local dentists went into the schools to examine children and treat defects.” The school system was segregated with whites having the best facilities, salaries, etc. He initiated a “write your name” program to help battle adult illiteracy. “Black illiteracy in the county dropped by more than one fourth, from a twenty nine percent to a twenty-one percent in the 1930 census.” Strom Thurmond felt that “more attention needed to be given to Negro education, the low standing of South Carolina, educationally, is due primarily to the high rate of illiteracy and lack of education among our Negroes.” After hearing news of a lynching a month after taking office, Thurmond called “for a vigorous prosecution resulting in state and local police working with the F.B.I.”10 His firm position prevented future lynching.The Dixiecrat Presidential campaign “transformed Thurmond’s image from a progressive governor of South Carolina to a reactionary national champion of white supremacy.” Thurmond insists that the campaign was for “States Rights,” and to end the use of the South as a doormat for Presidential Candidates, but comments like this show his true colors; “And all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches, and our places of recreation and amusement.” Here’s a commentary I found on the web by a African American person who lived through the Dixiecrat period of South Carolina; “even before I was 12, the images of Republican politicians, along with their Dixiecrat soul mates, screaming "niggers" this and "niggers" that, were burned into my consciousness as symbols of bigotry and intolerance. Not counting Abe Lincoln, I had nothing good to say about a single Republican until I went to college in 1963.” Strom Thurmond was no ordinary freshman to the United S...
