Source A Strom Thurmond during his presidential election campaign in 1948
1 Why do you think Strom Thurmond was willing to speak continuously in the US Senate for more than 24 hours in an effort to prevent millions of his fellow US citizens from having the right to vote?
On 29 August 1957, Senator Strom Thurmond sat down at the end of his speech in the US Senate. Although he was a tall, vigorous man in his mid-fifties, he looked exhausted. This was not surprising, as he had just finished a speech which had lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes. Thurmond had set a new record for the longest speech in US Senate history, a record that still stands more than 60 years later.
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