Harris Wofford

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Harris Wofford

Harris Llewellyn Wofford (born April 9, 1926 in New York City , † January 21, 2019 in Washington, DC ) was an American lawyer and politician with the Democratic Party . He was a prominent figure in the US civil rights movement and volunteering .

Life

Harris Wofford was born in New York in 1926. Already in high school he was inspired by Clarence Streit's call for a world government to establish the Student Federalists .

He served in the USAAF during World War II . Wofford graduated from the University of Chicago in 1948 , then studied at Yale, and graduated from Howard University law school in 1954 as the first male white student. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and became an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame . In addition, he worked for the US State Committee on Civil Rights until 1958 , during which time he advised Martin Luther King . In the presidential election campaign in 1960 he advised John F. Kennedy . On his advice, he set up a department for civil rights; it was by the experienced Congressman William L. Dawson from Chicago headed and Marjorie Lawson. After Kennedy's election victory, Wofford became the President's Personal Representative for Civil Rights Affairs . During this time he also promoted the development of the new peace corps , was his special representative for Africa, especially responsible for Ethiopia . In 1963, under Lyndon B. Johnson , he was its deputy director.

In 1966 he left politics to become President of the State University of New York on the Old Westbury campus. In 1970 he became president of Bryn Mawr College , Pennsylvania, and held that position until 1978.

After seven years of private law practice in Philadelphia , Wofford was appointed Minister of Labor and Industry by Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey in 1987. On April 4, 1991 the "Senior Senator" John Heinz died in an airplane accident. His seat in the United States Senate became vacant. Pennsylvania's governor was legally bound to appoint a replacement until special elections could be held for that seat. After considering several potential candidates, including Allentown resident Lee Iacocca , who turned down the office, Governor Casey named Wofford on May 8, 1991 as a replacement.

In the November 1991 special election, he faced Dick Thornburgh , Pennsylvania's former governor and attorney general of the United States under the Ronald Reagan and George Bush administrations . He started his election campaign with polls so bad that experts assumed he had no chance of success. His victory by a 10 percent lead surprised many. The election campaign and its dramatic success was organized by Paul Begala and James Carville and brought them national attention. He also affirmed key issues such as business and health care that underpinned Bill Clinton's 1992 election victory. Wofford was one of the top candidates for the Clinton's Vice President nomination.

Wofford's efforts for re-election in 1994 failed, like many other Liberal Democrats, he lost to his challenger, Republican Congressman Rick Santorum .

After serving in the Senate, he served as head of the Corporation for National and Community Service ( AmeriCorps ) from 1995 to 2001 . Since retirement, he has taught at the University of Maryland at College Park and served on the boards of various charitable organizations including Americas Promise , Youth Service America, and the Points of Light Foundation . He received the John W. Gardner Leadership Award in 2002 .

In 1948 he married Clare Lindgren, whom he had met with the Student Federalists , and had two sons and a daughter with her. She died in 1996. In April 2016, Wofford announced his relationship with 40-year-old Matthew Charlton, a man 50 years his junior, whom he was planning to marry. Wofford and Charlton met back in 2001 when the ex-Senator was 75 and Matthew Charlton was 25.

Wofford died in January 2019 at the age of 92 from complications from a fall.

Works (selection)

  • Harris Wofford and Clare Wofford: India Afire , J. Day Co., New York 1951
  • Harris Wofford: The Democratic Challenge ; in: Foreign Policy 86 (Spring 1992), pp. 99-113
  • Harris Wofford: Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties , Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York 1980

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Dallek: John F. Kennedy. An unfinished life , special edition of the Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Munich 2006, ISBN 3421042330 , here p. 248
  2. ↑ Dallek p. 289
  3. ↑ Tom LoBianco: Former PA Sen. Wofford, 90, announces marriage to a man. In: CNN . April 25, 2016, accessed January 22, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Wofford, Harris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wofford, Harris Llewellyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and politician (Democratic Party)
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 2019
Place of death Washington, DC