The Daily History Chronicle

In August 1957, Senator Strom Thurmond talked for twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes to block a civil rights bill, the longest filibuster in Senate history, a record that stood until 2025. His own segregationist allies thought he'd made a mistake, since a quieter strategy was already gutting the bill without him. This episode traces the compromise that weakened the Civil Rights Act of 1957 before Thurmond ever opened his mouth, and the procedural weapon he made famous that has outlived every senator who was in that room.