On August 28th, 1957 Strom Thurmond, deceased long-serving Senator from South Carolina, began the longest filibuster in the nation’s history…against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Although Senator Thurmond bravely denied being a racist, he also said “all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, into our schools, our churches and our places of recreation and amusement.”

We should get a petition together to have good ol’ Strom exhumed and reburied under the loudest gospel church in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina.

Despite Strom’s exhausting and hate-filled efforts, no one really remembers what he actually said during this filibuster he began on August 28th.

But we all remember the words of another man who spoke out on August 28th.

On August 28th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech and changed the world.

Poor Strom…showed up by an African-American of all things.

p.s. 

History continued playing with Strom as you look through its tattered book of dates & anniversaries.  On August 29th, 1957 the Civil Rights Act was passed.  On August 30th, 1967, history snickers as it tells us that Justice Thurgood Marshall was sworn in.