John C. Stennis

John C. Stennis

John Cornelius Stennis (born August 3, 1901 in Kemper County , Mississippi , † April 23, 1995 in Jackson , Mississippi) was a US Senator from the state of Mississippi.

Life

He studied law and was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives as a student , to which he was a member until 1932. He was a district attorney and then a judge in the state of Mississippi.

Stennis was the first member of the Democratic Party to publicly criticize Senator Joseph McCarthy .

He is considered the father of the modern American Navy, primarily through his work on the Senate Armed Forces Committee from 1969 to 1980. The Navy thanked him for this by naming a modern aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis , after him. The John C. Stennis Space Center , the John C. Stennis National Student Congress and the John C. Stennis Lock and its dam are also intended to commemorate him.

Stennis' political career spanned 60 years in which he never suffered an election defeat. His Senate career was one of the longest in history at 41 years and two months. In 1988 he was finally no longer available for re-election, his successor was the Republican Trent Lott . Stennis then taught at Mississippi State University . At the beginning of his political career, he resolutely opposed the civil rights movement and the equality of black citizens and was a signatory of the Southern Manifesto . During his time as a prosecutor, he campaigned for the execution of blacks who had been tortured during interrogation, which Stennis was also aware of. Later, his attitude towards black voting rights changed. He voted against the establishment of Martin Luther King Memorial Day , but supported the candidacy of Mike Espy , who became a black congressman.

Web links

Commons : John C. Stennis  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Senator John C. Stennis. In: Stennis Center for Public Service (English)
• John C. Stennis Institute of Government
• Biographical Sketch of John C. Stennis , Mississippi State University
• John C. Stennis in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• John C. Stennis in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See the website of the USS John C. Stennis ( Memento of April 28, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).
2. ↑ John C. Stennis Space Center (English).
3. ^ Richard C. Cortner: A Scottsboro Case in Mississippi. The Supreme Court and Brown v. Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson MS et al. 1986, ISBN 0-87805-284-4 .
4. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ http://inkslwc.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/mccain-was-wrong-voting-against-martin-luther-king-holiday-how-other-congressional-members-voted/