 1953 this expertise led to his appointment to represent the indigent Monte W. Durham, whose insanity defense had been rejected at trial two years earlier, before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Durham's defense had been denied because the District Court had applied the M'Naghten Rules, requiring that the defense prove the accused didn't know the difference between right and wrong for an insanity plea to be accepted. Adopted by the British House of Lords in 1843, generations before modern psychiatry, this test was still in near universal use in U.S. jurisprudence over a century later. The effect of this standard was to exclude psychiatric and psychological testimony almost entirely from the legal process. In a critical turning point for U.S. criminal law, the Court of Appeals accepted Fortas' call to abandon the M'Naghten Rule and allow for testimony and evidence regarding defendants' mental state.

[edit] Gideon v. Wainwright

In 1963, Fortas represented Clarence Earl Gideon's appeal before the Supreme Court. Gideon, a poor man from Florida, had been convicted of breaking into a pool hall. He could not afford a lawyer, and none was provided for him. In its landmark ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court held for Gideon, ruling that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants unable to afford their own attorneys or lawyers.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court[link]

In 1965, Lyndon Johnson, then President, persuaded Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg to resign his seat to become Ambassador to the United Nations so that he could appoint Fortas, his longtime friend, to the Court.^[6] Johnson thought that some of his Great Society reforms could be ruled unconstitutional by the Court, and he felt that Fortas would let him know if that was to happen.^[7] Johnson and Fortas did collaborate while Fortas was a justice; Fortas co-wrote Johnson's 1966 State of the Union speech.^[3]

On the Court, Fortas was particularly concerned with children's rights. Fortas dissented when the Court upheld some public intoxication laws.

In 1968, Fortas authored a book titled, Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience which was criticized by historian Howard Zinn in his book Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order.

Among Fortas's legal clerks were:

• Walter B. Slocombe, future under-Secretary of Defense.^[3]

• John L. Ray, future lawyer, Democratic party politician in Washington, D.C., and at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia.

• Martha A. Field, future Langdell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Noted scholar of constitutional law, family law, and issues bioethics.

Relationship with other justices[link]

Fortas mostly had good working relations with his fellow justices, although they did worry that he talked to President Johnson too much.^[3] Fortas clashed with fellow Justice Hugo Black during much of his time on the Court. The two had been friends since the 1930s, and Black helped Fortas's wife Agger accept his appointment to the Court.^[3] However, once both were on the Court, they disagreed about the manner in which the Constitution should be interpreted and found themselves on opposing sides in opinions most of the time.^[3] In 1968, a Warren clerk called their feud "one of the most basic animosities of the Court".^[3]

Fortas's best relationship was with William O. Douglas, and was next-closest to William J. Brennan and Earl Warren. Brennan's offices were in the chambers next to those of Fortas. Fortas's wife recalled that Fortas "loved Warren".^[3] Fortas called John Harlan "one of my dearest friends, although we usually are on opposite sides of the issues here".^[3]

In 1967, Fortas and Douglas dissented in the 5-2 decision Fortson v. Morris, which cleared the path for the Georgia State Legislature to choose the governor in the deadlocked 1966 general election between Democrat Lester Maddox and Republican Howard Callaway. Fortas said that the 1824 state constitution which allows the legislature to choose the Georgia governor if no one wins a majority in the general election is at odds with the equal protection clause of the 1868 Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Fortas said, "If the voting right is to mean anything, it certainly must be protected against the possibility that the victory will go to the loser," in this case Maddox, who trailed Callaway by some three thousand votes. Justice Black, however, took the strict constructionist view that the U.S. Constitution does not dictate how a state must choose its governor: "Our business is not to write the laws to fit the day. Our task is to interpret the Constitution," Black explained.^[8]

Approach to oral arguments[link]

Fortas was critical of those justices (he specifically cited Thurgood Marshall) who frequently broke into attorneys' arguments to ask questions.^[3] As an attorney arguing before the Court, he had resented justices' intrusions, so as a justice himself he felt it best to let the lawyers give their arguments uninterrupted.^[3]

Children's and students' rights[link]

Abe Fortas

During his time on the Court, Fortas led a revolution in U.S. juvenile justice, broadly extending the Court's logic on due process rights and procedure to legal minors and overturning the existing paradigm of parens patriae, in which the state had usurped the parental role. Authoring the majority decision in Kent v. United States (1966), the first Supreme Court case that evaluated a juvenile court procedure, Fortas suggested that the existing system might be "the worst of both worlds". At that time, the state was held to have a paternal interest in the child rather than a prosecutorial one, a concept that dispensed with the obligation to provide a child accused of a crime with the opportunity to make a defense. Yet the courts were empowered to decide, in the interests of the child, to have the child incarcerated for lengthy periods or otherwise severely punished.

Fortas elaborated on his critique the following year in the case of In re Gault (1967). The case concerned a 15-year-old who had been sentenced to almost six years (until his 21st birthday) in Arizona's State Industrial School for making an obscene phone call to his neighbor. Had he been an adult the maximum punishment he could have received was a $50 fine or two months in jail. Fortas used the case to launch a ferocious attack on the juvenile justice system and parens patriae. His majority opinion was a landmark, extending the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees of right to sufficient notice, right to counsel, right to confrontation of witnesses, and right against self-incrimination to certain juvenile proceedings.

Two years later, Fortas authored another landmark in children's rights with the decision in the case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, involving two high school students and one junior high school student who had been suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. Extending First Amendment rights to school students for the first time, Fortas wrote that "neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate".

Epperson v. Arkansas[link]

In 1968, Fortas convinced the court to accept the appeal of Little Rock Central High School teacher Sue Epperson who had challenged Arkansas' anti-evolution law with the support of the state teachers union. Epperson had won the case, but the Arkansas Supreme Court had overturned the ruling. Although the Court agreed quickly after hearing the case that the Arkansas ruling should be reversed, there was no consensus as to why, with most Justices favoring fairly narrow grounds. Fortas was the architect and author of the broader landmark majority opinion in Epperson v. Arkansas that eventually emerged banning religiously-based creation narratives from public school science curricula.

Presidential power[link]

Fortas believed in an expanded executive branch and a less powerful legislative branch. He wrote: "The enormous growth of presidential power from FDR to Lyndon Johnson was a necessary and an inevitable adaptation of our constitutional system to national needs."^[3]

Nomination to be Chief Justice[link]

When Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his retirement in June 1968, Johnson nominated Associate Justice Fortas to replace Warren as Chief Justice. However, the Warren Court's form of jurisprudence had angered many conservative members of the United States Senate, and the nomination of Fortas provided the first opportunity for these senators to register their disenchantment with the direction of the Court; they planned to filibuster Fortas's nomination.^[6] Senate Judiciary Committee chair James Eastland told Johnson he "had never seen so much feeling against a man as against Fortas".^[3] Fortas was the first Chief Justice nominee ever to appear before the Senate, and he faced hostile questioning about his relationship with Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson had consulted with Fortas about political matters frequently while Fortas was on the Court.^[6]

American University payments[link]

Fortas's acceptance of $15,000 for nine speaking engagements at the American University Law School became a source of controversy.^[6] The money had not come from the university, but from private sources that represented business interests connected to 40 companies; Senator Strom Thurmond raised the idea that cases involving these companies might come to the Court and Fortas might not be objective.^[3] While not illegal, the size of the fee raised much concern about the Court's insulation from private interests, especially as it was funded by Fortas's former clients and partners. The $15,000 represented more than 40% of a Supreme Court justice's salary and was seven times what any other American University seminar leader had ever been paid.^[3]

Cloture vote[link]

Upon learning of this problem, President Johnson decided to help Fortas win a majority vote, but only as a face-saving measure, according to Johnson aide Joseph Califano:

The debate on Fortas's nomination had lasted for less than a week, led by Republicans and conservative southern Democrats, or so-called Dixiecrats. Several senators who opposed Fortas asserted at the time that they were not conducting a perpetual filibuster and were not trying to prevent a final up-or-down vote from occurring.^[10] The Senate web site now characterizes the debate as the first filibuster on a Supreme Court nominee.^[11]

In 1968, Senate rules required two-thirds of senators present to stop a debate (now 60% of the full Senate is needed). The 45 to 43 cloture vote to end the Fortas debate included 10 Republicans and 35 Democrats voting for cloture, and 24 Republicans and 19 Democrats voting against cloture. The 12 other senators, all Democrats, were absent.

The New York Times wrote of the 45 to 43 cloture roll call: "Because of the unusual crosscurrents underlying today's vote, it was difficult to determine whether the pro-Fortas supporters would have been able to muster the same majority in a direct confirmation vote."^[12] The next president, Richard Nixon, a Republican, would appoint Warren E. Burger as Chief Justice.

Ethics scandal and resignation[link]

Fortas remained on the bench, but in 1969, a new scandal arose. Fortas had accepted a $20,000 retainer from the family foundation of Wall Street financier Louis Wolfson, a friend and former client, in January 1966.^[3][13] Fortas signed a contract with Wolfson's foundation; in return for unspecified advice, it was to pay Fortas $20,000 a year for the rest of Fortas's life (and then pay his widow for the rest of her life). Wolfson was under investigation for securities violations at the time and it is alleged that he expected that his arrangement with Fortas would help him stave off criminal charges or help him secure a presidential pardon; he did ask Fortas to help him secure a pardon from LBJ, which Fortas claimed that he did not do.^[3] Fortas recused himself from Wolfson's case when it came before the Court and had returned the retainer, but not until Wolfson had been indicted twice.^[3]

In 1970, after Fortas had resigned from the Court, Louis Wolfson surreptitiously taped a private telephone call with Fortas. The transcript of this call was disclosed by Wolfson's lawyer, Bud Fensterwald, to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in 1977. The Washington Post subsequently published several excerpts from the transcript, including language suggesting that Fortas might have indeed spoken with LBJ about a pardon for Wolfson, but there is no evidence that this intervention was a quid pro quo rather than a voluntary intervention for a friend. Wolfson was convicted of violating federal securities laws later that year and spent time in prison.

The new Richard Nixon administration became aware of the Wolfson deal when a Life reporter began investigating the story; FBI director J. Edgar Hoover also mentioned a "tax dodge" Fortas had entered into with other judges, and Nixon concluded Fortas should be "off of there".^[3] When Chief Justice Earl Warren was informed of the incident by the new Attorney General John N. Mitchell, he persuaded Fortas to resign to protect the reputation of the Court and avoid lengthy impeachment proceedings, which were in their preliminary stages;^[3] Fortas's judicial reputation was also affected by the previous Johnson consultation and American University scandals.^[6] Justice Hugo Black also urged Fortas to resign, but when Fortas said it would "kill" his wife, Black changed his mind and urged Fortas not to resign.^[3] Fortas eventually decided resignation would be best for him and for his wife's legal career, and told his colleagues. William J. Brennan later said, "We were just stunned."^[3] Fortas later said he "resigned to save Douglas", another justice who was being investigated for a similar scandal at the same time.^[3]

President Nixon eventually appointed as his replacement Harry A. Blackmun, after the previous nominations of Clement F. Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell failed. The seat was vacant for nearly the entire 1969–70 term.

Later years[link]

Rebuffed in the wake of his fall by the powerful Washington law firm he had founded,^[3] Fortas founded another firm, Fortas and Koven, and maintained a successful law practice until his death in 1982. However, his wife, Carolyn Agger, stayed at Fortas's original firm, in part due to the fact that Fortas had resigned in order to protect her job there.^[3] In the year following his resignation, he turned down an offer to publish his memoirs.^[3]

Founding the firm of Fortas & Koven in Washington, D.C., a year after his resignation, Fortas also kept two non-paying clients: Pablo Casals and Lyndon Johnson, with whom he remained great friends and visited in Texas.^[3] Fortas was asked to donate his papers to Johnson's presidential library by Lady Bird Johnson, but he replied that his correspondence with Johnson had always been kept in strictest confidence.^[3] According to his law partner Howard Koven, Fortas once consulted with Martin Scorsese on the legality of language Scorsese wanted to use in a movie.^[3]

A portrait of him was placed in Yale Law School while he was still alive, underwritten by an anonymous donor.^[3] Fortas served as a longtime member of the board of directors of Carnegie Hall, including while he was on the Supreme Court. He also served on the board of the Kennedy Center since it opened in 1964.^[3]

The American Bar Association revamped its rules as a result of the Wolfson affair, revising circumstances under which judges should not accept outside income.^[3]

In the course of his return to private practice, Fortas sometimes appeared before his former colleagues at the Supreme Court. On the first occasion he did so, his successor, Harry Blackmun, recalled that his eyes met Fortas's: "[Fortas] kind of nodded... I wondered what was going through his mind." When Blackmun later questioned Fortas if he remembered the encounter, Fortas said he would "never forget it".^[3] Blackmun thought Fortas's attitude toward the new justice was remarkable, not showing "an ounce of antagonism or resentment".^[3]

Fortas's memorial service was held at the Kennedy Center, with Isaac Stern and Lady Bird Johnson in attendance.^[3]

See also[link]

Biography portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Abe Fortas

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Abe Fortas

• Hatching a New Filibuster Precedent – Findlaw article by John Dean on the Fortas nomination filibuster.
• FBI file on Abe Fortas
• Supreme Court Justices – Abe Fortas
• Abe Fortas at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Finding Aid for Fortas Papers – Guide to papers deposited with Manuscripts and Archives department at Yale University Library.
• Oral History Interview with Abe Fortas, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library

Supreme Court of the United States
The Warren Court Chief Justice: Earl Warren (1953–1969) 1965–1967: H. Black | Wm. O. Douglas | T.C. Clark | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | P. Stewart | B. White | A. Fortas 1967–1969: H. Black | Wm. O. Douglas | J.M. Harlan II | Wm. J. Brennan | P. Stewart | B. White | A. Fortas | T. Marshall

Bob Dole
United States Senator from Kansas
In office January 3, 1969 – June 11, 1996
Preceded by	Frank Carlson
Succeeded by	Sheila Frahm
Senate Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1995 – June 11, 1996
Deputy	Trent Lott
Preceded by	George J. Mitchell
Succeeded by	Trent Lott
In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 1987
Deputy	Alan K. Simpson
Preceded by	Howard H. Baker, Jr.
Succeeded by	Robert C. Byrd
Senate Minority Leader
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1995
Deputy	Alan K. Simpson
Preceded by	Robert Byrd
Succeeded by	Tom Daschle
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas's 1st district
In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1969
Preceded by	William Henry Avery
Succeeded by	Keith Sebelius
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas's 6th district
In office January 3, 1961 – January 3, 1963
Preceded by	Wint Smith
Succeeded by	District Abolished
47th Chairman of the Republican National Committee
In office 1971–1973
Preceded by	Rogers Morton
Succeeded by	George H. W. Bush
Personal details
Born	Robert Joseph Dole (1923-07-22) July 22, 1923 (age 88) Russell, Kansas
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	(1) Phyllis Holden, divorced (2) Elizabeth H. Dole
Alma mater	Washburn University
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Christian (Methodist)[1]
Law School	Washburn University, 1952
Signature
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1942-1948
Unit	10th Mountain Division
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Bronze Star (1) Purple Heart (2)

Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole (born July 22, 1923) is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996. Dole was the Republican party nominee in the presidential election of 1996, but he lost to incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton. Dole is currently special counsel at the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Alston & Bird.

In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed Dole as a co-chair of the commission to investigate problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, along with Donna Shalala, a former member of the Clinton cabinet.^[2] Dole is married to former U.S. cabinet member and former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Hanford Dole of North Carolina. Bob Dole is currently a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.^[3]

Early years[link]

Bob Dole was born in Russell, Kansas, the son of Bina M. (née Talbott; 1904–1983) and Doran Ray Dole (1901–1975).^[4] His father, who had moved the family to Russell while Dole was still a toddler, made a living by running a small creamery. Among his father's customers was the father of Arlen Specter who ran a junkyard in the town and used Dole's scales to weigh junk. Specter, who was six years younger than Dole and graduated Russell High School in 1947, was not a Dole contemporary although Specter's brother Morton Specter and Dole's brother Kenny Dole were friends.^[5] During the Great Depression, which hit Kansas very hard, the Dole family moved into the basement of their home and rented out the rest of the house. As a boy, he took many odd jobs around Russell, and he would later work as a soda jerk in the local drug store.

Dole graduated from Russell High School in the spring of 1941^[6] and enrolled at the University of Kansas the following fall. Dole had been a star high school athlete in Russell, and influential Kansas basketball coach Phog Allen traveled to Russell to recruit him to play for the basketball team. While at KU, Dole played for the basketball team, the track team, and the football team. In football, Dole played at the end position, earning varsity letters in 1942 and 1944. While in college, he joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity, where he later became one of the "Men Of The Year". Dole's study of law at KU was interrupted by World War II. After the war, he returned to being a law student. Dole attended the University of Arizona from 1948 to 1951 and earned his degree from Washburn University School of Law in 1952.

Dole grew up in a house at 1035 North Maple in Russell (38°53′43″N 98°51′40″W / 38.895352°N 98.861034°W / 38.895352; -98.861034) and it remained his official residence throughout his political career.^[7]

World War II and recovery[link]

In 1942, Dole joined the United States Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps to fight in World War II. Dole became a second lieutenant in the Army's 10th Mountain Division.

In April 1945, while engaged in combat near Castel d'Aiano in the Apennine mountains southwest of Bologna, Italy, Dole was hit by German machine gun fire in his upper right back and his right arm was also badly injured. As Lee Sandlin describes, when fellow soldiers saw the extent of his injuries all they thought they could do was to "give him the largest dose of morphine they dared and write an 'M' for 'morphine' on his forehead in his own blood, so that nobody else who found him would give him a second, fatal dose."^[8] Dole had to wait nine hours on the battlefield before being taken to the 15th Evacuation Hospital, where he began a recovery that would take until 1948 at Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan (where Dole met future fellow politicians Daniel Inouye and Philip Hart). His right arm was paralyzed; Dole often carried a pen in his right hand to signal that he could not shake hands with that arm.

The hospital where Dole recovered from his wounds, the former Battle Creek Sanitarium, is now named Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in honor of three patients who became United States Senators: Dole, Philip Hart and Daniel Inouye.

Dole was decorated three times, receiving two Purple Hearts for his injuries, and the Bronze Star with combat "V" for valor for his attempt to assist a downed radio man.

Political career[link]

Dole ran for office for the first time in 1950 and was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives, serving a two-year term.^[9] After graduating from law school at Washburn University in Topeka, he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in his hometown of Russell in 1952.

Also in 1952 Dole became the County Attorney of Russell County, serving in that position for eight years. In 1960, Dole was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Kansas' 6th Congressional District, located in central Kansas. In 1962, his district was merged with the 3rd District in western Kansas to form the 1st Congressional District, a huge 60-county district that soon became known as the "Big First." Dole was re-elected that year and twice thereafter without serious difficulty.

U.S. Senate[link]

Dole as a Senator on February 9, 1982

A photo taken by Oliver F. Atkins of Bob Dole meeting President Nixon in 1971

In 1968, Dole defeated Kansas Governor William H. Avery for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate to succeed retiring Senator Frank Carlson, subsequently being elected. Dole was re-elected in 1974, 1980, 1986, and 1992, before resigning on June 11, 1996 to focus on his Presidential campaign. Dole only faced one truly enthusiastic and well-financed challenger – in 1974 by Congressman Bill Roy. Much of Roy's popularity was in response to the fallout from Watergate. Dole would win re-election in 1974 by only a few thousand votes, having in the end graphically painted Roy as pro-abortion. While in the Senate, Dole served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1971 until 1973, the ranking Republican on the Agriculture Committee from 1975 to 1978, and the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee from 1979 to 1980.

When the Republicans took control of the Senate after the 1980 elections, Dole became chairman of the Finance Committee in 1981, serving until 1985. From 1985, when Howard Baker of Tennessee retired, until his resignation from the Senate, Dole was the leader of the Senate Republicans, serving as Majority Leader from 1985 until 1987 and again from 1995 to 1996. Dole served as Minority Leader from 1987 to 1995. Following the advice of conservative William Kristol, Dole flatly rejected the health care plan of Bill Clinton, remarking, "There is no crisis in health care."

Dole had a moderate voting record and was widely considered to be one of the few Kansas Republicans who could bridge the gap between the moderate and conservative wings of the Kansas Republican Party. As a Congressman in the early '60s, he supported the major civil rights bills, which appealed to moderates. When Johnson proposed the Great Society in 1964–65, Dole voted against some War on Poverty measures like public-housing subsidies and Medicare, thus appealing to conservatives. Dole's first speech in the Senate in 1969 was a plea for federal aid for the handicapped. Later, as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs Dole joined liberal Senator George McGovern to lower eligibility requirements for federal food stamps, a liberal goal that was supported by Kansas farmers.

Dole's hawkishness on the Vietnam War and on crime issues kept him in good standing with the right wing. When they heard Nixon might make Dole chairman of the Republican National Committee, half the Republican Senators protested, especially moderates who feared Dole would direct party assets to conservatives. They were wrong, as Dole in fact offered something to all Republican factions.^[10]

Presidential politics[link]

Bob Dole (far left) at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City with (from left) Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, President Gerald Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Susan Ford and Betty Ford

During 1988 primaries Dole won Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and home state Kansas

  George H.W. Bush

  Bob Dole

  Pat Robertson

In 1976, Dole ran unsuccessfully for Vice President on a ticket headed by President Gerald Ford. Incumbent Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had withdrawn from consideration the previous fall, and Dole was chosen. Dole stated during the Vice Presidential debate with Walter Mondale, "I figured it up the other day: If we added up the killed and wounded in Democrat wars in this century, it would be about 1.6 million Americans — enough to fill the city of Detroit".^[11] The remark backfired.

Dole ran for the 1980 Republican Presidential nomination, eventually won by Ronald Reagan. Despite Dole's fame from the '76 campaign, he was viewed as a lower tier candidate, trailing not only Reagan but George Bush, Howard Baker, John Connally, and John Anderson. Dole received only 597 votes (less than 1%) in the New Hampshire primary and immediately withdrew.

Dole made a more serious bid in 1988, formally announcing his candidacy in Russell, Kansas, on November 9, 1987. At the ceremony, Dole was presented with the cigar box that had been used to collect donations for his war-related medical expenses. The box contained $100,000 in campaign donations. Dole started out strong by solidly defeating then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in the Iowa caucus—Bush finished third, behind television evangelist Pat Robertson. However, Bush recovered in time to defeat Dole in the New Hampshire primary a week later. The New Hampshire contest between the two was particularly bitter although they differed little on the issues. After the returns had come in on the night of that primary, Dole appeared to lose his temper in a television interview. Dole was interviewed live in New Hampshire on NBC by Tom Brokaw, who was in the NBC studio in New York. It happened that Bush was right next to Brokaw in the studio. Brokaw asked Bush if he had anything to say to Dole. Bush responded, "No, just wish him well and meet again in the south." Dole, apparently not expecting to see Bush, when asked the same question about the Vice President said, "Yeah, stop lying about my record", largely in response to a very tough New Hampshire Bush commercial which accused Dole of "straddling" on taxes. This remark prompted some members of the media to perceive him as angry about the loss, contributing to his "hatchet man" image earned during his tenure as RNC chairman and the '76 campaign.

Despite two big wins in South Dakota and Minnesota a week after New Hampshire, Dole was not able to recover. Viewed by many as a micromanager who could not effectively oversee a presidential campaign while serving as a senator^{[citation needed]}, he did not hire a full time campaign manager, former TN Senator Bill Brock, until the fall of 1987, well after Bush's team had been in place. Despite raising almost as much money as the Bush campaign, the Dole campaign spent its money faster and was vastly outspent in the contests held after IA, NH, MN, and SD. Despite a key endorsement by Senator Strom Thurmond, one of many Republican senators who supported their leader, Dole was defeated by Bush again in South Carolina in early March. Several days later, every southern state voted for Bush in a "Super Tuesday" sweep. Another big victory in Illinois persuaded Dole to withdraw from the race.

1996 presidential campaign[link]

Election results by county.

  Bill Clinton

  Bob Dole

Dole was the early front runner for the GOP nomination in the 1996 presidential race. He was expected to win the nomination against underdog candidates such as the more conservative Senator Phil Gramm of Texas and more moderate Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. However populist Pat Buchanan upset Dole in the early New Hampshire primary, with Dole finishing second and former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander finishing third. Publisher Steve Forbes also ran and broadcast a stream of negative ads. At least eight candidates ran for the nomination.

Dole eventually won the nomination, becoming the oldest first-time presidential nominee at the age of 73 years, 1 month (Ronald Reagan was 73 years, 6 months in 1984, for his second presidential nomination). In his acceptance speech, he stated "Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquillity, faith, and confidence in action",^[12] to which incumbent president and Democratic nominee Bill Clinton responded, "We do not need to build a bridge to the past, we need to build a bridge to the future.".^[13] Dole however had been forced to spend more on the primary than he had planned and until the convention in San Diego faced federal limits on campaign spending. Dole hoped to use his long experience in Senate procedures to maximize publicity from his rare positioning as Senate Majority Leader against an incumbent President but was stymied by Senate Democrats. On June 11, 1996, Dole resigned his seat to focus on the campaign, saying he was either heading for "The White House or home".^[14]

The incumbent, Bill Clinton, had no serious primary opposition. Dole promised a 15% across-the-board reduction in income tax rates and made former Congressman and supply side advocate Jack Kemp his running mate. Dole also found himself criticized from both the left and the right within the Republican Party over the convention platform, one of the major issues being the inclusion of the Human Life Amendment. Bill Clinton framed the narrative against Dole early, painting him as a mere clone of unpopular then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, warning America that Dole would work in concert with the Republican Congress to slash popular social programs, like Medicare and Social Security, dubbed by Clinton as "Dole-Gingrich".^[15] Dole's tax-cut plan found itself under attack from the White House, who said it would "blow a hole in the deficit" which had been cut nearly in half during his opponent's term.^[16] Dole was defeated, as pundits had long expected, by Bill Clinton in the 1996 election. Clinton won in a 379-159 Electoral College landslide, capturing 49.2% of the vote against Dole's 40.7% and Ross Perot's 8.4% who drew equally from both candidates.^[17]

Dole is the only person in the history of the two major U.S. political parties to have been his party's nominee for both President and Vice President, but who was never elected to either office.

Retirement[link]

2005, Dole speaking at the 60th Anniversary of VE Day

Dole has worked part-time for a Washington, D.C. law firm, and engaged in a career of writing, consulting, public speaking, and television appearances. This has included becoming a television commercial spokesman for such products as Viagra, Visa, Dunkin' Donuts and Pepsi-Cola (with Britney Spears), and as an occasional political commentator on the popular American interview program Larry King Live and has guested a number of times on Comedy Central's satirical news program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Dole was, for a short time, a commentator opposite Bill Clinton on CBS's 60 Minutes. Dole guest-starred as himself on NBC's Brooke Shields sitcom Suddenly Susan in January 1997 (shortly after losing the presidential election). On the Larry King show Dole had a heated exchange with Democratic presidential primary candidate Wesley Clark in which Dole correctly predicted that Clark would lose the New Hampshire primary and other primaries. In 2001, Dole, at age 77, was treated successfully for an abdominal aortic aneurysm by vascular surgeon Kenneth Ouriel. Dr. Ouriel said Dole "maintained his sense of humor throughout his care."^[18]

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, housed on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kansas, was established to bring bipartisanship back to politics. The Institute, which opened in July 2003 to coincide with Dole's 80th birthday, has featured such notables as former President Bill Clinton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Dole has written several books, including one on jokes told by the Presidents of the United States, in which he ranks the presidents according to their level of humor. On January 18, 1989, Dole was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Reagan. Then, on January 17, 1997, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his service in the military and his political career. Dole received the American Patriot Award in 2004 for his lifelong dedication to America and his service in World War II.

Dole's legacy also includes a commitment to combating hunger both in the United States and around the globe. In addition to numerous domestic programs, along with former Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota), Dole created an international school lunch program through the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which helps fight child hunger and poverty by providing nutritious meals to children in schools in developing countries. This program has since led to greatly increased global interest in and support for school-feeding programs — which benefit girls and young women, in particular — and won McGovern and Dole the 2008 World Food Prize.

In recent years, Dole has struggled with health problems. In December 2004, he had a hip-replacement operation, which required him to receive blood thinners. One month after the surgery it was determined that Dole was bleeding inside his head. He spent 40 days at Walter Reed, and upon release his "good" arm, the left, was of limited use. Dole told a reporter that he needed help to handle the simplest of tasks, since both of his arms are injured. Dole undergoes physical therapy for his left shoulder once a week, but doctors have told him that he might not regain total use of his left arm. In 2009, he was hospitalized for an elevated heart rate and sores on his leg for which he underwent a successful skin graft procedure. In February 2010, he was hospitalized for pneumonia after undergoing knee surgery. He spent 10 months at Walter Reed, recovering from the surgery and experienced 3 bouts with pneumonia. Dole was released from the hospital in November 2010. However, in January 2011, Dole was readmitted to Walter Reed Hospital and spent about six days there, being treated for a fever as well as a minor infection.

Dole is special counsel at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Alston & Bird. On April 12, 2005, Dole released his autobiography One Soldier's Story: A Memoir (ISBN 0-06-076341-8), which talks of his World War II experiences and his battle to survive his war injuries.

Dole also was responsible for a large amount of funds raised for the U.S. National World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.

On June 28, 2004, Dole was named 'Shining Star of Perseverance' by the Assurant Employee Benefits WillReturn Council.^[19]

On September 18, 2004, Dole offered the inaugural lecture to dedicate the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service at which Dole chronicled his life as a public servant as well as discussed the importance of public service in terms of defense, civil rights, the economy, and in daily life.^[20]

In 2007, Dole joined fellow former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, and George Mitchell to found the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit think tank that works to develop policies suitable for bipartisan support.^[21]

That same year, President George W. Bush appointed Dole and Donna Shalala co-chairs of a commission to investigate problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.^[2]

Dole appears in the 2008 documentary on Lee Atwater, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story. In the film, Dole says, "I don't comment on Atwater." Additionally, "This isn't politics, this is garbage."

On January 26, 2012, Dole issued a letter critical of Newt Gingrich, focusing on Dole's and Gingrich's time working together on Capitol Hill.^[22] The letter was issued immediately before the Florida primary. Dole has endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.^[23]

Personal life[link]

Dole's wife, former Senator Elizabeth Dole

Dole married Phyllis Holden, an occupational therapist at a veterans hospital, in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1948. Their daughter, Robin, was born in 1954. Dole and Holden divorced in 1972. Holden died on April 22, 2008.

Dole has been married to Former Senator Elizabeth Dole, née Hanford, of North Carolina since 1975. Mrs. Dole ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2000 and was elected to the United States Senate in 2002, to succeed the retiring Republican Jesse Helms. However, she lost her seat in 2008, a heavily Democratic year, to Kay Hagan.

Electoral history[link]

See also[link]

• Kemp Commission

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal

Notes[link]

References[link]

•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Dole, Bob: One Soldier's Story: A Memoir. (2005). HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-076341-8.
• James W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch: Losing to Win: The 1996 Elections and American Politics. (1997). Rowman & Littlefield.
• Clinton, Bill: My Life. (2005). ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
• Robert E. Denton Jr.: The 1996 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective. (1998). Praeger Publishers.
• Elovitz, Paul: "Work, Laughter and Tears: Bob Dole's Childhood, War Injury, the Conservative Republicans and the 1996 Election". Journal of Psychohistory (1996) 24(2): 147–162. ISSN 0145-3378.
• Joshua Wolf Shenk: "The Best and Worst of Bob Dole", Washington Monthly, Vol. 28, July 1996 online
• Kerry Tymchuk, Molly Meijer Wertheimer, Nichola D. Gutgold: Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart. (2004). Praeger.
• Bob Dole discussing Lee Atwater in the film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bob Dole

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bob Dole

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Bob Dole

• DOLE, Robert Joseph, (1923 – )
• His official website
• His remarks at the dedication of the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas
• His memorial to Ronald Reagan after Reagan's death (registration required)
• The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics
• His biography on Alston & Bird's website
• CNN AllPolitics review of his early life
• Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Citizens Medal - January 18, 1989
• Bob Dole at the Internet Movie Database
• Booknotes interview with Dole on Historical Almanac of the United States Senate, September 9, 1990.
• C-Span interviews with Bob Dole

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