(1902–2003), U.S. political leader, the oldest and longest-serving member in the history of the U.S. Senate.

Early Career.

Born in Edgefield, S.C., on Dec. 5, 1902, Thurmond graduated with a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Clemson College (now Clemson University) in 1923. While working first as a schoolteacher and athletic coach (1923–29) and then as Edgefield County superintendent of education (1929–33), he studied law with his father and was admitted (1930) to the South Carolina bar. Thurmond was a state senator (1933–38) and circuit court judge (1938–42) before interrupting his political career to enlist in the U.S. Army during World War II; in 1944, at the age of 41, he parachuted into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division during the D-Day invasion.

Dixiecrat.

Discharged with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1946, Thurmond won election as South Carolina governor (1947–51). He emerged as a national political figure in 1948, when the Democratic party split over the issue of civil rights. Thurmond, the leader of the segregationist faction, became the presidential candidate of the States' Rights Democratic party, commonly known as the Dixiecrats. He carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and his home state, winning a total of 39 electoral votes, but lost the election to the incumbent Democratic president, Harry S. Truman.

U.S. Senator.

Thurmond, running as a Democrat, lost his first U.S. Senate race, in 1950. Four years later he was elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate. He was eligible to hold the seat until 1960, but honoring a pledge to the voters, he stepped down in April 1956, ran in the Democratic primary, and after he won that contest, went on to reclaim his seat in the November election. In 1957 he set a Senate filibuster record by speaking nonstop for 24 hours and 18 minutes, in an unsuccessful effort to block a civil rights bill. In 1964 he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican and backed the Republican presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, against Lyndon B. Johnson. He played a key role in the “Southern strategy” that helped Richard M. Nixon win the 1968 presidential election on the Republican ticket. In subsequent senatorial campaigns, as African-Americans made up a growing share of South Carolina's voting population, Thurmond bowed to the new political realities and courted black support, becoming one of the first Southern senators to hire black staffers.

Conservative on almost all issues, Thurmond was a longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, which he joined in 1959, the Judiciary Committee (from 1967), and the Veterans' Affairs Committee (from 1971). While the Republicans controlled the Senate, he chaired the Judiciary Committee (1981–87), headed the Armed Services Committee (1995–97), and held the honorary position of Senate president pro tempore (1981–87, 1995–2001). On May 25, 1997, he broke the longevity record for Senate service, surpassing Carl Hayden (1877–1972) of Arizona.

In robust health for most of his career, Thurmond became increasingly frail in his 90s and did not run for reelection in 2002. On Dec. 5 of that year, as his 8th and final term drew to a close, he became the first U.S. legislator to celebrate his 100th birthday while still serving in the Senate. He died in Edgefield on June 26, 2003.