John C. Stennis

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John Cornelius Stennis

United States Senator from Mississippi
In office November 17, 1947–January 3, 1989
Preceded by	Theodore Bilbo
Succeeded by	C. Trent Lott

Born	August 3, 1901 Kemper County, Mississippi
Died	April 23, 1995 Jackson, Mississippi
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Coy Hines
Religion	Methodist

John Cornelius Stennis (August 3, 1901 – April 23, 1995) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a Democrat.

1 Early life
2 U.S. Senator
- 2.1 Civil rights record
3 Retirement
4 Naming Honors
5 Trivia
6 Quote
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in Kemper County, Mississippi, Stennis received a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University in Starkville (then Mississippi A&M) in 1923. In 1928, Stennis obtained a law degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Chi Rho. While in law school, he won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives, in which he served until 1932. Stennis was a prosecutor from 1932-1937 and a circuit judge from 1937-1947, both for Mississippi's Sixteenth Judicial District.

[edit] U.S. Senator

Upon the death of Senator Theodore Bilbo in 1947, Stennis won the special election to fill the vacancy, winning the seat from a field of five candidates (including two sitting Congressmen: John E. Rankin and William M. Colmer). He remained in the Senate until 1989. From 1947 to 1978, he served alongside fellow Democrat James Eastland. They were the second-longest serving Senate duo in American history, behind only Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina.

Stennis wrote the first Senate ethics code, and was the first chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee.

In 1973, Stennis was almost fatally wounded by two gunshots after being mugged outside his Washington home. In October 1973, during the Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration proposed the Stennis compromise, wherein the hard-of-hearing Stennis would listen to the contested Oval Office tapes and report on their contents^{[citation needed]}, but this plan went nowhere.

Stennis lost his left leg to cancer in 1984.

He was unanimously selected President Pro Tempore of the Senate during the 100th Congress (1987-1989). During his Senate career he chaired, at various times, the Select Committee on Standards and Conduct, the Armed Services committee, and the Appropriations committee. Because of his work with the Armed Services committee (1969-1980) he became known as the "Father of America's Modern Navy."

The USS John C. Stennis.

[edit] Civil rights record

Stennis' record on civil rights was mixed throughout his long career. As a prosecutor, he sought the conviction and execution of three black men whose murder confessions had been extracted by torture. The convictions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Brown v. Mississippi (1936) that banned the use of evidence obtained by torture. The transcript of the trial indicates Stennis was fully aware of the methods of interrogation, including flogging, used to gain confessions.

In the 1950s and 1960s he vigorously opposed such legislation as the Voting Rights Act, as did most of the Southern senators. He also signed the Southern Manifesto of 1954. He openly supported Barry Goldwater's presidential bid in 1964, as did most of the state's prominent Democrats.

However, by the 1980s he regularly supported legislation to extend the civil rights of women and minorities, though he opposed the Martin Luther King holiday. He also campaigned (along with Governor Bill Allain) for Mike Espy in 1986 during Espy's successful bid to become the first black Congressman from the state since the end of Reconstruction.

Earlier in his career, Stennis had been the first Democrat to publicly criticize Joseph McCarthy on the Senate floor during the Red Scare, while Eastland supported McCarthy to the end. On balance, he was far more supportive of civil rights than Eastland, who was well known for his open racism. Even in the early part of his career, he was never as virulently racist as Eastland (or his predecessor, Bilbo). In some ways, Stennis' record on civil rights is similar to those of Goldwater, Robert Byrd, Sam Ervin and J. William Fulbright — all of whom opposed many federal civil rights bills not out of racism, but because they felt the bills gave the federal government too much power over the states. Still, Stennis shied away from supporting civil rights legislation when there was no political risk in doing so.

[edit] Retirement

Declining to run for re-election in 1988, Stennis retired from the Senate in 1989 at the height of his popularity. He never lost an election in 60 years as an elected official. He took a teaching post at his alma mater, which he held until his death in Jackson at the age of 93.

In his last election in 1982, Stennis easily defeated Republican Haley Barbour in a largely Democratic year. In 2003, however, Barbour was elected as Mississippi's second Republican governor since Reconstruction.

At the time of Stennis' retirement, his continuous tenure of 41 years and 2 months in the Senate was second only to that of Carl Hayden. (It has since been surpassed by Strom Thurmond, Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and Daniel Inouye, leaving Stennis sixth).

John Stennis is buried at Pinecrest Cemetery in Kemper County. He and his wife, the former Coy Hines, had two children, John Hampton and Margaret Jane.

[edit] Naming Honors

[edit] Trivia

Because of James Eastland's length of service, Senator Stennis spent 35 years as the junior Senator from Mississippi, despite having seniority over the vast majority of his peers. Together, they held a record for the longest-serving Senate duo from the same state. This record was eventually broken by Strom Thurmond and Ernest Hollings. Unlike Senator Hollings, Stennis went on to eventually succeed his Senior senator as President pro tempore of the Senate.

[edit] Quote

"I want to plow a straight furrow right down to the end of the row."

[edit] References

Stennis Center for Public Service. "Tribute to John C. Stennis". Retrieved June 16, 2005.

[edit] External links

Preceded by Theodore Bilbo	United States Senator (Class 1) from Mississippi 1947–1989 Served alongside: James Eastland, Thad Cochran	Succeeded by Trent Lott
Preceded by Richard B. Russell, Jr.	Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services 1969–1981	Succeeded by John Tower
Preceded by Warren G. Magnuson	Dean of the United States Senate January 3, 1981–January 3, 1989	Succeeded by Strom Thurmond
Preceded by Strom Thurmond	*President pro tempore* of the United States Senate** 1987–1989	Succeeded by Robert C. Byrd