John Bernard

John Bernard (1938)

John Toussaint Bernard (born March 6, 1893 in Bastia , France , †  August 6, 1983 in Long Beach , California ) was an American politician . Between 1937 and 1939 he represented the state of Minnesota in the US House of Representatives .

Career

In 1907, Corsican- born John Bernard came to the United States with his parents, where the family settled in Eveleth, Minnesota. Bernard attended public schools in his homeland, old and new. Between 1910 and 1917 he worked as a miner in an iron mine. From 1920 to 1936 he was a fireman in the city fire department . In between he served in the US Army during the First World War .

Politically, Bernard became a member of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party , whose congresses he attended as a delegate in 1936, 1938 and 1940. In the 1936 congressional election, he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the eighth constituency of Minnesota . There he succeeded William Pittenger of the Republican Party on January 3, 1937 . Since he lost to Pittenger in the 1938 elections, he was only able to complete one term in Congress until January 3, 1939 . During this time, further New Deal laws by the federal government were passed there. In Congress, John Bernard was the only MP who voted against an arms embargo against Spain . Civil war was raging in this country at that time .

In 1940 Bernard applied unsuccessfully to return to Congress. In the following years he became a leader of the labor movement and was also active in the civil rights movement. He later became a member of the Communist Party . He spent his twilight years in Long Beach, where he died in 1983.

Web links

• John Bernard in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)