Strom Thurmond

Strom Thurmond (1902-1941) was a Freedom Party politician who represented South Carolina in the Confederate House of Representatives. He was described by Anne Colleton as "strong on the race issue, less so on others."

In 1941, he was one of several speakers at a patriotic rally in Charleston to mark the beginning of the Second Great War when that city was attacked by bombers flying off the USS Remembrance as a retaliatory strike following the Confederate bombing of Philadelphia several days earlier. Thurmond, who was speaking at the time, refused to leave the dais for a bomb shelter; with fine contempt for the danger, he mocked the US pilots. His bravery cost him his life.