On this day in 1957, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond ended his 24 hour and 18 minute long filibuster which was meant to stall the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Thurmond came prepared, he had cough drops and malted milk tablets. Senator Thurmond broke the record for longest filibuster of Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon who went on for 22 hours and 26 minutes in 1953.

The watered down Civil Rights Bill went on to pass but it wasn’t until the 1965 Voting Rights Act for blacks to receive truly protected voting rights.

Strom Thurmond would stay in the United States Senate until 2003. He would die six months after his retirement at age 100.