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

( 1948 ) Commentary by Bradley Skelcher, Delaware State University

“We want no one to be mistaken or misled. We are going to fight, as long as we have breath, for the rights of our states and our people under the American Constitution; and come what may, we are going to preserve our civilization in the South.” - Keynote Address at the States' Rights Democratic Conference
“We in the South know that the laws dealing with the separation of the races are necessary to maintain the public peace and order, where the races live side by side in large numbers. We know that they are essential to the racial integrity and purity of the white and Negro races alike. We know that their sudden removal would do great injury to the very people sought to be benefited.” - Keynote Address at the States' Rights Democratic Conference
“One of the most astounding theories ever advanced is that the Federal government by passing a law can force the white people of the South to accept into their businesses, their schools, their places of amusement, and in other public places, those they do not want to accept.” - Keynote Address at the States' Rights Democratic Conference
“We know, and the enemies of state sovereignty know, that the Electoral College affords us a powerful weapon to restore the prestige of the South in the political affairs of this Nation and preserve the American system of free constitutional government.” - Keynote Address at the States' Rights Democratic Conference

Strom Thurmond (Library of Congress)

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