A record held by a racist civil rights activist for 68 years has finally been broken. Strom Thurmond was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. He is widely known for holding the record of the longest speech in United States Senate history, at 24 hours and 18 minutes. In this speech, Thurmond fought to prevent the Civil Rights Act from passing in 1957. This filibuster failed to prevent the passage of the bill and failed to change the vote whatsoever. This once-infamous record has now been broken by Senator Cory Booker. Booker is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2013. Booker’s 25-hour and 5-minute speech broke this previous record by nearly another hour. Booker later states, “just really irked me, that he would be the longest speech—that the longest speech, on our great Senate floor, was someone who was trying to stop people like me from being in the Senate.”
This thought-out speech was made in order to protest the second presidency of Donald Trump and the operations of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. His speech included points stating that he believed the country was in a crisis, saying, “In just 71 days, the president of the United States has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people.” He stresses to the Senate that the president is not suited for his decision, and we will only go downhill from here. During the speech, Booker directed a Senate page to remove his chair in order to keep him away. He then read from multiple three-ring binders, which included articles from two-party sources and letters from his constituents.
After his speech, Booker received widespread praise from Democrats, proving that democracy will always march on. Republicans state that this could be a “turning point” for Democrats. Most Americans around the country admire Booker and his new record, including the importance of his speech as a whole. This speech will go down in history as a very powerful speech for all future politicians and will pave the way for future advancements in government. This doesn’t just affect politicians, but high school students as well, who plan on working in government positions.
