John Shelley

John Shelley (1955)

John Francis Shelley (born September 3, 1905 in San Francisco , California , †  September 1, 1974 ) was an American politician . Between 1949 and 1964 he represented the state of California in the US House of Representatives ; from 1964 to 1968 he was mayor of San Francisco .

Career

John Shelley attended public schools in his home country. After a subsequent law degree at the University of San Francisco and his admission as a lawyer in 1932, he began to work in this profession. During the Second World War he served intermittently in the Coast Guard . Politically, Shelley joined the Democratic Party . Between 1938 and 1946 he was a member of the California Senate . There he led the democratic group. In 1946 he ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor of California. Shelley was also involved in the union movement: between 1937 and 1949 he was President of the San Francisco Labor Council , after which he was its secretary. From 1947 to 1950 he headed the American Federation of Labor in California. His union activities caught the attention of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover , who had him monitored and classified as a national security risk.

Between 1940 and 1960 Shelley was a delegate to all Democratic National Conventions . After the death of MP Richard J. Welch , he was elected in the due by-election for the fifth seat of California as his successor to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he began his new mandate on November 8, 1949. After seven re-elections, he could remain in Congress until his resignation on January 7, 1964 . During this time, the Korean War , the Cold War , the beginning of the Vietnam War and, domestically, the civil rights movement took place .

John Shelley's resignation came after he was elected mayor of San Francisco. He held this office as the successor to George Christopher between January 8, 1964 and January 8, 1968. Shelley held this office at a time of serious internal and social unrest. After the end of his tenure, he represented the interests of the city of San Francisco as a lawyer before the California state government. He died on September 1, 1974 in San Francisco. His son Kevin , born in 1955, was a member of the California State Assembly from 1997 to 2003 and Secretary of State to the California State Government from 2003 to 2005 .

Web links

• John Shelley in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• John Shelley in the database of Find a Grave (English)