Thurmond leaves the Senate chamber after his 24 hour filibuster ended
Senate Chamber desk 86 showing Strom Thurmond's inscription: "spoke 24hrs. 18 min. from this desk in 1957." (source: http://ift.tt/1WZ519z)
August 29th 1957: Thurmond filibuster ends
On this day in 1957, the Democratic Senator from South Carolina, Strom Thurmond, ended the longest filibuster in history. Thurmond was strongly opposed to the proposed 1957 Civil Rights Act, which aimed to protect African-American voting rights. An ardent segregationist, his desire to stop passage of the act led to him conducting a 24 hour, 18 minute long speech during which he read out state election laws, the Declaration of Independence, and even a recipe book. He did not sit down for the whole filibuster, and cots were brought into the Senate chamber for his fellow Senators to sleep. Thurmond began speaking at 8:54 pm on August 28th and continued until 9:12 pm the following evening. Despite his efforts, the bill was passed over his filibuster, marking the first time since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War that Congress passed a piece of civil rights legislation. However, the act was ultimately ineffective in protecting African-American voting rights, and widespread disenfranchisement continued throughout the country. Thurmond continued to oppose the Civil Rights Movement as it gained traction, eventually defecting from the Democratic Party after the party pushed through the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. Strom Thurmond left office in 2003 aged 100, making him the oldest-serving and one of the longest-serving members of Congress.
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