Charles Vanik
Charles Vanik | |
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File:Charles Vanik 93rd Congress 1973.jpg
c. 1973
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 21st district |
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In office January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1969 |
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Preceded by | Robert Crosser |
Succeeded by | Louis Stokes |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 22nd district |
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In office January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1981 |
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Preceded by | Frances P. Bolton |
Succeeded by | Dennis E. Eckart |
Personal details | |
Born | Charles Albert Vanik April 7, 1913 Cleveland, Ohio |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Jupiter, Florida |
Political party | Democratic |
Alma mater | Case Western Reserve University CWRU School of Law |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/branch | U.S. Naval Reserve |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Charles Albert Vanik (April 7, 1913 – August 30, 2007) was a Democratic politician from Ohio. He served in the United States House of Representatives.
Life and career
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Vanik completed undergraduate studies and a law degree at Western Reserve University. After serving on the Cleveland City Council from 1938 to 1939 and the Ohio State Senate from 1940 to 1942, Vanik enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, seeing action in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. After the war, Vanik served as a city judge from 1946 to 1954.
In 1954, he ran for Ohio's 21st congressional district. The district, located on Cleveland's East Side, was evenly divided between African Americans, who were solidly Republican and whites, who were mostly Democrats.[1] In both the Democratic primary and the general election, he faced off against African American challengers. In the Democratic primary, Vanik edged out John Holly, founder of the Negro Future Outlook League.[2] In the general election, Vanik defeated Francis E. Young, who helped organize the Cleveland branch of the NAACP.[1] Vanik shifted districts in 1968 to the neighboring 22nd district, to make way for Louis Stokes whose growing political operation had challenged him in previous races, defeating Frances P. Bolton, who had served the district since 1939. Vanik served in the district until 1981.
In 1974, Vanik sponsored the Jackson-Vanik amendment with Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson, which denied normal trade relations to certain countries with non-market economies that restricted the freedom of emigration. The amendment was intended to allow refugees, particularly religious minorities, to escape from the Soviet Bloc. During this time, Vanik was the chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade.
He used to insert into the Congressional Record what he called the "Annual Corporate Tax Study" in which he'd list corporations that paid little to no federal income taxes.
In 1982, Vanik contested for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant-governor of Ohio as running mate with Ohio Attorney General William J. Brown who was running for governor. The ticket lost to Richard F. Celeste and Myrl Shoemaker. Vanik was known for wearing black bow ties with every suit.
Vanik died in his sleep on August 30, 2007 at his home in Jupiter, Florida. He was 94. He was survived by his wife, Betty, one son, one daughter and two grandchildren.
References
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Charles A. Vanik A Memorial site created by the Vanik Family
- Charles Vanik at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-5-16
- Obituary from The Cleveland Plain Dealer
United States House of Representatives | ||
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Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 21st congressional district 1955–1969 |
Succeeded by Louis Stokes |
Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 22nd congressional district 1969–1981 |
Succeeded by Dennis E. Eckart |
- Pages with broken file links
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- 1913 births
- 2007 deaths
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio
- United States Navy sailors
- People from Cleveland, Ohio
- Case Western Reserve University alumni
- Case Western Reserve University School of Law alumni
- Recipients of the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
- Ohio Democrats
- Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives