Estes Kefauver
Estes Kefauver | |
---|---|
Sam D. McReynolds | |
Succeeded by | James B. Frazier Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born | Carey Estes Kefauver July 26, 1903 Madisonville, Tennessee, U.S. |
Died | August 10, 1963 Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. | (aged 60)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Nancy Patterson Pigott
(m. 1935) |
Children | 4 |
Education | University of Tennessee (BA) Yale University (LLB) |
Carey Estes Kefauver (/ˈɛstɪs ˈkiːfɔːvər/;[2] July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the U.S. Senate from 1949 until his death in 1963.
After leading a
Early life
Carey Estes Kefauver was born in Madisonville, Tennessee, the son of local hardware merchant Robert Cooke Kefauver and his wife Phredonia Bradford Estes.[3] Kefauver was introduced to politics at an early age when his father served as mayor of their hometown.[4] The elder Kefauver would later be an active and enthusiastic helper in his son's campaigns until his death in 1958 at the age of 87.[4]
Kefauver attended the University of Tennessee and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1924.[3] He was a tackle and guard on his college football team. He taught mathematics and coached football at a Hot Springs, Arkansas, high school for a year before going on to Yale Law School, from which he earned an LL.B. cum laude in 1927.[3]
Kefauver practiced law in Chattanooga for the next twelve years, beginning with the firm of Cooke, Swaney & Cooke, and eventually becoming a partner in Sizer, Chambliss & Kefauver.[3]
In 1935, he married Nancy Pigott (born January 21, 1911, in
Moved by his role as attorney for the Chattanooga News, Kefauver became interested in local politics and sought election to the
Political career
U.S. House of Representatives
Kefauver was elected to five terms in the
As a member of the House, "Kefauver began to manifest his concern over the growing concentration of economic power in the United States",
In a May 1948 article, which appeared in the American Economic Review, Kefauver also proposed that more staff and money be allocated to the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, and to the Federal Trade Commission; that new legislation to make it easier to prosecute big corporations be enacted; and recommended the danger of monopolies should be publicized more.
The Kefauver investigation into television and juvenile delinquency in the mid-1950s led to an even more intensive investigation in the early 1960s. The new probe came about after people became increasingly concerned over juvenile violence, and the possibility of this behavior being related to violent television programs.[6]
His progressive stances on the issues put Kefauver in direct competition with E. H. Crump, the former U.S. Congressman, mayor of Memphis, and boss of the state's Democratic Party, when he chose to seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1948. During the primary, Crump and his allies accused Kefauver of being a "fellow traveler" and of working for the "pinkos and communists" with the stealth of a raccoon. In a televised speech given in Memphis, in which he responded to such charges, Kefauver put on a coonskin cap and proudly proclaimed, "I may be a pet coon, but I'm not Boss Crump's pet coon."
To win election to the Senate, Kefauver defeated the incumbent Tom Stewart in the 1948 Democratic primary. Kefauver was backed by the influential editor Edward J. Meeman of the Memphis Press-Scimitar, who had long fought the Crump machine for its corruption and stranglehold over Memphis politics.[7] After he went on to win both the primary and the election, he adopted the cap as his trademark and wore it in every successive campaign. He received the cap from journalist Drue Smith.
Kefauver was unique in Tennessee politics in his outspoken liberal views, a stand which established a permanent bloc of opposition to him in the state. Kefauver's success—despite his liberal views—was predicated largely on his support by the Nashville Tennessean, a consistently liberal newspaper that served as a focus for anti-Crump sentiment in the state. His constituency included many prominent citizens, whose views were considerably less liberal than his, but who admired him for his integrity.
Despite opposition from the Crump machine, Kefauver won the Democratic nomination, which in those days was
Once in the Senate, Kefauver began to make a name for himself as a crusader for consumer protection laws and antitrust legislation. On civil rights, he was ambivalent: he admitted later that he had difficulty adjusting to the idea of racial integration, and in 1960 he held out to the last in favor of permitting cross-examination of black complainants in voting rights cases. Despite this fact, Kefauver supported the civil rights program generally, and consistently supported organized labor and other movements considered liberal in the South at that time.
U.S. Senate
Overview
After being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1948, Kefauver guided the Celler–Kefauver Act of 1950, which amended the Clayton Act by plugging loopholes that allowed a corporation to purchase a competing firm's assets, through the U.S. Senate. Between 1957 and 1963, his U.S. Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee investigated concentration in the U.S. economy, industry by industry, and it issued a report exposing monopoly prices in the steel, automotive, bread and pharmaceutical industries. In May 1963, Kefauver's subcommittee concluded that within monopolized U.S. industries no real price competition existed anymore and also recommended that General Motors be broken up into competing firms.
Kefauver's Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee also held hearings on the pharmaceutical industry between 1959 and 1963 that led to enactment of his most famous legislative achievement, the
"Witnesses told of conflicts of interest for the
At that time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had limited authority to require efficacy standards or disclose risks. Kefauver was accused of expanding the power of government excessively, interfering with the freedom of doctors and patients, and threatening the viability of the pharmaceutical industry. His legislation seemed likely to fail. However, at the end of 1961, European and Australian doctors reported that an epidemic of children born with deformities of their arms and legs was caused by their use of thalidomide, which was heavily marketed to pregnant women.[9]
These positions made him even more unpopular with his state party's machine than ever before, especially after fellow Tennessee senator Albert Gore Sr., Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, and he became the only three Southern senators to not sign the so-called Southern Manifesto in 1956. In fact, these unpopular positions, combined with his reputation as a maverick with a penchant for sanctimony, earned him so much enmity even from other senators that one Democratic insider felt compelled to dub him "the most hated man in Congress".
Kefauver also led hearings that targeted indecent publications and pornography. Among his targets were
Kefauver committee
In 1950, Kefauver headed a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime. The committee, officially known as the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, was popularly known as the Kefauver committee or the Kefauver hearings. The committee held hearings in fourteen cities and heard testimony from over 600 witnesses. Many of the witnesses were high-profile crime bosses, including such well-known names as Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis, and Frank Costello, the latter making himself famous by refusing to allow his face to be filmed during his questioning and then staging a much-publicized walkout. A number of politicians also appeared before the committee and saw their careers ruined. Among them were former Governor Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey and Mayor William O'Dwyer of New York City.
The committee's hearings, which were televised live, just as many Americans were first buying televisions, made Kefauver nationally famous and introduced many Americans to the concept of a criminal organization known as the Mafia for the first time.[11] In fact, in 1951, Kefauver appeared as a celebrity guest on the new game show What's My Line? discussing the hearings briefly with the panel, showing how popular these hearings were with early television viewers.
Although the hearings boosted Kefauver's political prospects, they helped to end the twelve-year Senate career of Democratic Majority Leader Scott Lucas. In a tight 1950 reelection race against former Illinois Representative Everett Dirksen, Lucas urged Kefauver to keep his investigation away from an emerging Chicago police scandal until after election day, but Kefauver refused. Election-eve publication of stolen secret committee documents hurt the Democratic Party in Cook County, cost Lucas the election, and gave Dirksen national prominence as the man who defeated the Senate majority leader.
1952 election
In the
Kefauver won 12 of the 15 primaries in 1952, losing three to "favorite son" candidates. He received 3.1 million votes, while the eventual 1952 Democratic presidential nominee, Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson, got only 78,000 votes. But primaries were not, at that time, the main method of delegate selection for the national convention. Kefauver entered the convention with a few hundred votes still needed for a majority of the delegates.
The Kefauver campaign became the classic example of how presidential primary victories in the Democratic Party do not automatically lead to the nomination itself.[8] Although he began the balloting far ahead of the other declared candidates, Kefauver eventually lost the nomination to Stevenson, the choice of the Democratic Party political bosses. Stevenson, a one-term governor who was up for reelection in 1952, had resisted calls to enter the race, but he was nominated anyway by a "draft Stevenson" movement that had been energized by his eloquent keynote speech on the opening night of the convention. John Sparkman was selected as the Democratic candidate for vice president. Stevenson lost the general election in November to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican nominee, in a landslide.
1956 election
In 1956, Kefauver again sought the Democratic presidential nomination. In the March 13 New Hampshire primary, he defeated Adlai Stevenson 21,701 to 3,806. A week later, Kefauver again defeated Stevenson in the Minnesota primary, winning 245,885 votes compared to Stevenson's 186,723 votes. Kefauver was also victorious in the Wisconsin primary.
By April 1956, it appeared that Kefauver would match his spectacular performance in the primaries of four years earlier.
Stevenson got significantly more endorsements and raised far more funds than Kefauver. He defeated Kefauver in the Oregon, Florida, and California primaries and, overall, won more primary votes than Kefauver. After his devastating loss in the California primary, Kefauver suspended his campaign. At the Democratic National Convention, Stevenson was again nominated for president.
Stevenson then decided to let the delegates themselves pick his vice-presidential nominee, instead of making that choice himself. Although Stevenson preferred Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts as his running mate, he did not attempt to influence the balloting in any way, and Kefauver eventually received the nomination for vice president.
Stevenson lost the November election to Eisenhower, by an even bigger margin than in 1952.
Later career
After his 1956 defeat, Kefauver was considered the front-runner for the
When he ran for reelection to a third term in 1960, his first and, it would turn out, last attempt at running for office after refusing to sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto and voting in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960,[12][13] he faced staunch opposition for renomination from his party's still-thriving pro-segregation wing. Nonetheless, he won the Democratic primary decisively, receiving nearly double the votes of his rival, judge Andrew T. Taylor of Jackson.[14] Kefauver went on to defeat his Republican opponent in the general election, attorney Bradley Frazier of Camden, by more than a 2-to-1 margin.[15]
Kefauver voted in favor of the
In signing the Kefauver-Harris Drug Control Act, President John F. Kennedy stated, "As I say, we want to pay particular appreciation to Senator Kefauver for the long hearings which he held which permitted us to have very effective legislation on hand when this matter became of such strong public interest."[17]
Death
On August 8, 1963, Kefauver suffered what was reported as a "mild"
There was some speculation that Nancy Kefauver might stand for election to her late husband's Senate seat in 1964, but she quashed such notions early on.[21] Tennessee Governor Frank Clement appointed Herbert S. Walters to the seat instead.[22] In November 1963, President Kennedy named Nancy Kefauver to be the first head of the new Art in Embassies Program—Kennedy's last presidential appointment. Mrs. Kefauver never considered remarrying, remarking that she "had too perfect a marriage".[23]
The federal courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee, was renamed the Estes Kefauver Federal Building and United States Courthouse in his honor.[24] One of the libraries at the University of Tennessee was also named for him; his papers are held there.[23][25] The bridge over Pickwick Dam in Counce, Tennessee is named Estes Kefauver Bridge. One of the two city parks in Madisonville, Tennessee, is named Kefauver Park in his honor, as well.
Electoral history
1956 United States presidential election (vice president's seat)
Richard Nixon (R) (inc.) 57.4% |
Estes Kefauver (D) 42% |
Thomas Werdel (States' Rights Party ) 0.2%
|
Estes Kefauver Tennessee campaigns | ||||||||
Year | Office | Winner | Vote | Runner-up | Vote | Third candidate | Vote | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1960 | U.S. Senate (TN) | Estes Kefauver (D) | 594,460 | A. Bradley Frazier (R) | 234,053 | [1] | ||
1954 | U.S. Senate (TN) | Estes Kefauver (D) | 249,121 | Tom Wall (R) | 106,971 | [2] | ||
1948 | U.S. Senate (TN) | Estes Kefauver (D) | 326,032 | B. Carroll Reece (R) | 166,947 | John R. Neal Jr. (I) | 6,103 | [3] |
1946 | TN-03 | Estes Kefauver (D) | 26,779 | George Bagwell (I) | 2,725 | [4] | ||
1944 | TN-03 | Estes Kefauver (D) | 32,497 | Foster Johnson (R) | 11,541 | Ernest W. Forstner (I) | 3,894 | [5] |
1942 | TN-03 | Estes Kefauver (D) | 14,704 | Walter Higgins (R) | 3,831 | Walter Harris (I) | 902 | [6] |
1940 | TN-03 | Estes Kefauver (D) | 35,332 | Jerome Taylor (R) | 16,099 | [7] | ||
1939 | TN-03 | Estes Kefauver (D) | 14,268 | Casto Dodson (R) | 5,355 | John R. Neal Jr. (I) | 375 | [8] |
See also
- United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, also popularly known as the "Kefauver Committee"
- United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency
- Comics Code Authority
- List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)
- National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody
References
- ^ a b c d e "Nancy Kefauver Dies in Capital". The New York Times. November 21, 1967. p. 45. Retrieved September 7, 2018 – via TimesMachine.
- ^ "National Affairs: The Rise of Senator Legend - TIME". TIME. March 24, 1952. Archived from the original on July 28, 2010.
- ^ a b c d Fontenay, Charles L. (1999). "American National Biography: Kefauver, Estes (1903-1963), U.S. senator". Anb.org. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
- ^ a b "Robert C. Kefauver, Father of Senator". The New York Times. February 20, 1958. p. 25. Retrieved September 7, 2018 – via TimesMachine.
- ^ Gorman, Joseph Bruce. Kefauver: A Political Biography. NY: Oxford University Press, 1971.
- ^ Sterling, Christopher Hastings., and John Michael. Kittross. Stay Tuned: a Concise History of American Broadcasting. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth, 1990. Print.
- ^ "Edward John Meeman". The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. January 1, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
- ^ a b c Gorman.
- ^ Avorn, Jerry (December 8, 2011). "Learning about the safety of drugs – a half-century of evolution". The New England Journal of Medicine, 365 (23): 2151.
- ^ McFadden, Robert D. (December 11, 2008). "Bettie Page, Queen of Pinups, Dies at 85". The New York Times.
- ^ "It Pays To Organize". Time. March 12, 1951. Archived from the original on January 5, 2008. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- ^ "HR. 6127. Civil Rights Act of 1957". GovTrack.us.
- ^ "HR. 8601. Passage of Amended Bill".
- ^ Anderson, Pat (November 9, 1960). "Kefauver Pulls Landslide Win". The Nashville Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. p. 6. Archived from the original on October 29, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "S.J. Res. 29. Approval of Resolution Banning the Poll Tax As Prerequisite for Voting in Federal Elections". GovTrack.us.
- ^ Kennedy, John F. (October 10, 1962). "442 - Remarks Upon Signing the Drug Reform Bill". American Presidency Project.
- St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, August 10, 1963. Accessed December 18, 2009.
- ^ "Death Comes Unexpectedly to Sen. Estes Kefauver". Lincoln Journal Star. Lincoln, Nebraska. AP. August 10, 1963. p. 1. Archived from the original on October 29, 2018. Retrieved September 5, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Kefauver Buried Close to his Home". The New York Times. AP. August 14, 1963. p. 33. Retrieved September 4, 2018 – via TimesMachine.
- ^ "Mrs. Kefauver Won't Seek Late Husband's Senate Seat". The New York Times. UPI. September 24, 1963. p. 22. Retrieved September 4, 2018 – via TimesMachine.
- ^ "Herbert S. Walters Fills Kefauver Seat". The Ithaca Journal. Ithaca, New York. AP. August 20, 1963. p. 1. Archived from the original on October 30, 2018. Retrieved October 29, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Hill, Ray (November 5, 2017). "The Last Years of Nancy Kefauver". The Knoxville Focus. Knoxville, Tennessee. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
- ^ Estes Kefauver Federal Building and United States Courthouse from the Federal Judicial Center database of Historic Federal Courthouses.
- ^ Modern Political Archives (Special Collections): Estes Kefauver. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
Further reading
- Kefauver: A Political Biography by Joseph Bruce Gorman. (Oxford University Press, 1971.)
- Standing up for the people; the life and work of Estes Kefauver by Harvey Swados. (E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1972. ISBN 0525398724)
- Estes Kefauver, a Biography by Charles L. Fontenoy. (Olympic Marketing, 1980. ISBN 978-0195014815)
- The Kefauver Story by Jack Anderson and Fred Blumenthal. (Dial Press, 1956.)
- Hollywood's Celebrity Gangster. The Incredible Life and Times of Mickey Cohen by Brad Lewis. (Enigma Books: New York, 2007. ISBN 978-1-929631-65-0)
- "Kefauver, Estes" in American National Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 2000.
External links
- UT Knoxville Libraries LibGuide on Estes Kefauver and his collections
- Estes Kefauver Papers Archived August 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
- Estes Kefauver Image Collection, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
- Crime Documents from the Estes Kefauver Collection, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
- Kefauver Committee reports
- University of Tennessee Press
- Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
- The Columbia Encyclopedia
- Estes Kefauver at Find a Grave
- A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Sen. Estes Kefauver (February 11, 1952)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
- Estes Kefauver's FBI files, hosted at the Internet Archive: