Duncan U. Fletcher

Duncan U. Fletcher

Duncan Upshaw Fletcher (born January 6, 1859 in Americus , Georgia , †  June 17, 1936 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ) who represented the state of Florida in the US Senate .

Rise in Florida

Born in Sumter County , Duncan Fletcher was an infant when his parents moved him to Monroe County in 1860 . He later attended public schools there as well as the Gordon Institute in Barnesville . In 1880 he graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville ; then he studied at the same university law , was admitted to the bar in 1881 and then began in Jacksonville to practice as a lawyer (Florida).

In his new home, Fletcher was a founding member of the local bar association and became its first president. In 1896 he was one of three attorneys overseeing James Weldon Johnson's entrance exam to the bar. Since a member of the committee voted against Johnson's admission, Fletcher's vote was instrumental in ensuring that Johnson became the first African American to join the state's legal profession.

Soon Duncan Fletcher began to work in local politics. He was elected to Jacksonville City Council in 1887 and served a first term as mayor of that city between 1893 and 1895; from 1901 to 1903 he held this office a second time. He also sat in the Florida House of Representatives in 1893 ; he was also from 1900 to 1907 the Education Board ( Board of Public Instruction ) in Duval County . He was president of the Gulf Coast Inland Waterways Association in 1908 and later the Mississippi to Atlantic Waterway Association . He later served as the curator of Stetson University and St. Luke's Hospital Association in Jacksonville. He was also the Vice President of the Children's Home Society of Florida and Honorary President of the Southern Commercial Congress .

US Senator

In 1909, Fletcher was elected to the United States Senate by the Florida State Parliament, where he took office on March 4 of that year. As a result, he was confirmed four times as a senator, with his last candidacy in 1932 even without opposing candidates. In Congress he held numerous high offices; Among other things, he was chairman of the trade committee from 1916 to 1919 , where he also headed the sub-committee for the investigation of the Titanic disaster . In 1932 he chaired the banking committee that sought to investigate the causes of the Wall Street crash of 1929. A process of reforming the American financial system developed from the work of the committee; immediate consequences were two stock corporation laws (the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) and the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1935.

The creation of the Everglades National Park in Florida is also largely due to Fletcher, who introduced the corresponding bill in 1928; In 1934, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the law. On June 17, 1936, during his fifth term in office, Duncan Fletcher died in the federal capital, Washington; he was buried in Jacksonvill. To date, with a 27-year term in office, he is the longest-serving Florida Senate politician. A high school in Neptune Beach , a middle school in Jacksonville Beach and a building complex at the University of Florida were named after him.

Web links

Commons : Duncan U. Fletcher  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Duncan U. Fletcher in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Duncan U. Fletcher in the database of Find a Grave (English)