As the tumultuous decade of the 1960s drew to a close, a segregationist backlash was in the making. Determined to turn back the hard-won gains of the Civil Rights Movement, Southern Dixiecrats were going to make one last stand in the presidential contest of 1968. All they needed was a candidate to rally behind.

For a brief time in 1967, before George Wallace took the country by storm, South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond seemed the obvious choice. 20 years before, Thurmond had run for president on the pro-segregation States Rights ticket, polling over a million votes and nearly upsetting the electoral college. Though he never formally announced, Thurmond did not discourage efforts to place his name on the ballot. A small number of pinbacks were issued to promote his candidacy.