Luther H. Hodges

Luther H. Hodges
15th United States Secretary of Commerce
In office January 21, 1961 – January 15, 1965
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Frederick H. Mueller
Succeeded by	John T. Connor
64th Governor of North Carolina
In office November 7, 1954 – January 5, 1961
Lieutenant	Luther E. Barnhardt
Preceded by	William B. Umstead
Succeeded by	Terry Sanford
22nd Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
In office January 8, 1953 – November 7, 1954
Governor	William B. Umstead
Preceded by	Hoyt Patrick Taylor
Succeeded by	Luther E. Barnhardt
Personal details
Born	Luther Hartwell Hodges (1898-03-09)March 9, 1898 Cascade, Virginia, U.S.
Died	October 6, 1974(1974-10-06) (aged 76) Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.
Resting place	Overlook Cemetery Eden, North Carolina, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Martha Blakeney Hodges (1897-1969) Louise Finlayson Hodges
Children	3
Alma mater	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Profession	Lawyer, politician
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Army
Battles/wars	World War II

Luther Hartwell Hodges (March 9, 1898 – October 6, 1974) was a businessman and American politician. After a career in textile manufacturing, he entered public service, gaining some state appointments. Elected as lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 1952, he succeeded to the Governor's office in 1954 after the death of the incumbent. He was elected in 1956 to a full four-year term, serving in total as the 64th Governor of the state of North Carolina from 1954 to 1961.

In 1961 he was appointed as United States Secretary of Commerce under President John F. Kennedy, serving until 1965.^[1] He returned to North Carolina and served as chairman of Research Triangle Park, a major facility established during his tenure as governor.

Biography

Hodges was born in Cascade,^[2] Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on March 9, 1898. At the age of two, he moved with his family to Spray (which later merged with two other towns to become Eden, North Carolina). After growing up there, he lived much of his life in Rockingham County, North Carolina.

Hodges left for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at age 17, and moved back to Eden after graduation. He went to work at Carolina Cotton and Woolen Mills in Leaksville. In 1923, he helped form the Leaksville Rotary Club, which later became known as the Eden Rotary.

Carolina Cotton was later purchased by Marshall Field. Hodges continued to work for the company, working his way up from millworker to executive positions, until he retired to enter politics. In the 1940s, he gained gubernatorial appointments to the state Board of Education and the Highway and Public Works Commission. In 1945, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and to the U.S. Army in occupied Germany.

Hodges's former residence in Washington, D.C.

Hodges ran for office as lieutenant governor in 1952 and was elected. He succeeded to the position of governor in November 1954 upon the death of Governor William B. Umstead in office.

Two years later, Hodges was elected on his own account to a full four-year term as governor. Because North Carolina had a one-term limit for governors at that time, Hodges had the longest continuous tenure in the office until the state constitution was changed and Jim Hunt was elected to a second term in 1980.

During his time in office, Governor Hodges promoted industrialization and education.^[3] He helped gain support for the establishment of Research Triangle Park, intended to attract innovation and industry to the North Carolina Piedmont, and to strengthen connections among the three universities involved. After Hodges completed his tenure in 1965 as Secretary of the Department of Commerce, he returned to Chapel Hill. He was appointed as Chairman of Research Triangle Park. In 1967, he served a one-year term as president of Rotary International.

Civil rights

Hodges opposed the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and resisted integrating public schools in the state. In a 1955 editorial, Bignall Jones expressed the governor's position, calling for "voluntary segregation" in the state.^[4] Jones wrote:^[4][5]

"The white people of North Carolina control the state economically and politically and they will control it for many years to come. The fact may well be faced once and for all. The white people are determined that there shall be no mixed schools in this state. Before they allow this to happen they will pull down the pillars of the temple."

— Bignall Jones 1955

In 1959, Hodges pardoned two young African-American boys and had them released from the state reformatory, where they had been sentenced until age 21. A range of activists, civil rights organizations, Eleanor Roosevelt and President Eisenhower, in addition to the international press, had pressured him for clemency in the flawed Kissing Case. It developed due to racism in the town of Monroe, North Carolina, where the boys had been convicted of rape because they kissed a white girl their age. Many injustices were committed against the children, who were freed after three months in the reformatory.^{[6]:118 [7]} Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt "led an international campaign on their behalf."^{[6]:118[8]:118}

Later years

He died on October 6, 1974, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is buried at the Overlook Cemetery in Eden, North Carolina. A monument was erected in his honor near a water fountain in Eden's Freedom Park.

Legacy

Hodges's son, Luther H. Hodges, Jr., was a prominent banking executive and United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce.

References