President Joe Biden has taken some heat recently after claiming that he personally converted former arch-segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond to the side of civil rights – an incredibly bold claim given that Biden was not even elected to the Senate until several years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act (CRA) was passed and Thurmond fought vehemently against its passage.
On Monday, Biden was speaking at a Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law event honoring the organization’s 60th anniversary when he made the disputed claim.
“I was able to literally, not figuratively, talk Strom Thurmond into voting for the Civil Rights Act before he died,” Biden said to the audience.
BIDEN: “I was able to literally, not figuratively, talk Strom Thurmond into voting for the Civil Rights Act before he died” pic.twitter.com/5RbUZ4PKTD
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 29, 2023
Thurmond infamously led several southern senators in a 60-day filibuster against the 1964 CRA and did not vote in favor of the bill. In addition to that, he holds the record for the longest filibuster in Senate history – a 24-hour stint preceding the 1957 CRA.
After Biden’s claim got lots of scrutiny and skepticism, the White House weighed in, with a spokesperson telling Fox News that Biden was referring to his efforts to get Thurmond’s vote on the 1980 Voting Rights Act.
However, many are unconvinced.
Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator and former Thurmond staffer, was vocal in his condemnation of Biden’s claims. In a tweet, Williams wrote that it was conversations with people such as Dr. Legree Daniels, Clarence Pendleton, Art Fletcher, and Sam Cornelius that changed Thurmond’s mind on civil rights issues, not a last-minute Biden intervention.
“It’s disgraceful that Biden would blatantly take credit for something that he so obviously didn’t do, that real people fought and worked hard for,” Williams tweeted. “He deserves no credit.”
The media hasn’t been especially deferential in looking to fact-check the President’s claims, but so far no one has definitively refuted Biden’s assertion. This begs the question – is Biden engaging in revisionist history?
At the recent Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law conference, Biden made a bold claim – one which I know personally to be absolute revisionist history .
Biden claims that he convinced Strom Thurmond to support the Civil Rights Act. Now, I was very close with Strom… pic.twitter.com/JEM6kIxUlv
— Armstrong Williams 🇺🇸 (@Arightside) August 29, 2023
Only time, and more facts, will tell. However, one thing is for sure – the President’s bold claims will be subjected to considerable scrutiny in the weeks to come.
