John Sparkman

John Sparkman

John Jackson Sparkman (center) with Harry S. Truman (left) and Adlai Stevenson (right)

John Jackson Sparkman (born December 20, 1899 near Hartselle , Morgan County , Alabama , † November 16, 1985 in Huntsville , Alabama) was a Conservative American politician from Alabama, a member of the US House of Representatives and a member of the US Senate . He was also a runner-up candidate for the Democratic Party in the 1952 presidential election .

Life

John Jackson Sparkman was born on December 20, 1899 on a farm near Hartselle, Alabama. He attended country school and helped his family on the farm. During the First World War he was in the Students Army Training Corps . After the war he graduated from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1921 and from its legal department in 1923. There he founded the Pi Kappa Alpha Brotherhood in 1924 . He was admitted to the bar in 1925 and then opened a practice in Huntsville, Alabama. He was then a teacher at Huntsville College between 1925 and 1928. He was a Freemason and was a lifelong member of Helion Lodge # 1 in Huntsville. He was also a member of the Huntsville Scottish Rite and was named Knight Commander of the Court of Honor (KCCH).

politics

Sparkman was elected a Democrat in the 75th and five subsequent Congresses. His tenure lasted from January 3, 1937 until his resignation on November 5, 1946. He was also in 1946 Majority Whip of the US House of Representatives. He was elected to the 80th Congress on November 5, 1946, and at the same time in an extraordinary election to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator John H. Bankhead II , whose regular term of office was on November 3 January 1949 would have ended. Because of this election, he resigned as a member of the House of Representatives. His tenure in the Senate began on November 6, 1946 and ended on January 3, 1979. In 1978, he decided not to run as a candidate for the Senate. Senator Sparkman was the United States Representative to the United Nations Fifth General Assembly in 1950 . In the 1952 presidential election , Sparkman ran as a candidate for the vice presidency. In 1956 he was also one of 19 Southern Senators who signed the Southern Manifesto , a document against racial integration in public institutions.

Sparkman has chaired the Special Committee on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (81st, 82nd, 84th to 90th Congress), co-chaired the Joint Implementation Measures Committee (86th Congress), chaired the Committee on Banking and Monetary Affairs (90th and 91st Congress) Congress), co-chair of the Joint Defense Products Committee (91st and 93rd Congresses), the Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee (92nd and 93rd Congress) and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee (94th and 95th Congress) . Congress).

The Sparkman Act of 1943, which allowed female doctors to become officers on active duty, was named after him. Sparkman died on November 16, 1985 in Huntsville, Alabama.

literature

• American National Biography; Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Sparkman, John. 'The Role of the Senate in Determining Foreign Policy.' In The Senate Institution. Edited by Nathaniel Preston. pp. 31-39. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969;
• Sparkman, Mrs. Ivo Hall. Journeys With the Senator. Huntsville, Ala .: Strode Publishers, 1977.

Web links

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