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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Tom Turnipseed |
| Address |
Lexington County, South Carolina , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
August 27, 1936
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| Died | March 06, 2020
(83 years)
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| Contributor | Joshua L. |
| Last Modifed | David
Apr 09, 2022 10:56pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Elected to the South Carolina Senate from the 8th District in 1976.
Tom Turnipseed is the founding member of Turnipseed & Associates and has served the citizens of South Carolina since 1964 as an attorney, political and civic leader, and advocate for consumer, environmental and civil rights and the civil justice system. Tom was co-counsel for the Macedonia Baptist Church in Clarendon County, S.C. in their case against the Ku Klux Klan for burning their church in 1997. The African-American congregation won a $37,000,000 jury verdict against the Klan in 1998.
Tom was born in 1936 in Mobile, Alabama. He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Tom met his wife Judy while she was a graduate student at UNC and they were married in 1963. Judy is currently the Office Manager at Turnipseed & Associates. Tom and Judy have two children, Jeff and Jeny. Jeff is an attorney with Turnipseed & Associates and Jeny is a Special Education teacher living in Atlanta.
As President of The South Carolina Trial Lawyer's Association, Tom led a successful fight in the South Carolina Legislature to defeat the so-called "no-fault" auto insurance bill that was the major initiative of a popular Governor by emphasizing how such legislation caused higher insurance rates and severely limited a citizen's right to trial by jury. He has also written and produced numerous articles and television ads informing citizens of the attack on the fundamental right of trial by jury led by giant corporations and their political allies in the so-called "tort reform" movement.
Tom is member of the Attorney's Information Exchange Group (AIEG). AIEG members share information and bring product liability, or "crash-worthiness" cases against automobile manufacturers and their suppliers. He is also a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an association of trial lawyers who have demonstrated "exceptional skill, experience and excellence in advocacy" by achieving a verdict or settlements of $1,000,000 or more. He has been counsel in four cases successfully concluded for more than a million dollars. There are approximately 700 members of the Forum throughout the United States.
A former SC State Senator (1976-1980), Tom has a long history of involvement in state politics. In 1980, he was the Democratic nominee for Congress for the 2nd Congressional District. He is formerly a member of the Executive Committee for Lexington County and has been a member of the Executive Committee and Executive Council of the South Carolina Democratic Party. In 1998 he was the Democratic nominee for Attorney General, carrying 26 counties and winning over 46% of the vote.
Tom is a civil rights leader. He is currently President of the Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR) formerly the National Anti-Klan Network, a civil rights organization based in Atlanta. CDR, in partnership with the National Council of Churches and the Center for Constitutional Rights, was instrumental in bringing national attention to racially motivated church burnings. Because of their efforts, President Clinton established his Initiative on Racial Reconciliation. In 1998, Tom received the Holmes-Weatherly Award, the Unitarian-Universalist Association's highest honor for the pursuit of social justice.
Tom has also worked for environmental justice in South Carolina. He is the founding chairman of the Citizens' Local Environmental Action Network (CLEAN), a statewide umbrella and informational clearing house organization for local citizens' groups concerned with toxic waste dumps in their areas and has been an outspoken critic of environmental racism and class-ism manifested in the disproportionate amount of toxic waste sites located in minority and poor communities. He has emphasized that toxic wastes constantly migrate in the air, water and soil and eventually threaten everyone.
Tom has also worked and organized around consumers' rights issues. In the 1970s Tom was the executive director of the South Carolina Taxpayers Association (SCTA) and President of The People Are Coming. These groups were primarily concerned with utility rate reform and were part of a successful campaign that reformed electrical rates that discriminated against low-income ratepayers and changed the method of selection of the regulatory agency. Tom continues in his commitment to consumers - by serving on the Board of South Carolina Fair Share, an advocacy group primarily concerned with making public policy serve the needs of everyday working and poor people in South Carolina. Tom has served on the board of the Mental Health Association of South Carolina, and writes and speaks about having been a consumer of mental health services while struggling with depression as a high school and college student.
Tom's political and social activism has been reflected in his radio shows on WCAY, WOIC and WCTG and his television show on WIS-TV. In both formats, Tom hosted shows that featured community leaders, public affairs, sports, and arts and entertainment, providing a forum for discussing diverse issues. Tom has spoken and written on political and human rights, traveling throughout the country, and has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Charlotte Observer, and many other newspapers. Tom's essays have been featured in books like "Cast A Cold Eye, America's Opinion Writers, 1990-1991," published by Four Walls and Eight Windows, and in a new book published in August 2000 by New York University Press entitled, "Civil Rights, A Reader on the Black Struggle Since 1787." His most recent media appearances were on CBS-TV's "Life Remembers" (12-30-98) and PBS-TV's "Forgotten Fires" (4-29-99) and American Experience in "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire" (04-23 & 24-00). Tom has also appeared on MSNBC's "Equal Time" with Oliver North and Paul Begala, (02-18-00) and C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" with Brian Lamb, (02-04-00), and Fox Family Network's series "Courage" (09-11-00). Tom's articles are published regularly at Common Dreams News Center. Tom is quoted in the recently published Civil Rights since 1787: A Reader by Jonathan Birnbaum.
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