Newsreel: Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat Days

  • Lott On Thurmond

  • Here's the November 3, 1980 story from Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger newspaper reporting on then-Representative Trent Lott's claim that "we wouldn't be in the mess we are today" had Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948. Lott spoke at a home state political rally for Ronald Reagan, who was then challenging President Jimmy Carter. For his part, Thurmond told the Mississippi crowd, "We want the federal government to keep their filthy hands off the rights of the states."

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