Chester Trent Lott, Sr. is a United States Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party.
Trent Lott forced to relinquish his position as Senate Majority Leader after he stated that the United States would have been better off if segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had won the presidency in 1948. Speaking at a 100th birthday party and retirement celebration for Republican Senator Thurmond, Lott said, "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either." On July 17, 1948, delegates from 13 southern states gathered in Birmingham to nominate Thurmond and adopt a platform that said, "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race."
