title: Strom Thurmond

text: In January 1959, the Senate held a debate over changing the rules to curb filibusters, Thurmond expressed the view that the Senate return to the rule prior to 1917, when there were no regulations on the time for debate. In February 1960, Thurmond requested a quorum call that would produce at least half the membership of the Senate, the call being seen as one of the delay tactics employed by Southerners during the meeting. 51 senators assembled, allowing for the Senate to adjourn in spite of Thurmond's calls for another quorum call. Thurmond afterward denied his responsibility in convening the Saturday session, attributing it to Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson and opining that those insistent on passing a civil rights bill should be around during discussions on the matter. In the 1960 United States presidential election, Thurmond refused to back the Democratic nominee, his senate colleague John F. Kennedy, due to the latter's support for civil rights. In the 1960 South Carolina Senate race, Thurmond ran unopposed in the General Election, a Republican candidate did not even appear on the ballot. As of 2022, 1960 remains the last time a Democrat won South Carolina's Class 2 Senate Seat. In the presidential election, he received 14 electoral votes for the vice president (as Harry Byrd Sr.'s running mate). Though both Byrd and Thurmond had long since moved on from the States Rights' Democratic Party, they were the decided protest ticket of several southern delegates and unpledged electors, who refused to give their support to Kennedy.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond predicted the 87th Congress would begin with a move to remove him from the Senate Democratic Caucus. This did not happen, and an aide for Senator Joseph S. Clark Jr. said there was never an intention to pursue recourse against Thurmond, though in his opinion Thurmond should no longer be a member of the party. In August 1961, Thurmond formally requested the Senate Armed Services Committee to vote on whether to vote for "a conspiracy to muzzle military anti-Communist drives." The appearance prompted the cancellation of another public appearance in Fort Jackson, as Thurmond favored marking his proposal with his presence, and his request for a $75,000 committee study was slated for consideration. In November, Thurmond said that President Kennedy had lost support in the South due to the formation of the National Relations Boards, what he called Kennedy's softness on communism, and an increase in military men being muzzled for speaking out against communism.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In May 1962, Thurmond was part of a group of Senate orators headed by John C. Stennis who expressed opposition to the Kennedy administration's literacy test bill, arguing that the measure was in violation of states' rights as defined by the Constitution. After the Supreme Court ruled state composed prayer in public schools was unconstitutional, Thurmond urged Congress to take steps to prevent the Court from making similar decisions. In September 1962, Thurmond called for an invasion of Cuba. In February 1963, Thurmond stated that "the brush curtain around Cuba is a formidable Soviet strategic military base" and estimated between 30,000 and 40,000 Cuban troops were under the leadership of a Soviet general. Hours after the statement was made public, a Pentagon official disputed his claims as being "at wide variance with carefully evaluated data collected by U.S. intelligence" and called for Thurmond to release his proof to the Defense Department. During Paul Nitze's nomination hearing for Secretary of the Navy, Thurmond was noted for asking "rapid fire questions" on military action and focusing on Nitze's participation as a moderator in the 1958 National Council of Churches conference. Along with Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, Thurmond delayed the Nitze nomination. In spite of Thurmond voting against him, the nomination was approved.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: The day after the Nitze vote, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Thurmond expressed the view that a conspiracy would be found by investigators to have been responsible for JFK's death. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson ascended to the presidency. He began campaigning to secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which angered white segregationists. These laws ended segregation and committed the federal government to enforce voting rights of citizens by the supervision of elections in states in which the pattern of voting showed black people had been disenfranchised. During the signing ceremony for the Civil Rights Act, President Johnson nominated LeRoy Collins as the first Director of the Community Relations Service. Subsequently, Thurmond reminded Collins of his past support for segregation and implied that he was a traitor to the South, Thurmond having particular disdain for an address by Collins the previous winter in which he charged southern leaders with being harsh and intemperate. Thurmond also suggested that Collins had sought to fault southern leaders for President Kennedy's assassination. Thurmond was the only senator to vote against Collins' nomination being sent to the Senate, and later one of eight senators to vote against his nomination in the chamber.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: On September 16, 1964, Thurmond confirmed he was leaving the Democratic Party to work on the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater, charging the Democrats with having "abandoned the people" and having repudiated the U.S. Constitution. During the campaign, Thurmond told reporters that he believed Barry Goldwater could carry South Carolina and other southern states. Though Goldwater lost in a landslide, he won South Carolina with 59% of the vote compared to President Johnson's 41%. Senate Republicans were lukewarm to Thurmond due to their "super minority" of only 32 seats in the Senate prior to Thurmond's switch, and voted for committee assignments granting Thurmond the ability "to keep at least some of the seniority power he had gained as a Democrat." Following the election, Johnson continued to push through Civil Rights legislation, most notably the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which committed the federal government to enforce voting rights of citizens by the supervision of elections in states with noted record of voter suppression and disenfranchisement. Thurmond explained his opposition to the Voting Rights Act as being opposed to its authorization of the federal government to determine the processes behind how statewide elections are conducted and insisted he was not against black voter turnout. During floor debate on the bill, Thurmond espoused that the VRA would lead to "despotism and tyranny." With the Voting Rights Act passing into law by a slightly larger margin than the Civil Rights Act, Thurmond's opposition to civil rights had proven as effective as a Republican as they had been as a Democrat.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1965, L. Mendel Rivers became chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, commentator Wayne King crediting Thurmond's involvement with Rivers as giving Rivers' district "an even dozen military installations that are said to account for one‐third to one‐half of the jobs in the area." In his 1966 re-election campaign, the new Republican senator faced no opposition in the primary, and competed against Bradley Morrah Jr. in the general election campaign. Morrah avoided direct charges against Thurmond's record and generally spoke of his own ambitions in the event he was elected, later referring to Thurmond's time in the Senate as being ineffective. Thurmond won election with 62.2 percent of the vote (271,297 votes) to Morrah's 37.8 percent (164,955 votes). In 1966, former governor Ernest "Fritz" Hollings won South Carolina's other Senate seat in a special election. He and Thurmond served together for just over 36 years, making them the longest-serving Senate duo in American history.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: At the start of the 89th United States Congress, Thurmond was appointed to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. In March, Thurmond won unanimous approval to have Clark's remarks removed from the record following an argument the senators had after Clark mentioned that Charleston, South Carolina would be included in the Pentagon's list of twenty-five American cities that would get priority in their antimissile protection and attributed this to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rivers' influence. In June 1967, Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to be the first African-American Justice on the Supreme Court, Thurmond joining Sam Ervin, Spessard Holland, and James Eastland in calling Marshall a "Constitutional iconoclast" in Senate debate. Thurmond questioned Marshall for an hour "on fine points of constitutional law and history", and accused Marshall of having evaded questions on his legal principles during committee hearings. Marshall was still confirmed by the Senate at the end of that month. Later that year, Thurmond attributed the 1967 USS "Forrestal" fire to being precipitated by communists, and warned against enacting any of the three proposed Panama Canal treaties on the grounds that they would lead to Communist control of the waterway if enacted.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1968, Chief Justice Earl Warren decided to retire, and Johnson subsequently nominated Abe Fortas to succeed him. On the third day of hearings, Thurmond questioned Fortas over "Mallory v. United States" (1957), a case taking place before Fortas's tenure, but for which he was nonetheless held responsible by Thurmond. Thurmond asked Fortas if the Supreme Court decision in the "Mallory v. United States" case was an encouragement of individuals to commit serious crimes such as rape and if he believed in "that kind of justice", an inquiry that shocked even the usually stoic Fortas. Thurmond displayed sex magazines, which he called "obscene, foul, putrid, filthy and repulsive", to validate his charges that Supreme Court rulings overturning obscenity convictions had led to a large wave of hardcore pornography material. Thurmond stated that Fortas had backed overturning 23 of the 26 lower court obscenity decisions. Thurmond also arranged for the screening of explicit films that Fortas had purportedly legalized to be played before reporters and his own Senate colleagues. In September, Vice President Hubert Humphrey spoke of a deal made between Thurmond and Nixon over Thurmond's opposition to the Fortas nomination. Both Nixon and Thurmond denied Humphrey's claims, Thurmond saying that he had never discussed the nomination with Nixon while conceding the latter had unsuccessfully tried to sway him from opposing Fortas.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In the lead-up to the 1968 United States Presidential election, Thurmond stated that President Johnson could be defeated in a re-election bid by a Republican challenger since the candidate was likely to be less obnoxious than the president. Thurmond was an early supporter of a second presidential campaign by Nixon, his backing coming from the latter's position on the Vietnam War, Thurmond promising Nixon that he would not give in to the "depredations of the Reagan forces." During the general election campaign, Nixon's running mate Spiro Agnew stated that he did not believe Thurmond was a racist when asked his opinion on the matter, and Thurmond participated in a two-day tour of Georgia during October where he warned that American Independent Party candidate George Wallace would split the vote and give the election to Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey by having the Democratic-majority House of Representatives select him in the event none of the candidates received enough electoral votes to win the presidency outright. Thurmond also predicted that Nixon would carry Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Tennessee. Nixon carried each of these states with the exception of Texas.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond decried the Supreme Court opinion in "Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education" (1969), which ordered the immediate desegregation of schools in the American South. This had followed continued Southern resistance for more than a decade to desegregation following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education" that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Thurmond praised President Nixon and his "Southern Strategy" of delaying desegregation, saying Nixon "stood with the South in this case". In 1969, Thurmond opined that "The New York Times" "had a conflict of interest in its attacks on Otto F. Otepka's appointment to the Subversive Activities Control Board." and called for Associate Justice William O. Douglas to resign over what he considered political activities, a request which Douglas ignored. In the latter part of the year, President Nixon nominated Clement Haynsworth for associate justice. This came after the White House consulted with Thurmond throughout all of July, as Thurmond had become impressed with Haynsworth following their close collaboration. Thurmond wrote to Haynsworth that he had worked harder on his nomination than any other that had occurred since his Senate career began. The Haynsworth nomination was rejected in the Senate. Years later, at a 1977 hearing, Thurmond told Haynsworth, "It's a pity you are not on the Supreme Court today. Several senators who voted against you have told me they would vote for you if they had it to do again."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1969, "Time" ran a story accusing Thurmond of receiving "an extraordinarily high payment for land". Thurmond responded to the claim by calling the tale a liberal smear intended to damage his political influence, later calling the magazine "anti-South". and a few days later, Thurmond named executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party Donald L. Fowler as the individual who had spread the story, a charge that Fowler denied.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1970, African-Americans constituted about 30 percent of South Carolina's population. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans were legally protected in exercising their constitutional rights to register and vote in South Carolina. Thurmond appointed Thomas Moss, an African American, to his Senate staff in 1971. It has been described as the first such appointment by a member of the South Carolina congressional delegation (it was incorrectly reported by many sources as the first senatorial appointment of an African American, but Mississippi Senator Pat Harrison had hired clerk-librarian Jesse Nichols in 1937). In 1983, Thurmond supported legislation to make the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. a federal holiday. In South Carolina, the honor was diluted; until 2000 the state offered employees the option to celebrate this holiday or substitute one of three Confederate holidays instead. Despite this, Thurmond never explicitly renounced his earlier views on racial segregation.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In January 1970, Thurmond asserted that he would work "to reverse the unreasonable and impractical decisions of the Supreme Court", as well as assist with the appointment of "sound judges" and uphold the Nixon administration's position for resumption of tax‐exempt status among all private schools. Thurmond urged Nixon to nominate another South Carolina Republican convert, Joseph O. Rogers Jr., to a federal judgeship; he had been the party's unsuccessful 1966 gubernatorial nominee against the Democrat Robert Evander McNair. At the time Rogers was the U.S. Attorney in South Carolina. When his judicial nomination dragged on, Rogers resigned as U.S. attorney and withdrew from consideration. He blamed the Nixon administration, which he and Thurmond had helped to bring to power, for failure to advance his nomination in the Senate because of opposition to the appointment from the NAACP.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In a 1970 speech, Thurmond called on Japan to increase defense spending and take a larger role in resisting communism in Asia. Thurmond also defended the Vietnam policy of the Nixon administration, saying that the president was making the best of the situation that he had inherited from Kennedy and Johnson while admitting he personally favored a total victory in the war. On April 11, 1971, Thurmond called for the exoneration of William Calley following his conviction of participating in the My Lai Massacre, stating that the "victims at Mylai were casualties to the brutality of war" and Calley had acted off of order. Calley's petition for habeas corpus was granted three years later, in addition to his immediate release from house arrest. In January 1975, Thurmond and William Scott toured South Vietnam, Thurmond receiving a medal from President of South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. The award was seen as part of an attempt by South Vietnam to court American congressional votes in its favor.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In February 1971, Senate Republicans voted unanimously to bestow Thurmond full seniority, the vote being seen as "little more than a gesture since committee assignments are the major item settled by seniority and Senator Thurmond has his." In June, Thurmond advocated against lifting the trade embargo on the People's Republic of China, stating that its communist regime had engaged in a propaganda effort to weaken support for the embargo. Nevertheless, days later, President Nixon ordered an end to the embargo.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: On February 4, 1972, Thurmond sent a secret memo to William Timmons (in his capacity as an aide to Richard Nixon) and United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, with an attached file from the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, urging that British musician John Lennon (then living in New York City) be deported from the United States as an undesirable alien, due to Lennon's political views and activism. The document claimed Lennon's influence on young people could affect Nixon's chances of re-election, and suggested that terminating Lennon's visa might be "a strategy counter-measure". Thurmond's memo and attachment, received by the White House on February 7, 1972, initiated the Nixon administration's persecution of John Lennon that threatened the former Beatle with deportation for nearly five years from 1972 to 1976. The documents were discovered in the FBI files after a Freedom of Information Act search by Professor Jon Wiener, and published in Weiner's book "Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files" (2000). They are discussed in the documentary film, "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" (2006).


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In July 1973, Thurmond was one of ten Republican senators in a group headed by Carl T. Curtis invited to the White House to reaffirm their support for President Nixon in light of recent scandals and criticism of the president within his own party. In October, after President Nixon ordered the firing of independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, Democrat Birch Bayh charged Thurmond with "browbeating" Cox during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the firing. Thurmond replied that Bayh was "below a snake" in the event that he had intended to impugn his motives. Thurmond was noted for joining Edward J. Gurney in questioning Cox "at length in an attempt to show that he was biased against" Nixon and his administration, as Thurmond asked Cox if eleven members of his staff had worked for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. In May 1974, Thurmond, along with William L. Scott and James B. Allen agreed with Senator Carl T. Curtis on the equation of resignation with mob rule and the group declined defending Nixon's conduct. Thurmond opined that Nixon was "the only President we have" and questioned why Congress would want to weaken his hand in negotiating with other countries. In August, "Newsweek" published a list by the White House including Thurmond as one of thirty-six senators that the administration believed would support President Nixon in the event of his impeachment and being brought to trial by the Senate. Nixon resigned on August 9 in light of near-certain impeachment.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Throughout the 1970s, Thurmond took several actions against Soviet Union. In June 1974, Senator Henry M. Jackson informed Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee John C. Stennis that he had arranged for Thurmond to cosponsor an amendment revising the present export control system and restricting trade with the Soviet Union while granting the Defense Secretary power to veto any export that might "significantly increase the military capability" of either the Soviet Union or other Communist countries. In June 1975, as the Senate weighed a reduction in a $25 billion weapons procurement measure and to delete research funds to improve the accuracy and power of intercontinental ballistic missiles and warheads, Thurmond and Harry F. Byrd Jr. warned that the Soviet Union was attempting an increase on its missile accuracy and advocated for the United States to follow suit with its own missiles. Later that month, Thurmond and Jesse Helms wrote to President Ford requesting he meet with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ahead of a speech on June 30 during an AFL–CIO dinner. The White House responded that Ford was too busy to meet with Solzhenitsyn, while later sources indicate Ford declined the meeting at the counsel of his advisors. In December 1979, Thurmond was one of ten senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee to sign a report urging President Carter Is to delay the vote on proposed treaty with between the US and Soviet Union to limit nuclear arms.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In the 1976 Republican primary, President Ford faced a challenge from former California Governor Ronald Reagan, who selected Richard Schweiker as his running mate. Though Thurmond backed Reagan's candidacy, he, along with North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, led efforts to oust Schweiker from the ticket. During the subsequent general election, Thurmond appeared in a campaign commercial for incumbent U.S. President Gerald Ford in his race against Thurmond's fellow Southerner, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. In the commercial, Thurmond said Ford (who was born in Nebraska and spent most of his life in Michigan) "sound[ed] more like a Southerner than Jimmy Carter". After President-elect Carter nominated Theodore C. Sorensen as his choice to become Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Thurmond expressed reservations and fellow Senator Jake Garn said he believed Thurmond would not vote for the nomination. Sorensen withdrew from consideration days later, before a vote could be had.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1974, Thurmond and Democrat John L. McClellan wrote a resolution to continue American sovereignty by the Panama Canal and zone. Thurmond stated that the rhetoric delivered by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger suggested that the "Canal Zone is already Panamanian territory and the only question involved is the transfer of jurisdiction." In the late 1970s, Thurmond advocated for forging a new relationship with Panama but against the U.S. giving up sovereignty to the Canal Zone. Thurmond doubted Panama's ability to govern alone: "There is no way that a Panarnaniain government could be objective about the administration of an enterprise so large in comparison to the rest of the national enterprise, public and private." In late August 1977, "The New York Times" wrote "President Carter can be grateful that the opposition to his compromise Panama treaty is now being led by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina." Speaking on the Panama Canal neutrality treaty, Thurmond said it was "the big giveaway of the century." The treaty was ratified by the Senate on March 16, 1978.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In his general election campaign, Thurmond faced Charles Ravenel, a local banker and former gubernatorial candidate. Ravenel charged Thurmond with not standing up for South Carolina's educational needs and having been behind the lack of funding. Thurmond responded to the charges by stating that he thought the state had made advancements in its education system. Thurmond and Ravenel made a joint appearance in April, where Thurmond discussed his position on a variety of issues. The higher amount of African-Americans voting in elections was taken into account by the Ravenel campaign, which sought to gain this group of voters by reviving interest in older statements by Thurmond. In his courting of black voters, Thurmond was noted to have not undergone "any ideological transformation" but instead devoted himself to making personal contact with members of the minority group. Thurmond's influence in national politics allowed him to have correspondence with staffers from the Nixon administration which gave him "a unique advantage in announcing federal grants and bird-dogging federal projects of particular interest to black voters." By May 1978, Thurmond held a 30-point lead over Ravenel among double digits of undecided voters. Thurmond won a fifth term with 351,733 votes to Ravenel's 281,119. The race would later be assessed as the last serious challenge to Thurmond during his career.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In March 1979, after the Carter administration made an appeal to Congress for new powers to aid with the enforcement of federal laws as it pertains to housing discrimination, Thurmond refused to back the administration as he charged it with "injecting itself in every facet of people's lives" and said housing disputes should be settled in court. In July, as the Senate weighed voting on the nomination of Assistant Attorney General Patricia M. Wald to the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, Thurmond joined Paul Laxalt and Alan Simpson recorded their opposition. Later that month, Thurmond asked Attorney General nominee Benjamin R. Civiletti if President Carter had made him give a pledge of loyalty or an assurance of complete independence. In September, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved 30 of President Carter's nominees, the closest vote being waged against Abner J. Mikva, who the president had nominated for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Thurmond was one of the five Republicans to vote against Mikva. In November, President Carter nominated José A. Cabranes to fill a vacancy on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Thurmond submitted a series of written questions to Cabranes, whose answers were credited with clarifying his views on issues. Cabranes was confirmed for the position.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond demonstrated several instances of bipartisanship with Democrats and President Carter. In May 1977, Thurmond made a joint appearance with President Carter in the Rose Garden in a show of unified support for proposed foreign intelligence surveillance legislation. Thurmond stated he had become convinced the legislation was needed from his service on the Armed Services Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee the previous year and lauded the bill for concurrently protecting the rights of Americans, as a warrant would have to be obtained from a judge in order to fulfill any inquiries. In July 1979, after the Carter administration unveiled a proposed governing charter for the FBI, Thurmond stated his support for its enactment, his backing being seen by "The New York Times" as an indication that the governing charter would face little conservative opposition. In September, the Senate approved Bailey Brown as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The nomination was one of the few votes in which Thurmond and Ted Kennedy joined forces in confirming. In October, President Carter signed the Federal Magistrate Act of 1979, an expansion of the jurisdiction of American magistrates in regards to civil and criminal cases. Carter noted Thurmond as one of the members of Congress who had shown leadership on the measure, without whose efforts it would have never passed.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In December 1979, Thurmond endorsed the presidential campaign of former Governor of Texas John Connally. In an election cycle that also featured Reagan, Thurmond chose to back Connally because he believed the latter's wide government experience would benefit the U.S. in both domestic and foreign matters. "The Washington Post" noted Thurmond seeming "to cast himself for a role of regional leadership in the Connally campaign similar to the one he played in 1968" for the Nixon campaign. After Connally lost the South Carolina primary to Reagan, he thanked Thurmond and his wife for doing more to support his campaign in the state than anyone else. In August 1980, Thurmond gave a "tense cross examination" of President Carter's brother, Billy Carter, who had come under scrutiny for his relationship with Libya and receiving funds from the country. The Billy Carter controversy also was favored by Democrats wishing to replace Carter as the party's nominee in the general election. Thurmond questioned Carter over his prior refusal to disclose the amount of funds he had received from public appearances after the 1976 Presidential election, and stated his skepticism with some of the points made.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: After Republicans won a majority in the 1980 Senate election, Thurmond pledged that he would seek a death penalty law, and stated his conviction that "the death penalty is a deterrent to crime" in an interview the following year. Following the presidential election, Thurmond and North Carolina senator Jesse Helms sponsored a Senate amendment to a Department of Justice appropriations bill denying the department the power to participate in busing, due to objections over federal involvement, but, although passed by Congress, was vetoed by a lame duck Carter. In December 1980, Thurmond met with President-elect Reagan and recommended former South Carolina governor James B. Edwards for United States Secretary of Energy in the incoming administration. Reagan later named Edwards Energy Secretary, and the latter served in that position for over a year. In January 1981, after the Justice Department revealed it was carrying out a suit against Charleston County for school officials declining to propose a desegregation method for its public schools, Thurmond theorized the Justice Department's decision may have been due to South Carolina not supporting President Carter in the general election, and stated his intent to have the incoming Reagan administration to look into the facts of the case before proceeding.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond became President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate in 1981, and was part of the U.S. delegation to the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Thurmond being accompanied by Sadat's pen pal Sam Brown. At the beginning of Reagan's term, Thurmond as the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the new president were seen as obstacles to any gun laws passing in the Senate. Thurmond publicly stated his belief that any measures introduced would be defeated in his committee. After the March assassination attempt on President Reagan, Thurmond stated his support for legislation imposing a ban on the gun components on a seven-point anti-crime program. He indicated his backing would only be in favor of passing measures to restrict criminals accessing guns and his announcement was seen as possibly indicating a change in the debate of regulations relating to firearms in the U.S. Thurmond also announced plans to hold hearings on the seven-point proposal intended to address the questions surrounding the Reagan assassination attempt.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond and Helms urged President Reagan to curb textile imports, with Thurmond saying later that year that the first four months of 1981 had seen a 16 percent increase in textile imports "over a similar period in 1980." President Reagan pledged in a letter to Thurmond to help South Carolina textile mills against their foreign competitors. President Reagan stated his support for tightening control of textile imports, and the following year, vetoed H.R. 1562. Thurmond responded to the decision by stating that Reagan had heeded bad advice and added that the veto would produce "more layoffs, more plant shutdowns and more long-term economic damage to an industry that is crucial to this nation." In late 1981, Thurmond presided over the hearings of Sandra Day O'Connor, who President Reagan had nominated for associate justice. Thurmond granted Alabama Senator Jeremiah Denton an hour of questioning of O'Connor, twice the time allotted for other members of the chamber. Thurmond stated that O'Connor was "one of the choice nominees" for the Supreme Court that he had seen in all of his Senate career, and she was confirmed by the Senate. Also in 1981, Thurmond was one of the leaders in opposition to extending the Voting Rights Act, and said parts of the law were discriminatory toward states' rights as well as too strict toward communities that had adhered to it in the past.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond was a supporter of the foreign policy of the Reagan administration. In April 1981, Thurmond stated that the U.S. could move some of its West Germany soldiers to the East German and Czechoslovak borders in an attempt to improve both morale and combat readiness. In October 1983, Thurmond announced his support for the United States invasion of Grenada, saying American efforts with other countries were "providing an opportunity for Grenadan citizens to regain control over their lives" and the U.S. would be forced to watch centuries of progress crumble if the country was unwilling to make sacrifices. Thurmond voted against the Senate resolution declaring that American troops in Grenada would be "withdrawn no more than 60 days later unless Congress authorized their continued presence there". President Reagan sent Thurmond a letter containing a report in line with the War Powers Resolution. Thurmond said the "ruling junta in Grenada" was directly threatening American lives.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In December 1984, as the United States and Israel moved to negotiate a free-trade pact where tariffs between the two countries would eventually be wiped out following the Reagan administration receiving congressional approval to negotiate such an agreement, Thurmond wrote a letter to United States trade representative Bill Brock calling on Brock to "reformulate" the negotiating position of the US as the senator had been informed by his aides that the American position in the negotiation was "more generous" than the one specified to Congress. Brock replied to Thurmond weeks later, asserting that he had "every intention" of fulfilling his commitment to Congress "to take account of the import sensitivity of specific products" in the agreement and that Israel had acknowledged the irregularity of export subsidy programs "with the concept of a free-trade area."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1984, as the Senate voted on a bill granting federal prosecution to weapon-carrying career robbers and giving 15 years of incarceration to those convicted, Thurmond and Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy sponsored an amendment limiting the bill to third-time federal offenders, which passed 77 to 12.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In the 1984 presidential election, Thurmond was cited along with Carroll Campbell and South Carolina Republican Party Director Warren Tompkins by Republicans as the forces binding the Reagan-Bush ticket to South Carolina's electoral votes. Thurmond attended President Reagan's October 15 re-election campaign speech in the Allied Health Building on the Greenville Technical College campus in Greenville, South Carolina.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Running for a sixth full term in 1984, Thurmond faced his first primary challenge in 20 years, from retired CIA agent Robert Cunningham, and won the Republican nomination on June 12, 1984. The previous year, at a fundraising dinner for Thurmond's re-election campaign in Columbia, South Carolina, President Reagan delivered an address both praising Thurmond and noting the similarities in his views and that of the administration. Cunningham charged Thurmond with being a follower who no one could validate the seriousness of as a candidate since he had not been challenged in eighteen years, furthering that the South Carolina Republican Party had been involved with the decline in his opposition. Cunningham said that Thurmond had a "bad track record" and noted his past comments on race, saying that he would not be crushed like Thurmond's past opponents and was getting much encouragement in his bid to unseat him. Thurmond addressed the issue of age during the primary, the 81-year-old senator stating that he exercised each day for an hour and a half and that he was in the same shape as a person in their 30s or 40s. Cunningham received less than 6% of the primary vote. Thurmond then defeated Melvin Purvis III in the general election, the latter receiving half of the votes cast for Thurmond. Purvis, noted to have few differences in ideology with Thurmond, cited the latter's age as reason to retire him from the Senate.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond's support of Reagan's judicial nominees continued into the president's second term. In 1986, Daniel Anthony Manion, President Reagan's choice for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, answered a question by Thurmond, who cited Manion as "entitled to have a vote by the Senate", and predicted there were enough votes to confirm him. In 1987, after President Reagan nominated Robert Bork as Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, the "Los Angeles Times" noted Thurmond as "one of Bork's key supporters on the Judiciary Committee." Following Bork's nomination being rejected by the Senate, Thurmond stated that President Reagan's next nominee should be a person not "as controversial" and should be someone from the South.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In June 1985, Thurmond introduced legislation providing stiffer federal penalties for individuals and financial institutions engaged in laundering money earned from activities of illegality. The bill was supported by the Reagan administration in its efforts to expose the financial activities of criminals and was hailed by Thurmond as "an important step in our continuing war on organized crime and those financial institutions and individuals which hide the ill-gotten assets of law-breakers, especially drug traffickers."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In September 1985, Thurmond was one of eight members of a delegation that met with General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. In March 1986, after American warplanes took action against Libyan land, Thurmond stated the U.S. "has the right and the duty to protect and defend itself when attacked, as it was today, without provocation." He opposed statements by the Libyan government that the attacks on U.S. ships occurred in international waters and named Muammar Gaddafi as the individual who had orchestrated the acts of aggression toward the U.S. Thurmond was a supporter of the Nicaragua rebels, saying that support for the group on the part of the United States was central to furthering America's view "in freedom and in protecting ourselves against Soviet totalitarianism." In August 1988, Senator Robert Byrd presented the White House with a modified version of the Democratic proposal on Contra aid. Thurmond responded to the plan by calling it unsatisfactory. A month later, after some members of the Senate gave support to a law that would impose American participation in an international treaty outlawing genocide, Thurmond stated his intent to add a death penalty amendment in the event the bill reached the Senate floor and Democrats charged Thurmond with using parliamentary devices and Senate traditions to prevent a vote. Thurmond dropped the death penalty amendment when Democrats agreed to proceed with the confirmation of Republican judges.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In September 1986, Thurmond sponsored a drug law package that included a provision imposing the death penalty for some drug offenses and federal crimes of "treason, espionage and killing American hostages in a terrorist attack". A week later, as the Senate opened debate on proposals aimed at ending both the supply of dangerous drugs as well as their demand, Thurmond offered changes to criminal law in the form of amendments that would include imposing the death penalty for drug traffickers guilty of murder and an expansion of the proposal that would add the death penalty for other federal crimes, such as espionage and hostage taking. President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 on October 27, 1986, noting Thurmond as one of the "real champions in the battle to get this legislation through Congress".


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In November 1987, Thurmond introduced legislation that if enacted would require "alcoholic beverages to carry health warning labels similar to those on cigarettes", saying the legislation would be effective if it prevented anyone from drinking while being in a compromising position of health. The following year, Thurmond sponsored legislation designed to impose "five rotating warning labels on alcoholic beverages cautioning pregnant women not to drink, warning that alcohol is addictive and can increase the risks of hypertension, liver disease and cancer, that it impairs a person's ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and that alcohol consumption can be hazardous in combination with some drugs."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: On February 23, 1988, Thurmond endorsed fellow senator Bob Dole in the Republican presidential primary, acknowledging his previous intent to remain neutral during the nominating process. The Thurmond endorsement served to change the Dole campaign's initial plans of skipping the South Carolina primary, where Vice President Bush defeated Dole. The Bush campaign subsequently won other Southern states and the nomination, leading Michael Oreskes to reflect that Dole "was hurt by an endorsement that led him astray." Following the 1988 Presidential election, George H. W. Bush nominated John Tower for United States Secretary of Defense. After Tower's nomination was rejected by the Senate, Thurmond asked, "What does it say when the leader of the free world can't get a Cabinet member confirmed?"


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In July 1989, when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill by Democrat Dennis DeConcini that imposed a ban of three years on sales of several domestic assault rifles, it rejected an amendment by Thurmond that would have substituted the DeConcini bill with the Bush administration's anti-crime package, which did not include a ban on rifles produced in the United States. Failure to implement the Thurmond amendment was seen as "a preliminary test of Senate support for extending President Bush's ban on foreign-made assault weapons to domestic makes" and a loss for the National Rifle Association which had previously protested banning domestic assault rifles. In August, after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted evenly on the nomination of William C. Lucas for Assist Attorney General for Civil Rights and thereby terminated the nomination that required a majority to proceed to the entirety of the chamber, Thurmond noted the different forms of segregation in the North and South and added that "black people didn't have the chance in either place that they should have had. Now's the chance to give them a chance." Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Joe Biden refuted Thurmond's argument by mentioning that Senate critics of Lucas were civil rights supporters who had a problem with his lack of qualifications. In September, Thurmond was one of nine Republican senators appointed by Senate Republican leader Robert Dole to negotiate a dispute with Democrats over financing of President Bush's anti-drug plan.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond launched his campaign for a seventh term on February 12, 1990, citing that he had never before felt "a stronger obligation to continue my work for the future of our state and our nation." Thurmond, then age 87, billed himself as having the health of a man in his fifties. The South Carolina Democratic Party faced difficulty recruiting a candidate which they believed had a chance of defeating Thurmond. In the general election, Thurmond defeated retired intelligence officer Bob Cunningham, who had been his Republican primary opponent in 1984. (Cunningham had switched parties in 1990.)


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In early 1990, Thurmond sponsored a crime bill concurrent with another measure of the same intent, his version receiving the support of President Bush. Thurmond charged the Democratic proposal with aiding criminals and furthering the loss of rights on the part of victims. In June, the bill was nearly doomed following a procedural vote that forced Senate leaders to work toward modifying its provisions. Thurmond proposed that his fellow senators accept portions of the bill that the Senate had already passed including provisions expanding the number of federal crimes for which the death penalty could apply from 23 to 30 and restrictions on the number of appeals a condemned inmate may file in Federal courts, and the ban on the sale and manufacture of nine types of semiautomatic weapons. In 1992, the Senate voted on an anti-crime bill, Thurmond predicting that it would not pass due to what he considered its lack of strength: "This weak bill expands the rights of criminals. It is a fraud. It is a sham." He stated that President Bush had told him in advance of his intent to veto the bill if it passed.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: After President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for Associate Justice, Thomas visited Thurmond and stated that he had been fortunate as a result of the Civil Rights Movement assisting him in getting out of poverty, a departure from his previous position of African-Americans achieving success through hard work and individual initiative. "The New York Times" observed, "Judge Thomas's remarks in Mr. Thurmond's office were not in response to reporters' specific questions and were clearly intended to rebut critics, including some by members of civil rights organizations, who say he should not be confirmed because of his vociferous opposition to affirmative action and racial quotas in hiring." In September, as Thomas appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thurmond interrupted a line of questioning by Howard Metzenbaum to defend Thomas against a complaint that Thomas had answered questions about cases except for abortion. Thurmond voted for Thomas's confirmation, and the latter was confirmed by the Senate in October 1991.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond became the head of the Armed Services Committee following the 1994 Republican Revolution, in which the Republican Party gained eight seats in the Senate and gained a majority in both chambers. According to Thurmond, he had survived "a little power play" orchestrated by fellow Republicans to continue serving as Chairman. In December, after President Clinton's announcement that he would seek a $25 billion increase in defense spending over the following six years, Thurmond called it a correct move but one which validated claims that the president had hastily cut the Pentagon budget. In late 1995, Thurmond joined a bipartisan coalition of politicians in supporting a petition intending "to loosen the rules governing the prescription drug methlyphenidate".


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In his 1996 re-election campaign, Thurmond received primary opposition from Harold G. Worley and Charlie Thompson, and the question of age appeared again, given that he was 93 years old at the time. Thurmond remarked that the issue was the only one expressed by members of the press, even as polls showed "that the vast majority of South Carolinians believe it is far past time for him to retire." Worley stated that the issue of age should be dealt with in the primary as opposed to the general election, encouraging Thurmond to be dropped as the seat's continuous nominee. In the general election, Thurmond received 53.4 percent of the vote to the 44 percent of Democrat Elliott Springs Close.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: On December 5, 1996, Thurmond became the oldest serving member of the U.S. Senate, and on May 25, 1997, the longest-serving member (41 years and 10 months), casting his 15,000th vote in September 1998. In the following month, when astronaut and fellow Senator John Glenn was to embark on the "Discovery" at age 77, Thurmond, who was his senior by 19 years, reportedly sent him a message saying; "I want to go too." On October 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 into law, an authorization of "appropriations for military activities of the Department of Defense, military construction, and defense activities of the Department of Energy." Clinton stated that the bill being named after Thurmond was a "well-deserved and appropriate tribute" due to his thirty-six years in the U.S. Army Reserve and his primary focus in the Senate being on U.S. national defense.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In February 1999, Thurmond introduced legislation barring health messages on wine bottles, the measure intended to reverse what he called "erroneous and irresponsible" action of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The legislation transferred authority over labeling to the Department of Health and Human Services from the Treasury Department and increased taxes on wine. On May 26, 1999, the Senate voted on an amendment to a spending bill exonerating Husband E. Kimmel and Walter C. Short of charges of failing to anticipate the attack on Pearl Harbor that led to American involvement in World War II. Thurmond was noted as one of five Senate members to have been a World War II veteran and back the measure and called Kimmel and Short "the last victims" of Pearl Harbor. In January 2001, Thurmond endorsed his son Strom Thurmond Jr. for federal prosecutor in South Carolina in a recommendation to the Senate.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In March, Thurmond voted for an amendment to the campaign finance reform bill of John McCain and Russ Feingold. Thurmond had initially opposed the measure and changed his vote at the last minute.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond's 100th birthday was celebrated on December 5, 2002. Some remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott during the event were considered racially insensitive: "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, Mississippi voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either." Fifteen days later, on December 20, Lott resigned as the Senate Republican leader effective on January 3, 2003, the beginning of the next congressional session. Thurmond left the Senate in January 2003 as the United States' longest-serving senator, a record later surpassed by Senator Robert Byrd. Thurmond was succeeded by then-Representative and fellow Republican Lindsey Graham.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Toward the end of Thurmond's Senate career, critics suggested his mental abilities had declined. His supporters argued that, while he lacked physical stamina due to his age, mentally he remained aware and attentive, and maintained a very active work schedule, showing up for every floor vote. He stepped down as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the beginning of 1999, as he had pledged to do in late 1997. Retrospectively, a Senate aide stated that "for his last ten years, Thurmond didn’t know if he was on foot or on horseback", while a 2020 "New Yorker" article stated that he was "widely known" by the end of his career to be "non-compos mentis."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In August 1999, Thurmond underwent surgery for an enlarged prostate. In September, Thurmond was admitted to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center for tests. In October 2000, Thurmond collapsed while lunching with a staff member and an acquaintance at a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia and was admitted to Walter Reed; his spokeswoman Genevieve Erny stated that the collapse was found to have been unrelated to previous illnesses. On the morning of October 2, 2001, Thurmond was admitted to Walter Reed after fainting at his Senate desk. He was accompanied in the ambulance by fellow Republican and retired heart transplant surgeon Bill Frist.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Six months after Thurmond's death in 2003, Essie Mae Washington-Williams (19252013) publicly revealed she was his daughter. She was born on October 12, 1925, to Carrie "Tunch" Butler (1909 or 19101948), who had worked for Thurmond's parents and was 15 or 16 years old when she gave birth.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Essie Mae Washington was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle, and was not told that Thurmond was her father until she was in high school, when she met him for the first time. She later married, took on the last name Washington-Williams, had a family, and retired as a Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school teacher with a master's degree. Though the Thurmond family never publicly acknowledged Washington-Williams as his daughter while he was alive, he helped pay her way through a historically black college in South Carolina and continued to give her financial support well into her adult life. Washington-Williams said she did not reveal she was Thurmond's daughter during his lifetime because it "wasn't to the advantage of either one of us". She kept silent out of respect for her father and denied the two had agreed she would not reveal her connection to him.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: After Washington-Williams came forward, the Thurmond family attorney acknowledged her parentage. Her name has been added to those of his other children on a monument to Thurmond installed at the statehouse grounds. Many close friends, staff members, and South Carolina residents had long suspected that Washington-Williams was Thurmond's daughter, as they had noted his interest in her. The young woman had been granted a degree of access to Thurmond more typical of a family member than to a member of the public.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Washington-Williams later said she intended to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, and did apply to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, as she was eligible through her Thurmond ancestry. Thurmond was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. Her UDC application was not approved while she was alive.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond was 44 when he married his first wife, Jean Crouch (1926–1960), in the South Carolina Governor's mansion on November 7, 1947. In April 1947, when Crouch was a senior at Winthrop College, Thurmond was a judge in a beauty contest in which she was selected as Miss South Carolina. In June, upon her graduation, Thurmond hired her as his personal secretary. On September 13, 1947, Thurmond proposed marriage by calling Crouch to his office to take a dictated letter. The letter was to her, and contained his proposal of marriage. Thirteen years later in 1960, Crouch died of a brain tumor at age 33; they had no children.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond married his second wife, Nancy Janice Moore, on December 22, 1968. He was 66 years old and she was 22. She had won Miss South Carolina in 1965. Two years later, he hired her to work in his Senate office. Although Nancy did not particularly enjoy politics, she nevertheless became a popular figure on Capitol Hill. At age 68 in 1971, Thurmond fathered the first of four children with Nancy, who was then 25. Thurmond and Nancy's children are: Nancy Moore Thurmond (1971–1993), a beauty pageant contestant who was killed by a drunk driver; James Strom Thurmond Jr. (born 1972), a former U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina and Solicitor for the 2nd Judicial District of South Carolina. Juliana Whitmer (born 1974), and Paul Reynolds Thurmond (born 1976), a South Carolina State Senator.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond's children remained in South Carolina with relatives, and Nancy commuted back and forth. Nancy and Strom separated in March 1991, after Nancy claimed that they no longer had a real marriage, stating "At this point in my life I would like to be able to pursue several career options and some measure of independence." She returned to South Carolina, where her children were living. Although Nancy casually dated other men during the early stages of the separation, neither she nor her husband considered divorce, and they reportedly remained close. It was alleged that she spoke with her husband several times each day, and he stayed at her house several times each month, whenever he returned to South Carolina. Thurmond and his wife continued attending events together. However, they were also reported as estranged in 1996 when Nancy was facing trial for drunk driving. In 2001, they were still reported to be estranged when Nancy refused an offer to succeed Strom in the U.S. Senate.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: According to NBC News in 2017, it was widely acknowledged around Congress that Thurmond inappropriately touched women throughout his career. Thurmond's colleague, Senator Patty Murray, stated that in early 1994, Thurmond, then 91, tried to fondle her breast in an elevator. According to "The New York Times", Thurmond had been known for fondling women in Senate elevators, and did not realize Murray was a fellow senator. The alleged incident prompted a statement from Thurmond's office, saying that he had not engaged in any inappropriate behavior, and that he was showing gentlemanly courtesy by assisting Murray into the elevator. Female Senate staffers from the late 1980s and early 1990s recalled that Thurmond was on an informal list of male senators who were known for harassing women regularly, such as while alone in elevators.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Political reporter Cokie Roberts said in 2017 that Thurmond kissed her on the mouth, while she was live on the air at a political convention. Roberts stated that Thurmond "was in the category of his own" when it came to politicians and sexual harassment.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond died of heart failure in his sleep at 9:45 p.m. on June 26, 2003, at a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina. He was 100 years old. After lying in state in the rotunda of the South Carolina State House in Columbia, his body was carried on a caisson to the First Baptist Church for services, at which then-Senator Joe Biden of Delaware delivered a eulogy, and later to the family burial plot in Willowbrook Cemetery in Edgefield, where he was interred.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Diane Norman of the "Spartanburg Herald-Journal" called Thurmond "a political icon depicted in life-size statues in Columbia and Edgefield and whose name graces seven public buildings, a shopping mall, a high school, a National Guard armory, a lake, a dam and an interstate highway." Former "Slate" senior writer Timothy Noah wrote that Thurmond's most significant political contribution was his backing of segregation and myths had been construed on the part of his contemporaries to explain his continued wielding of national influence. South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson referred to Thurmond as South Carolina's greatest statesman in the 20th century.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: "Time" writes that Thurmond's party switch "marked the beginning of the GOP's appeal to white, Southern conservatives, and helped turn a former blue state red." It has been argued that Thurmond's backing of Nixon in the 1968 election served as the basis for the Southern strategy, with former Thurmond aide Lee Atwater admitting that the race served as the "blueprint for everything" he did in subsequent elections. Thurmond adviser Harry Dent saidHe played the key and strategic role in pioneering and paving the way for that change. Presidential politics have been changed by Strom Thurmond and what he did more than by anybody in this country in these recent years.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1997, future Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called Thurmond "somebody I have heard about, observed and admired all of my life."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Both Thurmond and his 1948 presidential campaign have been described as racist, and he has been called "one of the most notorious segregationists in history". In 1968, "The New York Times" described Thurmond as "a South Carolina maverick with a highly developed taste for lost causes". "The Oklahoman" wrote that he would anger Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson because he could not be controlled and the key to Thurmond's longevity was his prioritizing of his constituents' concerns being addressed.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: By the 1970s, Thurmond had helped established scholarships for black students at four South Carolina colleges and his influence in federal bureaucracy gave him an advantage in "announcing federal grants and bird-dogging federal projects of particular interest to black voters."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Thurmond received black support in his 1978 re-election and African-Americans were noted to "praise their onetime nemesis as a driving force behind the influx of more federal dollars to the state's minority neighborhoods." Jim Naughton of "The Washington Post" found Thurmond to have "transformed his own image from radical to pragmatist, from The Whitest Man in America to Uncle Strom, Our Friend in Washington."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Nevertheless, Thurmond's racially charged language during the earlier part of his career left him with a mixed reputation among African Americans, receiving only 20% of their vote in his last election in 1996. NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said Thurmond's sole legacy was of "durability and opposition to civil rights" and called Thurmond "a relic of America’s shameful past, who had long overstayed his welcome." In 2003, political scientist Willie Leggett stated, "Thurmond is not going to be a hero for black people because he never became a proponent of black rights."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 1980, Bill Peterson remarked that the 77-year-old Thurmond "still has that rare peculiar magic few policians ever achieve" with young autograph seekers and admirers. Peterson stressed, however, that Thurmond's popularity was "being put to a severe test" in his efforts to help John Connolly win the South Carolina primary.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: By the time of his last campaign in 1996, Thurmond faced increased focus to his age and calls for his retirement. Thurmond opened his final campaign in a speech at the University of South Carolina-Aiken, proclaiming that he would not give up on "our mission to right the 40-year wrongs of liberalism" and that South Carolinians knew he did not like "unfinished business." As the 107th United States Congress began, the Democrats and Republicans were split evenly with Vice President Dick Cheney as the tie-breaking vote, and Thurmond's attendance was seen as crucial for maintaining a Republican majority given that his retirement or death would allow Democratic governor Jim Hodges to appoint a Democrat to his seat. Thurmond spokeswoman Genevieve Erny commented, "It's unfortunate that the media continue to portray him as in failing health, especially because the only reason the media is interested is a 50-50 split, and the repercussions that could have." In a 2001 interview, colleague Fritz Hollings said that Thurmond was no longer "mentally keen" nor did he "have a home, and someone has said the best nursing home is the U.S. Senate."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: Ira Shapiro of "The Gazette" cited Thurmond by the end of his tenure as "a joke and an embarrassment; virtually unable to speak or hear, he had to be carried into committee meetings."


title: Strom Thurmond

text: After his retirement, the Thurmond of his early career is cited with John C. Calhoun and Benjamin Tillman as symbols of South Carolina's conservative views on race.


title: Strom Thurmond

text: In 2011, Public Policy Polling found Thurmond to be the most popular politician in South Carolina, with higher favorability ratings than current lawmakers Lindsey Graham, Nikki Haley, Jim Demint, and Mark Sanford.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and sedans. The company's main marketing arguments are safety and its Swedish heritage and design.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo Cars has been separate from its former parent conglomerate and producer of heavy trucks, buses, and construction equipment (among others) AB Volvo since 1999 when AB Volvo sold its automobile division Volvo Cars to Ford Motor Company. In 2010, Ford sold loss-making Volvo Cars to the company Geely. Volvo Cars was publicly listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange in 2021, though Geely still retains majority ownership. Volvo Cars and AB Volvo both share the Volvo logo, and cooperate in running the Volvo Museum.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In March 2021, Volvo Cars announced that it would be a fully electric brand by 2030. In June 2021, Volvo Cars and Swedish battery developer and manufacturer Northvolt announced the intention to establish a 50/50 joint venture consisting of a battery gigafactory and R&D (research and development) center. In December 2021, it was revealed the battery R&D center would be located in Gothenburg. In February 2022, Gothenburg was also chosen as the location for the battery gigafactory.


title: Volvo Cars

text: During 2021 and 2022, Volvo Cars transferred its hybrid engine research and production capabilities in Skövde and Zhangjiakou to Aurobay, in a joint venture with Geely.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The company was created as a subsidiary to SKF. Assar Gabrielsson was appointed managing director and Gustav Larson technical manager.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The trademark "Volvo" (which is Latin for 'I roll') was first registered by SKF on 11 May 1915 with the intention to use it for a special series of ball bearing for the American market but it was never used for this purpose (however in the application for the trademark, it was also designated for the purpose of "automobiles"). The SKF trademark as it looks today was used instead for all the SKF-products. Some pre-series of Volvo-bearings stamped with the brand name 'Volvo' were manufactured but never released to the market, and it was not until 1927 that the trademark was used again, now as a trademark and company name for an automobile.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The first Volvo car left the assembly line on 14 April 1927, and was called Volvo ÖV 4. After this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles, which were designed to hold strong in the Swedish climate and terrain. In the registration application for Volvo logotype in 1927, they simply made a copy of the entire radiator for ÖV4, viewed from the front. The round logo with the arrow pointing to the right ( ♂ ) is the Greek alchemical symbol for iron.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Presented in 1944 the Volvo PV444 passenger car only entered production in 1947. It was the smallest Volvo yet and was to take the lion's share of Volvo production, as well as spearheading their move into the profitable American market. The first Volvos arrived in the United States in 1955, after hardware wholesaler Leo Hirsh began distributing cars in California. Later, Texas was added, and in 1956, Volvo themselves began importing cars to the US. North America has consistently provided Volvo with their main outlet since.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1963, Volvo opened the Volvo Halifax Assembly plant, the first assembly plant in the company's history outside of Sweden, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1964, Volvo opened its Torslanda plant in Sweden, which currently is one of its largest production sites (chiefly large cars and SUVs). Then in 1965, the Ghent, Belgium plant was opened, which is the company's second largest production site. This was also Volvo's first location producing cars within the European Economic Community. In 1989, the Uddevalla plant in Sweden was opened, which was jointly operated by Volvo Car Corporation and Pininfarina Sverige AB from 2005 to 2013.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In the early 1970s, Volvo acquired the passenger car division of the Dutch company DAF, and marketed their small cars as Volvos before releasing the Dutch-built Volvo 340, which went on to be a big seller in the UK market in the 1980s. In 1986 Volvo sold 113,267 cars in the US marking a record year for the company. The appearance of Japanese brands like Acura and Lexus and the growing popularity of Subaru station wagons in subsequent years meant the loss of a significant market share for Volvo, one which they have never regained.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo's long-time CEO Pehr G. Gyllenhammar saw early on that Volvo was too small to survive in the future, and attempted several times to merge with other manufacturers. Volvo nearly merged with Saab in the late seventies, while in 1978 an aborted affair would have seen the Norwegian state take over 40 percent of the company. In return, Volvo would receive 200 million SEK and a ten percent concession in the Oseberg oil field. Major institutional actors in Sweden opposed the deal and blocked it. A deal to merge with Renault was blocked in 1993, mainly opposed by a Swedish stockholders' association.


title: Volvo Cars

text: A collection of Volvo's most important historical vehicles are now housed in the Volvo Museum, which opened in a permanent location in Arendal at Hisingen on 30 May 1995. For several years, the collection had been housed at the Blue Hangar, at the then closed Torslanda Airport.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1999, Volvo Group decided to sell its automobile manufacturing business in order to concentrate on commercial vehicles, and to buy a 5% stake in Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors (with which Volvo Group along with the Dutch government had participated in a joint venture at the former DAF plant in Born, Netherlands since 1991). Ford saw advantages in acquiring a profitable prestige mid-size European automobile manufacturer, well renowned for its safety aspects, as an addition to its Premier Automotive Group. The buyout of Volvo Cars was announced on 28 January 1999, and in the following year the acquisition was completed at a price of US$6.45 billion. As a result of the divestiture, the Volvo trademark was used by two separate companies:


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo Group completed its 5% deal with Mitsubishi in November 1999, but sold its stake back to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in March 2001.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo Car Corporation was part of Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group (PAG), along with Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover. While part of the PAG, the company significantly expanded its range of vehicles.


title: Volvo Cars

text: After Ford sold Jaguar Land Rover to Tata Motors of India in 2008, the company initially decided to keep Volvo Cars despite mounting losses and major economic downturns. Ford decided to restructure plans for Volvo Cars, pushing it further upmarket, alongside the lower end of Mercedes and BMW sedans, wagons, and SUV crossovers. The outcome was the luxurious second generation Volvo S80 and the new small premium crossover Volvo XC60.


title: Volvo Cars

text: When the global economic crisis of 2008 threatened the US automakers, Swedish authorities became concerned about the fate of Volvo, should Ford file for bankruptcy. These concerns mounted after repeated mass-layoffs at Volvo. In December 2008, Ford announced that it was considering selling Volvo Cars. Initially, a sale price of US$6 billion was reported. Ford said it was also looking into the possibility of spinning off Volvo as an independent company. The Swedish government was asked to look into a possible state ownership of Volvo, or a financial bailout for Volvo Cars and SAAB of GM. Former parent AB Volvo agreed to help Volvo cut costs through partnerships, and suggested taking part in a shared ownership of Volvo Cars, as part of a larger consortium. Other rumored candidates to purchase Volvo Cars included BMW AG of Germany, Investor AB of Sweden, Chinese investors, and Russian investors.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Although it was rumoured that Volkswagen would buy Volvo Cars, and despite initial denials, the company Geely Holding Group was ultimately selected to take over the Swedish automaker. Geely Group Holdings Co. allegedly bid about US$1.5 billion to take over Volvo, with Goldman Sachs investing HK$2.59 billion (US$334 million) in the holding company.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Ford Motor Company offered Volvo Cars for sale in December 2008, after suffering losses that year. On 28 October 2009, Ford confirmed that, after considering several offers, the preferred buyer of Volvo Cars was Geely Holding Group, the parent of motor manufacturer Geely Automobile. On 23 December 2009, Ford confirmed the terms of the sale to Geely had been settled. A definitive agreement was signed on 28 March 2010, for $1.8 billion. The European Commission and China's Ministry of Commerce approved the deal on 6 and 29 July 2010, respectively. The deal closed on 2 August 2010 with Geely paying $1.3 billion cash and a $200 million note. Further payments are expected with a later price "true-up".<ref name = "www.ford.com/about-ford/news-announcements"></ref> It is the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Stefan Jacoby, formerly chief executive of Volkswagen of America, became Volvo Car Corporation's president and chief executive on 16 August 2010, replacing Stephen Odell, who became chief executive of Ford Europe. Li Shufu became Volvo Cars' chairman of the board. His board members include vice-chairman Hans-Olov Olsson, a former president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, and Håkan Samuelsson, formerly chief executive of MAN.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Under Geely ownership, Volvo has refocused its product lineup. The manufacturer has developed a new line of 3- and 4-cylinder diesel and petrol engines while eliminating larger engines. It has also developed a new vehicle platform, the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), and re-introduced an expanded -90 series of models, including the S90 sedan and Volvo V90 wagon in addition to a redesigned XC90 SUV.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo reported strong sales from all three core global regions. Sales in Europe rose 10% in 2015 to 269k, representing over 50% of total global volume. Volvo's revival in the US gained momentum, with sales up 24% in 2015, while China was flat amid a challenging sales environment, but sales were up 11% in the fourth quarter.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In July 2017, the automaker announced that beginning in 2019, all of its new models will include an electric motor in their powertrain. Implementation of the announcement could mean Volvo becoming the first manufacturer to end production of internal combustion-only vehicles, with all vehicles hybrid or electric powered. Between 2019 and 2021, Volvo plans to launch three electric cars under the Volvo brand and two more under the Polestar performance brand.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo is one of the proponents of autonomous vehicles. On 20 November 2017, Uber announced that it planned to buy up to 24,000 Volvo cars designed to accept autonomous technology between 2019 and 2021. This non-binding intent includes a plan for Uber Advanced Technologies Group to design and build the self-driving system in the XC90 SUV. In 2016, the companies announced that they planned to collaborate on the design and financing of cars with self-driving systems. Such vehicles require a different type of steering and braking mechanism, as well as sensors. The CEO of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, made this comment in an interview: "We get support developing this car ... It’s also a big commercial deal."


title: Volvo Cars

text: Also in 2017, Volvo announced a vehicle subscription offering called Care by Volvo, which offers the Volvo XC40 for a monthly payment that includes insurance and maintenance. Care by Volvo is offered in several European markets, such as Germany, the UK and Italy, as well as in the U.S.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In February 2020, Volvo and Geely announced that they had started formal discussions about a merger of business. Geely had owned 100% of Volvo, but Volvo Cars had largely been allowed autonomy with its resources. These merger talks were later halted, and 18% of Volvo Cars shares were listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange in October 2021.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In early 2021 the company announced plans to completely stop selling fossil fuel-based cars by 2030, switching to electric-powered cars. The plan includes phasing out fossil-fuel-only cars by 2025, manufacturing only electric cars or hybrids.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2021, Volvo Cars set up a joint venture with Geely for its hybrid engine operations. The new business, Aurobay will develop and market powertrain solutions, and as of 2022, includes Volvo Cars' engine plants in Skövde and Zhangjiakou, together with its powertrain research and development operations in Gothenburg.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo cars have long been marketed as safe and the company has stressed their historic reputation for solidity and reliability in marketing campaigns. Volvo uses high-tech safety systems as standard equipment in new vehicles. Prior to strong government safety regulation Volvo had been at the forefront of safety engineering.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1944, laminated glass was introduced in the PV model. After Vattenfall engineers presented their pioneering work to Volvo in the 1950s, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented and patented the modern three-point safety belt, which became standard on all Volvo cars in 1959, and then made this design patent open in the interest of safety and made it available to other car manufacturers for free. Additionally, Volvo developed the first rear-facing child seat in 1964 and introduced its own booster seat in 1978.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1991, the 960 introduced the first three-point seat belt for the middle of the rear seat and a child safety cushion integrated in the middle armrest. Also in 1991, it introduced the Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) on the 700, 940/960 and 850 models, which channels the force of a side impact away from the doors and into the safety cage.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1994, to add to its SIPS, Volvo was the first to introduce side airbags and installed them as standard equipment in all models from 1995. At the start of the 1995 model year, side impact protection airbags were standard on high trim-level Volvo 850s, and optional on other 850s. By the middle of the production year, they were standard on all 850s. In model year 1995, SIPS airbags became standard on all Volvo models.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1998, Volvo installed a head-protecting airbag, which was made standard in all new models as well as some existing models. The IC head-protecting airbag was not available on the 1997 C70 since the initial design deployed the airbag from the roof, and the C70, being a convertible, could not accommodate such an airbag. A later version of the C70 featured a head-protecting airbag deploying upwards from the door, avoiding this problem. It has been stated by many testing authorities that side head protecting curtain airbags can reduce the risk of death in a side impact by up to 40% and brain injury by up to 55%, as well as protect occupants during a rollover. In 1998, Volvo introduced its Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), a safety device to prevent injury to front seat users during collisions.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2004, Volvo introduced the Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), which detects vehicles entering the vehicle's blind spot with a side-view-mirror-mounted camera, and alerts the driver with a light. That year also saw Volvos sold in all markets equipped with side-marker lights and daytime running lights. Also, since 2004 all Volvo models except for the coupes (C70 and C30) are available with an all-wheel drive system developed by Haldex Traction of Sweden.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2005, Volvo presented the second generation of Volvo C70, which came with extra stiff door-mounted inflatable side curtains (the first of its kind in a convertible) dubbed 'DMIC'.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Even though Volvo Car Corporation was owned by Ford Motor Company, Volvo's safety systems were still standard on all Volvo vehicles. Volvo has patented all its safety innovations, including SIPS, WHIPS, ROPS, DSTC, and body structures. Some of these systems were fitted to other Ford vehicles in forms similar to those of Volvo systems, but only because Volvo licensed the FOMOCO and other PAG members to use these features.


title: Volvo Cars

text: A 2005 Folksam report, put the 740/940 (from 1982 on) in the 15% better than average category, the second from the top category.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2005, when the American non-profit, non-governmental Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released its first annual "Top Safety Picks" vehicles list, none of Volvo's offered vehicles in the US were included on the list.


title: Volvo Cars

text: According to Russ Rader, a spokesman for IIHS, Volvo lagged behind its competitors. Dan Johnston, a Volvo spokesman, denied that the company's vehicles were any less safe than the institute's top-rated vehicles, adding that


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2006, Volvo's Personal Car Communicator (PCC) remote control was launched as an optional feature with the all-new Volvo S80. Before a driver enters their car, they can review the security level and know whether they had set the alarm and if the car is locked. Additionally, a heartbeat sensor warns if someone is hiding inside the car. The S80 was also the first Volvo model to feature adaptive cruise control (ACC) with Collision Warning and Brake Support (CWBS).


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2008, a French court found Volvo partially responsible for causing the death of two children and serious injuries of another in Wasselonne on 17 June 1999, when the brakes of a 1996 Volvo 850 failed. The court subjected Volvo to a €200,000 fine.


title: Volvo Cars

text: According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), Volvo's S80 became one of the 2009 Top Safety Picks Award winners. The previous versions of the S40 and S60 models (2005–09 models with standard side airbags) failed to attain the highest rating in their side impact test. However, according to the IIHS, in recent years Volvo cars have still managed to maintain their high class safety ratings as seen in test results. The Volvo XC90, S80, C70, XC60, S60 and C30 are all rated Top Safety Picks in these crash tests. The 2014 models of the XC60, XC90, S60 and S80 have even received the Top Safety Pick+ rating. All Volvos tested in the small overlap test have received a 'good' rating.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo has also scored high in Euro NCAP tests. Since 2009, all the Volvo models that Euro NCAP have tested have received five-star safety ratings: Volvo C30, V40, V60, V60 plug-in hybrid, XC60 and V70. The second generation Volvo V40 got the best test result of any car model ever tested by Euro NCAP at the time. As well the redesigned XC60 received the highest adult occupant score (98%) in 2017.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In the United States, Volvo paid $19.6 million in fines for missing its Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets for the 2010–2014 model years. In July 2017, Volvo announced that new models launched from 2019 onward would be fully electric or hybrid-electric, heralding the end of production of nearly a century of Volvo vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine. Volvo, however, will continue to produce non-electric, non-hybrid cars from models introduced before that year but will discontinue them once the non-hybrid, non-electric cars receive a facelift or complete redesign. In 2019, Volvo announced that it plans to produce only electrified cars from the year 2040 onwards.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Starting with the 140 series in 1966, Volvo used a tri-digit system for their cars. The first number was the series, the second number the number of cylinders and the third number the number of doors; so a 164 was a 1-series with a six-cylinder engine and four doors. However, there were exceptions to this rule – the 780 for example, came with turbocharged I4 and naturally aspirated V6 petrol engines and I6 diesel engines, but never an eight-cylinder, as the "eight" would suggest. Similarly, the 760 often was equipped with a turbocharged I4 engine, and the Volvo 360 only had four cylinders. Some 240GLT had a V6 engine. The company dropped the meaning of the final digit for later cars like the 740, but the digit continued to identify cars underhood on the identification plate.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Today, the company uses a system of letters denoting body style followed by the series number. "S" stands for "sedan", "C" stands for "coupé" or "convertible" (including three-door hatchback AKA "shooting brake") and "V" stands for "versatile" (5-door hatchback and station wagon). A V50 is an estate (also under "V") that is smaller than the V70. "XC" stands for "cross country" originally added to a more rugged V70 model as the V70XC and indicates all wheel drive paired with a raised suspension to give it an SUV look. Volvo would later change the name to the "XC70" in keeping with its car naming consistent with the XC90.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Originally, Volvo was planning a different naming scheme. S and C were to be the same, but "F", standing for "flexibility", was to be used on station wagons. When Volvo introduced the first generation S40 and V40 in 1995, they were announced as the S4 and F4. However, Audi complained that it had inherent rights to the S4 name, since it names its sporty vehicles "S", and the yet to be introduced sport version of the Audi A4 would have the S4 name. Volvo agreed to add a second digit, so the vehicles became the S40 and F40. However, that led to another complaint from Ferrari, who used the Ferrari F40 name on their legendary sports car. This led to Volvo switching the "F" to "V", for versatile.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2019, Volvo announced that it plans to produce only fully electrified cars from the year 2040 onwards. From 2040, it plans to no longer produce internal combustion engine powered vehicles. In March 2021, Volvo doubled down on these plans and committed to being an electric-only car maker by 2030.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2005, Volvo introduced to the Swedish market the company's first E85 flexifuel models. Volvo introduced its S40 and V50 with flexible-fuel engines, joined in late 2006 by the then new C30. All Volvo models were initially restricted to the Swedish market, until 2007, when these three models were launched in eight new European markets. In 2008, Volvo launched the V70 with a 2.5-litre turbocharged flexifuel engine.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The Volvo ReCharge is a plug-in hybrid concept car with an all-electric range (AER) of . It was officially unveiled at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show.


title: Volvo Cars

text: On 1 June 2009, Volvo announced the launching of series production diesel-electric plug-in hybrids by 2012. The company plans to sell a series hybrid with the goal of achieving emissions of less than 50 grams of CO per kilometer. As part of a joint venture with Vattenfall, a Swedish energy company, Volvo converted two Volvo V70 to plug-in hybrid demonstrators that have been in field testing in Göteborg, Sweden since December 2009. Vattenfall offered customers participating in this trial the supply of renewable electricity generated from wind power or hydropower. Among other challenges, this test has allowed to experience the all-electric range at low temperatures, which has been a disadvantage of plug-in vehicles.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric concept car was exhibited at the 2010 Paris Motor Show and Volvo announced that field testing will begin in 2011, in the US, Europe, and China. The C30 DRIVe electric car has a lithium-ion battery, a top speed of , and an all-electric range of up to . Field testing began in 2010 with 10 units in Göteborg, Sweden.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The Volvo ECC (Environmental Concept Car) was exhibited at the 1992 Paris Motor Show. The vehicles range on batteries alone was 90 miles (140 km), and when combined with a full tank of fuel for the turbine, about 415 miles (668 km).


title: Volvo Cars

text: Starting in the 2015 model year (Volvo S60, V60, and XC60), Volvo introduced a line of forced-induction four-cylinder engines, dubbed "Drive-E", to increase the efficiency of their models without sacrificing performance. These engines also debuted throughout the lineup that year, and also appeared in the second-generation Volvo XC90. Hybridized versions of these engines would, in theory, have enough power to match eight-cylinder engines.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo uses in-line, or straight engines in their production vehicles. Volvo is also known for the application of the in-line 5-cylinder engine to its vehicle line up since its introduction in 1991 in the Volvo 850.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo automatic transmissions in the past were made by the ZF Friedrichshafen company, but now the transmissions are co-developed with Aisin of Japan. Geartronic is Volvo Cars' name for its manumatic transmission.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1959, Volvo had set up its own motorsport department. This led to Volvo enjoying worldwide success in the motorsport arena throughout the early 1960s. In 1961, Gran Premio de Argentina Gunnar Andersson was appointed Volvo's competition department manager, signing a number of drivers, including Carl-Magnus Skogh, Tom Trana and Ewy Rosqvist, though he himself still continued to compete in rallies. In 1964, Volvo made heavy investments in the Safari Rally, entering four Volvo PV544s in the 1964 competition. A PV544, borrowed from Volvo and then modified and driven by Joginder and Jaswant Singh won the Safari Rally in 1965.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo entered the European Touring Car Championship with the Volvo 240 Turbo in the 1980s. In the 1984 European Touring Car Championship, the Swedish team Sportpromotion won the EG Trophy at Zolder circuit, followed by placing second in the Mugello. In 1985, Volvo signed Swiss engine guru Ruedi Eggenberger to run its works team through Eggenberger Motorsport. Team drivers Gianfranco Brancatelli and Thomas Lindström led the 240T to victory in the 1985 ETCC.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Also in 1985, New Zealander Mark Petch had purchased a 240T from the Magnum team in Sweden (and claimed to run the only privateer Volvo 240T outside of Europe), and drivers Robbie Francevic and Michel Delcourt had also won the Wellington 500 street race in New Zealand in January. Francevic went on to finish 5th in the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship, taking wins at Symmons Plains and Oran Park. The factory-supported Petch team also participated in the 1985 Bathurst 1000. Thomas Lindström later joined Francevic to win the 1986 Wellington 500. The Petch team become the Volvo Dealer Team in 1986, and expanded to two cars, with the other being for John Bowe, who had driven the Volvo with Francevic at the 1985 Bathurst 1000.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo contracted Belgian based team RAS Sport to be its works team in the ETCC in 1986, following Eggenberger moving to race Ford Sierra's. This team included defending champion Lindström, joined by ex-Formula One and Grand Prix motorcycle racer Johnny Cecotto, as well as Ulf Granberg and Anders Olofsson. The team took wins at wins at Hockenheim, Anderstorp, Brno, Österreichring and Zolder, though the wins at Anderstorp and the Österreichring were disqualified due to the use of illegal fuel.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The 240T also entered the Guia Race, part of the Macau Grand Prix in 1985, 1986 and 1987, winning in both 1985 and 1986.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo also saw success in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (German Touring Car Championship), with a 240 Turbo driven by Per Stureson winning the 1985 DTM.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo also entered the British Touring Car Championship in the 1990s with Tom Walkinshaw Racing. This partnership was responsible for the controversial 850 Estate racing cars, driven by Rickard Rydell and Jan Lammers and with a best qualifying placing of third and a best race finish of fifth, which was only rendered uncompetitive when the FIA allowed the use of aerodynamic aids in 1995. TWR then built and ran the works 850 Saloon, with six wins in 1995, and five wins in 1996, and a S40, with one win in 1997 in the BTCC, as well as Volvo placing third in the Manufacturers Championship, both in 1995 and 1996. In 1998, TWR Volvo won the British Touring Car Championship with Rickard Rydell driving the S40R.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo also competed in the Super Touring category with the 850 across Europe and in Australia. Australian race car driver Peter Brock drove an 850 T5 with Tony Scott in the 1994 James Hardie 12 Hour production car race at Bathurst, finishing 25th. He also drove an 850 saloon in the 1996 Australian Super Touring Championship, placing sixth in the Drivers’ Championship.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo regularly entered the S60 in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, where it finished 2nd in the drivers' championship twice and won the manufacturers' title once. The S60 continued to be raced after the formation of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, a merger of the Swedish and Danish touring car championships. Thed Björk won three consecutive titles from 2013 to 2015, driving an S60 prepared by Polestar Racing.


title: Volvo Cars

text: From 2002 to 2007, there was an S60 one-make racing series as a support series to the Swedish Touring Car Championship known as the S60 Challenge Cup, using 26 factory-modified S60s.


title: Volvo Cars

text: An S60 was driven by Robert Dahlgren in the Swedish round of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The first generation S60 made its competitive debut in 2006, racing in the Speed World Challenge GT class. The second-generation model was introduced for the 2009 season. In 2010, its programme was expanded to include the SCAA Pro Racing World Challenge, where it won both the drivers' and manufacturers' championships in the GT class. The programme was expanded again in 2011, to include the Pirelli World Challenge.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2008, Volvo entered the Swedish Touring Car Championship with a C30 powered by bioethanol E85 fuel. Robert Dahlgren and Tommy Rustad were the drivers, finishing 5th and 10th respectively in the championship. Volvo had also signalled their intentions to enter the 2009 British Touring Car Championship with the same car.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo entered the V8 Supercars Championship with two S60s in 2014 with Garry Rogers Motorsport, and were immediately competitive. Following ten pole positions and four race wins, Scott McLaughlin finished fifth in the championship and was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The Volvo symbol is an ancient chemistry sign for iron. The iron sign is used to symbolize the strength of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron. The diagonal line (a strip of metal) across the grille came about to hold the actual symbol, a circle with an arrow, in front of the radiator.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo has, since the 1950s, had special international sales programs for customers assigned abroad, for example Diplomat Sales, Military Sales and Expat Sales.


title: Volvo Cars

text: The Volvo trademark is now jointly owned (50/50) by Volvo Group and Volvo Car Corporation. One of the main promotional activities for the brand is the sailing Race Volvo Ocean Race, formerly known as the "Whitbread Around the World Race". There is also a Volvo Baltic Race and Volvo Pacific Race, and Volvo likes to encourage its image by sponsoring golf tournaments all over the world including major championship events called the Volvo Masters and Volvo China Open.


title: Volvo Cars

text: Volvo sponsored the Volvo Ocean Race, the world's leading round-the-world yacht race for the first time in 2001–02. The next edition was to take place between 2011 and 2012. Volvo has also had a long-standing commitment to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) and is involved in the Volvo/ISAF World Youth Sailing Championships since 1997.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2011, Volvo Cars is the main sponsor of the winter sports and music festival Snowbombing in Austria.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2012, Volvo signed NBA star Jeremy Lin to an endorsement agreement for two years to participate in Volvo's corporate and marketing activities as a "brand ambassador" for Volvo Car Corp.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 2015, Volvo signed a deal with Chennaiyin FC, a football franchise team of the Indian Super League as a side shirt sponsor.


title: Volvo Cars

text: In May 2009, "Volvo – The Game" was released. It was developed by Simbin Studios (now Sector3 Studios).


title: Volvo Cars

text: In 1990, Volvo Cars filed a lawsuit against Hong Kong-based Club Volvo night club for infringement in Hong Kong High Court. The lawsuit ended with settlement where the night club paid 1 dollar to Volvo Cars. Since then, Club Volvo had been renamed to Club Borubo (the Japanese pronunciation of "Volvo"), and then Club Bboss (reference to Big Boss).


title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American horror comedy musical film directed by Frank Oz. It is an adaptation of the 1982 off-Broadway musical of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, which is itself an adaptation of the 1960 film "The Little Shop of Horrors" by director Roger Corman. The film, which centers on a floral shop worker who discovers a sentient carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood, stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and Levi Stubbs. The film also features special appearances by Jim Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest and Bill Murray. It was produced by David Geffen through The Geffen Company and released by Warner Bros. on December 19, 1986.