On August 28, 1957, Strom Thurmond, then a Democratic United States senator from South Carolina, began a filibuster intended to prevent the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

The filibuster focused primarily on asserting that the bill in question, which provided for expanded federal protection of African American voting rights, was both unnecessary and unconstitutional, and Thurmond recited from documents including the election laws of each U.S. state, Supreme Court decisions, and George Washington's Farewell Address.

Thurmond, an ardent segregationist, had served in the Senate for only three years before the speech, but was politically well-known even before his election to the body.

[3] The Senate compromise removed a provision that would have allowed the Attorney General to file suit for discrimination in public places and added an amendment that guaranteed a trial by jury for anyone charged with restricting an individual's right to vote.

This arrangement had been decided through a compromise between Republicans and Democrats, though according to historian Joseph Crespino it had very little practical impact since many judges would not hear a case without a jury if doing so made a second trial more likely.

[12] Thurmond had been significantly involved in politics before his senatorship: he had served as Governor of South Carolina, helped to found the States' Rights Democratic Party after a walkout over civil rights at the 1948 Democratic National Convention, and ran against Harry S. Truman and Thomas E. Dewey as the new party's candidate in the 1948 presidential election.

[15] Thurmond had earlier argued that the Southern Senators should personally meet with Eisenhower to threaten him with an organized filibuster that would hold up other legislation, a tactic used successfully in the past to defeat other bills.

[16] An agreement within the Southern Caucus to not stage an organized filibuster had been reached in Senator Richard Russell's office on August 24, four days before Thurmond's speech.

[19][21] The Senate chamber gallery, filled with hundreds of spectators at the beginning of the filibuster, dwindled to just NAACP lobbyist Clarence Mitchell Jr. and Thurmond's wife Jean at points during the early morning hours.

[23][24] At approximately 1 p.m., Thurmond yielded to allow for the swearing-in of William Proxmire, who had been elected following the death of Joseph McCarthy, after which he resumed his speech.

[19] The bill passed two hours after Thurmond finished speaking by a vote of 60–15,[15][37] and was signed into law by President Eisenhower less than two weeks later.

[3][38] Thurmond received significant criticism, even from Democrats who signed or were aligned with the goals of the Southern Manifesto, including Talmadge, Russell, and the Dixiecrats as a whole.

He described these events as "[sealing] Thurmond's reputation as one of the South's last Confederates, a champion of white southerners' campaign of 'massive resistance'" to civil rights.

[46] He further argues that the filibuster was a way for Thurmond to uphold Southern ideas about white strength and endurance, while also burnishing his personal image of masculinity and health.