Lee S. Overman

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Lee S. Overman
Jeter Connelly Pritchard
Succeeded byCameron A. Morrison
Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives
In office
1893–1895
Preceded byRufus A. Doughton
Succeeded byZeb V. Walser
Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives from Rowan County
In office
1899–1901
Preceded byPete Murphy
Succeeded byR. Lee Wright
In office
1893–1895
Preceded byS. A. Earnhardt
Succeeded byD. R. Julian
In office
1883–1889
Preceded byFrank Brown
J. L. Graeber
Succeeded byJ. S. McCubbins
Personal details
Born(1854-01-03)January 3, 1854
Salisbury, North Carolina
DiedDecember 12, 1930(1930-12-12) (aged 76)
Washington, D.C.
Resting placeChestnut Hill Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic

Lee Slater Overman (January 3, 1854 – December 12, 1930) was a

Democratic U.S. senator from the state of North Carolina between 1903 and 1930. He was the first US Senator to be elected by popular vote in the state, as the legislature had appointed senators prior to passage of the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution authorizing popular elections of senators. He served as a senator until 1930 when he died when he was two years into his fifth term.[1]

Early life and education

Overman was born in Salisbury, N.C., the son of William H. and Mary E. Slater Overman. He attended Trinity College (now

Chi Phi Fraternity. After he graduated from Trinity College, he taught at Winston-Salem School for two years and then finally earned a Master of Arts from Trinity College.[2]

Career

He became very close with

Zebulon Baird Vance, who was a leading opponent of Reconstruction in the State of North Carolina. He became one of his personal secretaries when Vance was elected governor, which led him into his life in politics.[3]
Overman became involved in politics and was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives.

In 1914, Overman became the first U.S. Senator from North Carolina to be elected by popular vote, after passage of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913 standardized popular election of senators. This was the beginning of his time when he was elected for a second term after his first term of six years had expired. In 1902 and 1909, Overman had been appointed to the Senate seat by the state legislature. The biggest reforms that Overman was in favor of were corporate interests and labor reform. Overman’s economic policies made him lean toward the progressive side.[4]

After the war the senator was active in the investigation of German and Bolshevik propaganda and played a role in bringing on the first

Overman Act of 1918, which gave President Woodrow Wilson extraordinary powers to coordinate government agencies in wartime. Overman chaired a Senate committee after World War I to investigate activities during the first Red Scare, which many see as a precursor to the House Un-American Activities Committee
.

In 1922, Overman was one of the leaders of a 1-hour, 45 minute filibuster that helped defeat the

Republican hold on the northern black vote, that the bill had been written by a black person, and that ignorant black people in the South would interpret the bill as permission to "commit the foulest of outrages."[6]

In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Lee S. Overman was named in his honor. The year after its launch, it struck a mine and sank over the course of a few days.[7]

Overman Committee

Main article: Overman Committee

Overman chaired the Overman Committee, a subcommittee that investigated foreign propaganda and Bolshevism in the United States during the first Red Scare from 1919 to 1921. He was chosen to head the commission called the Overman Committee by President Woodrow Wilson. After the war the senator was active in the investigation of German and Bolshevik propaganda and played a role in bringing on the so-called Red Scare that plagued American politics in 1919 and 1920 (Beaver).

See also

  • List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49)

References

  1. ^ Daniel R. Beaver. "Overman, Lee Slater"; http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00489.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Mar 19 2014 16:02:12 GMT-0400 (EDT) Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ "Lee S. Overman (1854 - 1930)".
  3. ^ Daniel R. Beaver. "Overman, Lee Slater"; http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00489.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Mar 19 2014 16:02:12 GMT-0400 (EDT) Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ Daniel R. Beaver. "Overman, Lee Slater"; http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00489.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Mar 19 2014 16:02:12 GMT-0400 (EDT) Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press.
  5. ^ Daniel R. Beaver. "Overman, Lee Slater"; http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00489.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Mar 19 2014 16:02:12 GMT-0400 (EDT) Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press.
  6. ^ "Filibuster Kills Anti-Lynching Bill", New York Times, December 3, 1922
  7. ^ "SC 248915 S.S. LEE S. OVERMAN ("Liberty" Ship), December 24, 1944".

Further reading

  • Watson, Jr., Richard L. (July 1959). "Principle, Party, and Constituency: The North Carolina Congressional Delegation, 1917-1919".
    North Carolina Historical Review
    . 56: 298–323.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lee Slater Overman.
Party political offices
First
1920, 1926
 Succeeded by
Robert Rice Reynolds
U.S. Senate
Preceded by
Jeter Connelly Pritchard
Furnifold McLendel Simmons
 		Succeeded by
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