Richard Russell, Jr.

Richard Brevard Russell, Jr.
File:Richard Russell Jr.jpg
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	None (lifelong bachelor)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Unit	Reserves
Battles/wars	World War I

Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. (November 2, 1897 – January 21, 1971) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as a United States Senator from Georgia for almost four decades in the position, from 1933 until his death in 1971. He previously served as the 66th Governor of Georgia from 1931 to 1933, and as a state representative prior to that.

Early life and education

Russell was born the fourth child to Ina Dillard and Richard Brevard Russell, Sr. in Winder, Georgia on November 2, 1897. His father later served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, while his mother was a teacher. He graduated from the Seventh District Agricultural and Mechanical School in 1914. He entered the University of Georgia in 1915 and graduated with a Bachelor of Law's degree in 1918.

He served in the United States Naval Reserve Forces during World War I as it neared its end, and started a law practice with his father in 1919 after being discharged from the military.

Political career

State legislature

Russell was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives (1921–31) at the age of 23, serving as its speaker (1927–31). He was a strong advocate of public schooling and the improvisation of highways.

Governor of Georgia

His meteoric rise was capped by election, at age 33, as Governor of Georgia, serving from 1931 to 1933. He was sworn in by his father, who had become supreme court justice of Georgia 9 years before. He was a progressive governor who reorganized the bureaucracy, promoted economic development in the midst of the Great Depression, and balanced the budget.[2] He became embroiled in controversy, however, when in 1932 Robert Elliott Burns, serving time on a Georgia chain gang, escaped to New Jersey and wrote a book entitled I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!, condemning the Georgia prison system as inhumane. It became a popular movie, but Russell demanded extradition. New Jersey refused, and Russell was attacked from all quarters.

A fiscal conservative, Russell's tenure as the governor of Georgia was marked with the re-organization of the state governments, the reduction of state expenditures, and a balanced budget. Accomplishing all of it in less than two years, he cut no salaries aside from his own, and would move on to be elected into the U.S. Senate.

Senate career

File:Russell and George.png

Russell (left) with Walter F. George (right) in the late 1930s.

Conservative Coalition

While initially a strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies and an advocate of the New Deal, Russell later began to split with Roosevelt and became a leader in the Conservative Coalition in 1937. However, he was mostly not a "conservative Democrat" despite what modern-day liberals may insinuate, as his opposition to some of Roosevelt's policies were part of bipartisan criticisms on an economic standpoint; he was furthermore considered a "progressive" like many racists of his time.

Russell faced a challenge in 1936 from incumbent Democrat governor Eugene Talmadge, who ran on a campaign opposing the New Deal. Talmadge was ultimately unsuccessful and lost by a landslide in the primary election as racist white voters in the election cycle backed Russell, Franklin Roosevelt, and Eurith D. Rivers.

Warren Commission

After John F. Kennedy was assassinated, succeeding president Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Russell to the Warren Commission, a body established to investigate he president's death. While most members concluded on the "single bullet theory," Russell, along with John Sherman Cooper, a Moderate Republican from Kentucky, were dissenters of the view, believing the theory was absurd.

File:Southern Democrat filibuster of anti-lynching legislation.png

Segregationist senators Tom Connally, Walter F. George, Richard Russell, Jr., and Claude Pepper filibustering an anti-lynching bill in January 1938; at the time the picture was taken, the blockade had already persisted for twenty days.

Civil rights opposition

Russell, a lifelong opponent of civil rights, had led racist Southern Democrats in opposition to civil rights legislation ever since the 1930s. Democrat filibusters led by Russell included blocking Republican anti-lynching bills during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, where he utilized a mastery of Senate procedural matters to block a 1935 anti-lynching bill for six days, effectively killing it. Three decades during the 1960s, he tried to halt the 1964 Civil Rights Act before the Senate was able to enact cloture.

An advocate and signatory of the Southern Manifesto, Sen. Russell in 1957 successfully helped water down the 1957 Civil Rights Act legislation along with then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, who removed the stringent protections from the original Herbert Brownell text in Title III and transforming it into a far weaker version of what it originally had been. Johnson had previously hatched a deal with Russell (as well as Strom Thurmond, who broke it) that had the important sections of the bill be removed, he wouldn't filibuster it when it came up on the Senate for a roll call vote. It should be furthermore noted that Russell had been a mentor to Johnson.

Despite his status as a white supremacist and fierce opponent of equal rights for negroes, which he never repudiated, his niece Sally Russell insisted that the senator had maintained decent relationships with blacks who worked for him, adding on that she thought he "had a very deep courteous attitude, which probably came from being raised in the South." Furthermore, unlike other Southern Democrats such as Theodore G. Bilbo, John E. Rankin, "Cotton Ed" Smith and James Eastland, who had reputations as ruthless, tough-talking, heavy-handed race baiters, he never justified hatred or acts of violence to defend segregation.

Personal life

Russell died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. due to complications from emphysema. He is buried in the Russell family cemetery behind the Russell home near Winder. This area was designated as the Russell Homeplace Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

His younger brother, Robert Lee Russell, was a lawyer and served as a federal judge, appointed by President Roosevelt and later by President Truman. Brother-in-law Hugh Peterson served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1947.

Russell was the uncle of Betty Russell Vandiver, and his support aided the career of her husband, Ernest Vandiver, who was lieutenant governor of Georgia from 1955 to 1959 and governor from 1959 to 1963. After Russell's death in 1971, Ernest Vandiver was disappointed at not being named as an interim replacement. He ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 1972.

Richard Russell was a bachelor.

Legacy

Russell has the Russell Senate Office Building named after him. Over forty years after it had been named for Russell, modern Democrats such as Chuck Schumer demanded that the building be renamed for John McCain. It should be noted that barely any controversy arose out of naming the building during the time, with the lone opposition in the Senate then coming from Philip Hart (D–MI).

See also

• Eugene Talmadge
• Herman Talmadge

External links

• Richard B. Russell Jr. (1897-1971)
• Richard Russell: A Featured Biography