Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for Jack Solomon Bass

NAME:
- Jack Solomon Bass

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1998)

ADVISORS:
- Allen Tullos

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Dan T. Carter
- Orville Vernon Burton

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: A biography of Strom Thurmond

Abstract: From a beginning that preceded his 1948 Dixiecrat campaign for president and has extended a half century beyond as both the oldest person ever to serve in the United States Senate and the senator with the longest service, Strom Thurmond has emerged as the America's most enduring political figure of the 20th century. Laced with salacious lore, his is a life whose richness, endurance, and historic impact combine to make it worth telling.

The Dixiecrat campaign to defend segregation provided a psychological sledgehammer blow to the Democratic "solid South" that had emerged from the Compromise of 1877. Sixteen years later, Thurmond's 1964 switch to the Republican Party led his followers into the Republican Party and provided impetus for the GOP "Southern strategy" that followed. His kingmaker role for Richard Nixon at the 1968 Republican national convention, followed by Thurmond's successfully taking on Alabama Gov. George Wallace's third party challenge in the South, closed an era of Democratic liberalism in the White House and enhanced two-party development in the region. Thurmond's commitment from Nixon to appoint "strict constructionists," after Thurmond's role blocking confirmation of Abe Fortas as Chief Justice, moved the Supreme Court to the right.

Until Gov. George Wallace came along, no one symbolized resistance to civil rights for African-Americans more than Thurmond. In the Senate he set a filibuster record against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. That record still stands. But when the tide of changing constitutional law forced the American South to abandon the state-enforced system of rigid racial segregation that served as the model for South Africa, Southerners changed their behavior. Changes in attitude followed. Strom Thurmond moved with the tide.

He abandoned his ship of "states rights" opposition to civil rights progress and swam into the mainstream. He voted in 1982 to extend the Voting Rights Act he had bitterly opposed. He became a champion of traditionally black colleges. He supported legislation to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. a national holiday. He reached out, politically and personally, to blacks in South Carolina, recognizing that most of them had become voters.

But he never overcame his denial of a racist campaign in 1948.

MPACT Scores for Jack Solomon Bass

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-03-24 09:16:40

Advisors and Advisees Graph

generating graph, please reload

Students under Jack Solomon Bass

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None