Bourke B. Hickenlooper

Bourke B. Hickenlooper

Bourke Blakemore Hickenlooper (born July 21, 1896 in Blockton , Taylor County , Iowa , † September 4, 1971 in Shelter Island , New York ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ) and from 1943 to 1945 the 29th governor of the state Iowa. Between 1945 and 1969 he represented his state in the US Senate .

Early years

Bourke Hickenlooper attended Iowa State College after elementary school until 1919 . In the meantime he served as a lieutenant in the US Army during the First World War . He then studied law at the University of Iowa . There he took his law exam in 1922. After his admission to the bar in the same year, he began to work in his new profession at Cedar Rapids .

Political career

Between 1934 and 1937, Hickenlooper was an MP in the Iowa House of Representatives . In 1938 he was elected lieutenant governor of his state. He held this office between 1939 and 1943. He was then Deputy Governor George A. Wilson .

In 1942, Hickenlooper was elected governor himself. He took up his new office on January 14, 1943. His entire two-year term was overshadowed by the events of World War II . The war effort was funded in part by the Iowa state budget. An international peace organization was also advocated. In 1944 the governor did not run for re-election. Instead, he ran for a seat in the US Senate.

Between January 1945 and January 1969, the former governor, succeeding Guy Mark Gillette, represented his state in Congress in Washington . There he was considered one of the most conservative senators of his time. He also advocated a US isolationist course. In doing so, he became one of the most powerful Republican members of Congress. Between 1962 and 1969 he was on the parliamentary committee of the Republican Senators ( Republican Policy Committee Chairman ). Within his faction, he soon came into conflict with the faction leader, Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen from Illinois , who, in contrast to Hickenlooper, was more liberal. In the following years, Hickenlooper was an opponent of the civil rights movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was also a member of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy .

Hickenlooper Amendment

In 1962, Hickenlooper was able to introduce and enforce a change in the law in the Senate that is linked to his name. The motive for the Hickenlooper Amendment was the expropriation of direct investments from US citizens without compensation by the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba . The amendment provides the president with the right to intervene in laws passed by Congress for economic aid if a foreign government does not offer investment protection .

Another résumé

In 1968, Hickenlooper no longer ran for Congress. After that he did not hold any further political office. He died in September 1971. He had two children with his wife Verna Eilene Bensch.

literature

• Robert Sobel and John Raimo (Eds.): Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978. Volume 2, Meckler Books, Westport, 1978. 4 volumes.

Web links

• Bourke B. Hickenlooper in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Bourke B. Hickenlooper in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Bourke Hickenlooper in the National Governors Association (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cynthia Clark Northrup, Elaine C. Prange Turney, Encyclopedia of Tariffs and Trade in US History: The encyclopedia (English).