Percy Priest

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Percy Priest

James Percy Priest (born April 1, 1900 in Maury County , Tennessee , † October 12, 1956 in Nashville , Tennessee) was an American politician . He represented the state of Tennessee as a member of the US House of Representatives .

Career

Percy Priest attended Central High School in Columbia and then State Teachers' College in Murfreesboro (now Middle Tennessee State University ) and the former Peabody College in Nashville. He then taught at a school in Culleoka in his native Maury County from 1920 to 1926. He then joined the editorial team of The Tennessean .

Priest ran for Tennessee's Fifth Congressional District , located in Nashville, for the US House of Representatives in 1940. He defeated the Democratic incumbent Joseph W. Byrns . He then joined the Democratic Electoral Committee when he was sworn in. He was then re-elected seven more times. His constituency was renamed the 6th district in 1943 and back to the 5th district in 1953.

Priest was a member of the House Majority Whip between 1949 and 1953.

Shortly before its end in 1956, he refused, like two other Tennessee Democratic MPs, to sign the Southern Manifesto , which spoke out against racial integration in public institutions. The two other MPs were Joe L. Evins and Ross Bass .

At the time of his death, Priest was chairing the Committee on Energy and Commerce and was already nominated for the 90th Congress. In principle, he had already been certain of re-election, as no Republican had been elected to the House of Representatives from Nashville since the Reconstruction . Priest was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery , Nashville.

Honors

The J. Percy Priest Dam , a United States Army Engineer Corps hydroelectric power station, a little east of Nashville on the Stones River (formerly recognizable from Interstate 40 ) is named after him, as is Percy Priest Lake (created by the Dam) and also a primary school.

Web links

  • Percy Priest in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)