n 1948, the segregationist governor of South Carolina was so infuriated by President Harry Truman's moves to desegregate the U.S. Army and enact anti-lynching legislation that he left the Democratic fold and accepted the presidential nomination of openly-racist States' Rights Party

Strom Thurmond campaigned for the presidency as the original "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" candidate. He preached his gospel of hate across the south, wit the line: "I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."

...

David Bositis, of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, perhaps the wisest analyst of African-American political progress in the country, cautions against thinking that the Scott-Thumond race was a test of progress for South Carolina or the Republican Party in the south.

Scott, argues Bostitis, is an anomaly rather than a harbinger of a progressive surge in the deepest of deep south states. "It certainly is a changing country in a lot of places in the country, yes," Bositis explained. "(But) South Carolina is not one of those places, not by a long shot."

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