Glen H. Taylor

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Glen H. Taylor

Glen Hearst Taylor (born April 12, 1904 in Portland , Oregon , † April 28, 1984 in Millbrae , California ) was an American politician and businessman.

Life

Early years and activity in the entertainment industry

The son of an evangelical traveling preacher, Glen H. Taylor first moved with his parents and siblings through the Rocky Mountains , and later the family settled in Idaho . At the age of 15, Taylor joined a theater company and from the 1920s to 1944 he ran several entertainment companies and performed as a country singer . His sister Lena Corinne Taylor, later married Morse, became a well-known and successful jazz singer under the name Lee Morse .

Senator for Idaho

As a candidate for the Democratic Party, Taylor was defeated by Republican John W. Thomas in the 1940 and 1942 elections to the United States Senate . In 1944 he defeated his fellow party member David Worth Clark in the primary elections and the Republican and outgoing Governor CA Bottolfsen in the Senate elections . At his campaign events, Taylor appeared in a cowboy hat on horseback and sang with his country band. His term of office as Senator in Washington for the state of Idaho lasted from January 3, 1945 to January 3, 1951. Taylor, who belonged to the left wing of his party and was close to progressivism , advocated economic policy in the spirit of the New Deal , a suppression of cartels , for the civil rights movement and the prevention of war.

Vice-presidential candidacy in 1948

Although Taylor remained a member of the Democratic Party, he was nominated in 1948 by the United States Progressive Party as a vice-presidential candidate under Henry Agard Wallace .

On May 1, 1948, on a campaign trip, Taylor wanted to attend an event of the Southern Negroe Youth Congress in Birmingham, Alabama , which was taking place in a Baptist church. The Progressive Party's program called for the complete abolition of racial segregation . Taylor demonstratively tried to enter the church through the African American door, not the white door. He was pushed back several times by police officers, and after repeated attempts he was arrested. On the instructions of the then local police chief Bull Connor , he was held for several hours until the end of the event. On May 4, a judging chamber for administrative offenses ( police court ) sentenced him to 180 days in prison and a $ 50 fine for the offense disorderly conduct (German roughly gross nonsense ). Taylor appealed on the grounds that the verdict was unconstitutional. On March 31, 1949, an all-white jury upheld the verdict in his absence on the grounds that the state of Alabama was entitled to punish violations of the (then constitutionally recognized) principle of “ separate but equal ”. Taylor did not have to serve the sentence, however, as the Alabama authorities refrained from filing an extradition request to his home state Idaho. The Alabama Supreme Court upheld the 1950 ruling in the last instance.

In the presidential election on November 2, 1948 , Wallace and Taylor received only 2.4% of the vote. They were most successful in New York State with 8.25%.

Political candidacies after 1948

Taylor's candidacy for the Progressive Party, which was clearly to the left of the two established parties and was decried as pro-Communist by many Americans during the Second Red Fear and the McCarthy era , damaged his further political career. When trying to defend his Senate mandate, he lost to David Worth Clark in the 1950 Democratic primary. Taylor's successor in the Senate, however, was the conservative Republican McCarthy supporter Herman Welker . In 1954 Taylor was nominated for the Senate by the Democratic Party; however, he lost the election to Republican Henry Dworshak . In his last attempt to run for the Senate, Taylor lost in the primary elections in 1956 to his fellow party member Frank Church , who subsequently became a Senator. Taylor ran as an independent write-in candidate and received 5.1% of the vote.

Glen H. Taylor is considered to be one of the most politically " left " congressmen after World War II.

Entrepreneurial activity

From 1950 to 1952, Glen H. Taylor ran the construction company Coryell Construction . In 1958 Taylor, who had been a toupee since the 1944 election campaign to increase his chances of being elected, founded the Taylor Topper company in Millbrae with his wife Dora (* 1904; † 1997) . This company developed from a small manufacturer to the most important US manufacturer of hair replacement parts for men. Taylor ran the company himself until he contracted Alzheimer's disease in the late 1970s.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Collier: The Singing Cowboy Who Went to the Senate and Came Home to Sell Toupees, in: Mother Jones Magazine , April 1977, pp. 43-53, 45f.
  2. ^ A b Peter Collier: The Singing Cowboy Who Went to the Senate and Came Home to Sell Toupees, in: Mother Jones Magazine , April 1977, p. 46
  3. ↑ Peter Collier: The Singing Cowboy Who Went to the Senate and Came Home to Sell Toupees, in: Mother Jones Magazine , April 1977, pp. 43-53, 52
  4. ↑ Diane MacWorther: Carry Me Home. Birmingham, Alabama. The Climatic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Simon & Schuster, New York 2001, ISBN 0-684-80747-5 , pp. 63-65
  5. ^ The Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Florida, March 31, 1949, accessed March 24, 2010
  6. ^ Robert S. Ellwood: The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace. American Religion in a Decade of Conflict. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 1997, ISBN 0-8135-2345-1 , p. 46
  7. ↑ David Leip's Atlas of US: Presidential Elections: 1948 General Presidential Election Results - New York accessed March 24, 2010
  8. ↑ Voteview: Is John Kerry a Liberal? accessed March 24, 2010
  9. ^ San Francisco Gate: Obituary - Dora Taylor accessed April 9, 2010

Web links

  • Glen H. Taylor in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Glen H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taylor, Glen Hearst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland , Oregon
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1984
Place of death Millbrae , California