Henry B. Gonzalez

Henry B. Gonzalez

Henry Barbosa Gonzalez (born May 3, 1916 in San Antonio , Texas , †  November 28, 2000 there ) was an American politician . Between 1961 and 1999 he represented the state of Texas in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Henry Gonzalez studied at the University of Texas at Austin and then graduated from San Antonio College by 1935 . He then studied law until 1943 at St. Mary's University School of Law . In the following years he worked as a consultant and from 1945 to 1947 as the head of the probation department in Bexar County . At the same time he began a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . From 1953 to 1956 he was a member of the San Antonio City Council. He then sat in the Texas Senate between 1956 and 1961 .

Following the resignation of MP Paul Joseph Kilday , Gonzalez was elected as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , at the by-election due for the 20th seat in Texas , where he took up his new mandate on November 4, 1961. After 18 re-elections, he could remain in Congress until January 3, 1999 . During this time, the Vietnam War , the Watergate affair and the climax of the civil rights movement took place . From 1977 to 1979 Gonzalez was chairman of the Select Committee on Assassinations , which re-examined the political assassinations of the 1960s. This included the attacks on President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King . Between 1989 and 1995, Gonzalez chaired the finance committee .

At the end of his time as a parliamentarian, he fell ill and was unable to attend the sessions of the Congress for over a year. For this reason, in 1998 he decided not to run again. But he managed to get his son Charles nominated for his parliamentary seat. This was then also elected as his successor. The younger Gonzalez continues his mandate to this day. His father died in San Antonio on November 28, 2000.

Web links

• Henry B. Gonzalez in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)