Strom Thurmond: Keynote Address at the States’ Rights Democratic Conference

Strom Thurmond emerged as a national political leader following World War II, in which the United States led a successful effort against racism in Europe and similar extremism in Asia. Thurmond fought in the war, yet unlike many of his fellow veterans, he then led efforts to preserve the societal status quo in the South based upon racial theories of white supremacy. This status quo depended upon the separation of the races through “Jim Crow” segregation laws written into state constitutions and local codes. In reaction to the civil rights agenda set by the administration of Harry Truman, Thurmond delivered the Keynote Address at the States’ Rights Democratic Conference in May 1948 to like-minded southerners in Jackson, Mississippi. Thurmond emerged from the conference as the party’s presidential candidate and thus the spokesperson for states’ rights, particularly the perceived right to preserve segregation in the South.