Jun 26, 2003
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"He'd probably be third in line, right behind them," said Thigpen, one of the state's most respected and visible political scientists.
Calhoun, a leader of the "war hawks" and a staunch nationalist, served as President Monroe's secretary of war. He was subsequently elected to two successive terms as vice president, serving under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.
Byrnes, a politician and administrator, was popularly known as "assistant president for domestic affairs" in his capacity as U.S. director of war mobilization. He later served as the nation's secretary of state from 1945 to 1947.
Born in 1902, Thurmond began his political career as the Edgefield County superintendent of education in 1929. Three years later, he was elected to the S.C. Senate. He was elected governor of South Carolina in 1946 after a heated runoff with Dr. James McLeod of Florence.
"It's funny, because the whole campaign revolved around who was the bigger Democrat and who was more in line with President Roosevelt," Thigpen said, "and Senator Thurmond was regarded as the more liberal of the two."
When the Democratic National Convention adopted a strong civil rights plank in its campaign platform in 1948, Thurmond reacted by running for president on a separate "States' Rights Democratic" or "Dixiecrat" party ticket and won 39 electoral votes.
"The 'States' Rights/Dixiecrat' party was the first step in the transformation from a solid Democratic South to a Republican South, and Strom Thurmond led that movement," Thigpen said. "In this part of the country, there is no one more responsible for that party change than Strom Thurmond."
Thurmond first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1950 but lost in the Democratic primary. But four years later, in a special election held because of the death of the senator in office, Thurmond became the first person to be elected to the U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate. Thurmond switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1964 and remained in the U.S. Senate until his retirement last year at age 100.
"Except for that one loss in 1950, Thurmond stayed in office from 1932 until this year," Thigpen said. "He certainly endured. He is the major institutional figure in South Carolina politics, and I'd say in the South in general, for this century."
Thigpen said more than for policy, Thurmond will be remembered for his constituent services.
"He never was much of a policy player, not as much as say someone like (Sen. Ernest) Hollings," Thigpen said.
"But when it came to constituent services, he was legendary," he said. "I knew someone who worked in his office who told me when a letter from a constituent came in, Sen. Thurmond wanted his staff to have a response to that constituent no later than the next day. It didn't matter what color you were, what your party affiliation was or where you were from. The guy would help you."
It was that extreme devotion to those he represented that allowed Thurmond to transform his public image after running on a presidential ticket that supported segregation.
"He helped an awful lot of people, an awful lot of colleges and an awful lot of local governments get stuff from Washington," Thigpen said.
"He might have been known as a scrooge in Washington, but he was Santa Claus around here," he said. "He'd really bring home the bacon for South Carolina. This is the way a man involved in the Dixiecrat movement wound up getting 20 percent of the black vote."
Thigpen served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention five times with Thurmond.
"I've always had a lot of admiration for him, and it was my great honor to
serve with him," he said. "He was truly a great statesman and a great
politician."
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