Supreme Court Senators & Representatives Presidents
| Thomas Bradley | Melvin Carnahan | Orville Freeman | Harold Stassen |
| Carl B. Stokes | Tommy Thompson | George Wallace | Andrew Young |
| Hubert H. Humpfrey | Louis Stokes |
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Following his graduation from Howard University and
Hartford Theological Seminary, Young pastored small Con Recently, President Clinton appointed Young Chairman of the new Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund (SAEDF). This $100 million fund will help establish small and medium size businesses throughout Southern Africa. Young is a member of numerous boards, including: Delta Airlines, Thomas Nelson Publishing Company, Host Marriott Corporation, the Howard University Board of Trustees, the Georgia Tech Advisory Board, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center Board of Directors, the Global Infrastructure Fund, and the Center for Global Partnership. Young has received many awards during his career: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award; the Legion d’Honneur (France); and more than 45 honorary degrees from Universities such as Notre Dame, Yale, Morehouse and Emory. |
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George Corley Wallace was born to George C. and Mozell (Smith)
Wallace at Clio, Alabama, on August 25, 1919. A Following a brief period in the U.S. Air Force (Wallace received a medical discharge), he returned to Alabama where he served as an assistant attorney general for the state. In 1947, running as a candidate from Barbour County, George Wallace was elected to the state legislature. His legislative tenure was quite productive. Among the highlights were several Wallace-sponsored bills which greatly enhanced Alabama's industrial environment by attracting more than one hundred industries into the state and the GI and Dependents Scholarships Act which provided college and trade school tuition to children and widows of war casualties. Wallace was elected judge in the Third Judicial Circuit in 1953, a position he held until 1959. During subsequent years he also served the Democratic party in many capacities. In 1958, Wallace formally entered the governor's race and received more than a quarter-million votes to place second in the primary to John Patterson. Patterson ran strong on the racial issue and accepted the support of the Ku Klux Klan; Wallace refused it. Wallace thereupon received the endorsement of the NAACP. In the run-off, Patterson defeated him by over 64,000 votes. This devastating loss forced Wallace to significantly adapt his political pitch to appeal to the state's voters. Following his devastating defeat to Patterson, Wallace resumed his legal duties all the while forming a plan to achieve his goal - the governor's office. Wallace's expressed views on race relations and segregation underwent a drastic metamorphosis following the defeat. By the primary of 1962, Wallace defeated his mentor Folsom, among others, and in the run-off he defeated the rising young politician Ryan DeGraffenried. In the general election of November, Wallace polled the largest vote ever given a gubernatorial candidate in Alabama up to that time. Wallace's first administration was marked by social tension. Among the major incidents of the administration were racial demonstrations in Birmingham and Montgomery, desegregation of schools in Macon County, his dramatic "stand in the school house door" at the University of Alabama, and the nationally publicized fire hose and police dog incidents of Birmingham. Furthermore, during this administration, Wallace made his first sortie into the North. In 1964, he entered the presidential primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Indiana and showed a surprising strength, receiving as high as forty-three percent of the vote. In September 1965, Wallace called the legislature back into session, ordering them to draw up an amendment to allow a sitting governor to run for a second term, which had theretofore been constitutionally prohibited; however, opposition to this amendment led by Wallace's political foe, Ryan DeGraffenried, stymied Wallace's attempt. Wallace needed only twenty-one votes to approve the amendment, but to stop filibuster through cloture and vote on the bill, he needed twenty-four senators; he didn't get them. Wallace prevailed on his wife Lurleen to run as his stand-in. The only strong opposition to any Wallace candidate was Ryan DeGraffenried, making his second bid for governorship. But DeGraffenried, while campaigning in mountainous northern Alabama, was killed in the crash of his small private plane. After much contemplation, Lurleen Wallace announced as a gubernatorial candidate. Following an unsuccessful run for the presidency, Wallace returned to the state political scene. In the first primary election of 1970 Albert Brewer, Lurleen's successor and former Wallace ally, out polled Wallace 421,197 votes to 414,277 votes; however, Wallace out polled Brewer in the second primary. Subsequently, Wallace won the general election of November and was inaugurated in January of the following year. In 1972, Wallace again entered the presidential primaries, this time within the Democratic party. He led off with a Florida victory in which he carried every county in the state. In May 1972, while campaigning in Maryland, Wallace was felled by would-be assassin, Arthur Bremer. As a result of the assassination attempt, Wallace was paralyzed in both legs. This spelled the end of Wallace's presidential aspirations; however, he did go on to garner subsequent presidential primary victories in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina. After his hospital stay Wallace returned to his duties as governor. In the Democratic primaries of May 1974, Wallace easily won the gubernatorial nomination for a third term without a run-off election, a move allowed by Alabama Constitutional amendment 282, approved in November 1968. The amendment stated that all previously authorized laws regarding "self-succession" were thereby repealed and allowed gubernatorial officeholders to succeed themselves once, but not more than once. During these successive administrations, Wallace sponsored the largest highway expansion program in the state's history. Additionally, federal revenue sharing funds were used to set up the Death Trap Elimination Program. In fiscal year 1973-74, Wallace made a record educational appropriation of more than five hundred million dollars. Capital investment in 1973 in Alabama exceeded 1.5 billion dollars, doubling the 1972 rate of investment and resulted in over 1,000 new or expanded businesses and approximately 43,000 new jobs for citizens. Wallace also made vital improvements in the Alabama Law Enforcement Planning Agency. He doubled expenditures for improved health care, allocating revenue sharing funds to mental health care. The Alabama Office of Consumer Protection was established in 1972. In 1973, farm income exceeded 1.5 million dollars, doubling the previous year's income. Maximum old age pensions were raised to $115.00 per month. By 1974, unemployment compensation and workmen's compensation showed a 130 percent increase for the decade. Essentially, the state enjoyed a reasonably prosperous economic environment during this era without any exorbitant increase in state taxes. In 1982, following a four-year political hiatus, Wallace returned to the state political scene. In the first primary Wallace won easily taking 425,469 votes to George McMillan's 296,271 and Joe McCorquodale's 250,614. Wallace subsequently defeated George McMillan in the second primary and Montgomery mayor Emory Folmar, the Republican challenger, in the general election. Wallace's final gubernatorial conquest was characterized by an unprecedented amount of black voter support during the general election. For the former advocate and chief spokesman of the state's segregationists, this spelled a complete turnabout in his political career. During his final term, Wallace masterminded a constitutional amendment that created an un-spendable oil and gas trust fund. Interest from the Alabama Trust Fund was to be pumped into the General Fund which finances all non-education segments of state government. Furthermore, he sponsored a controversial bill that re-wrote the state's job-injury laws. He also worked quite closely with the legislature in the preparation of a $310 million education bond issue. However, Wallace's attempts to get the legislature to raise property and income taxes in order to provide a stable pool of money for education were unsuccessful. Wallace's final administration was marked by health problems; however, he continued to push for the state's economic stability. Furthermore, his final administration was characterized by ideological alignment with and overwhelming support of some of the state's more prominent political factions/interest groups, the so-called "Wallace Coalition;" this coalition included the Alabama Education Association, organized labor, black political organizations and trial lawyers. |
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GOV. TOMMY G. Thompson was born and raised in the small, central
Wisconsin town of Elroy. His father ran a gas
The governor went to work immediately to turn around the state's economy. He cut state income tax rates, eliminated the inheritance tax and phased out the gift tax. He retained an 60 percent exclusion on capital gains, making Wisconsin the only state to do so after it was eliminated at the federal level. He has vetoed more than $600 million in legislative tax increases. |
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First sworn in at the 91st Congress, Representative Stokes
has served fifteen consecutive terms in the House of |
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Carl Burton Stokes was born in Cleveland. He was only two years
old when his father, a laundry worker, died. His widowed |
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Harold Stassen, (1907- ), American political leader. He is known
chiefly for his persistent and futile pursuit of the |
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Hubert Horatio Humphrey, was the 38th VICE-PRESIDENT of the
United States (1965-69) and a leader of the prolabor |
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America was bursting at the seams with surplus food when Orville
Freeman became US Secretary of Agriculture for President |
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MEL CARNAHAN was born in Birch Tree and grew
up in Rolla, Missouri. He graduated from The George
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American politician, mayor of Los Angeles,
California, from 1973 to 1993. Bradley was born in Calvert, Texas.
After
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gregational
churches in Marion, Alabama and in Thomasville and Beachton,
Georgia. Later Young moved to New York City to become Associate
Director of the Department of Youth Work for the National Council of
Churches. In 1961, Young returned to Atlanta to work as a top aide
to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement. He
served as Executive Vice President of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference and chronicles his experiences in his book An
Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of
America.
Andrew Young was elected to three terms in the United States
congress where he represented the Fifth Congressional District of
Georgia. In 1977, Young resigned his seat in the House of
Representatives to become United States Ambassador to the United
Nations under President Jimmy Carter.First elected Mayor of Atlanta in 1981, young was re-elected for
a second term in 1985. During his administration, over half a
million jobs were created, and the metropolitan region attracted
more than $70billion dollars in private investment and construction.
station
and general store in that town of 1,500. Thompson's first job-at age
six-was sorting and polishing eggs in his father's store. His mother
was a school teacher. Thompson toppled a long-time incumbent of the state Assembly in
1966 to begin his own career in public service. He knocked on nearly
every door in a district that spanned three counties to beat the man
who had represented the area for almost 20 years. He was elected
assistant Assembly minority leader in 1973 and Assembly minority
leader in 1981. He practiced law during the majority of his time in
the legislature. Thompson was first elected governor in 1986, surprising the
political experts by defeating the incumbent Democratic governor and
receiving 53 percent of the vote. Gov. Thompson was reelected in
1990, garnering 58 percent of the vote. The governor in 1994 became
the first in Wisconsin's history elected to a third, four-year term
with almost 68 percent of the vote. Since the day he took office, Gov. Thompson has pursued an
ambitious and innovative agenda focused on five main policy areas:
the economy, ending welfare, education reform, the environment and
crime. Wisconsin's economy was in poor shape when Gov. Thompson took
office over a decade ago. It was so bad that state business leaders
placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal warning other businesses to
stay out of Wisconsin. 
Representatives. In the 105th Congress, Representative Stokes was a
member of the Appropriations Committee, and was the third ranking
minority member of the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs-Housing and
Urban Development-Independent Agencies. In addition, he served as a
member of the Subcommittee on Labor-Health and Human
Services-Education. In the Congress, Representative Stokes ranked
eleventh overall in House seniority, and was the ninth ranking
Democratic Member of Congress. Representative Stokes was appointed
by Minority Leader Dick Gephardt to membership on the Leadership
Advisory Group, which played a key role in advising the leadership
on important policy issues. By virtue of his seniority, he also
served as Dean of the Ohio Congressional Delegation.
mother supported her two sons by working as a domestic. At one time
the family was on public assistance. He helped support his family by
working as a newspaper carrier and in neighborhood stores. He
dropped out of high school and went to work in a foundry. After his
18th birthday, he entered the Army. Stokes received an honorable
discharge as corporal and returned to school. He got his high school
diploma in 1947. After graduating, he supported himself by working
as a dining car waiter. He earned a B.S. degree in law at the
University of Minnesota in 1954. Two years later, he received his
L.L.B. degree from night law school in Cleveland. In 1962, he became
the first African-American democrat to be elected to the Ohio
Legislature. He was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967 and was
re-elected in 1969.
office of PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
and civil rights elements in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY. A loquacious,
ebullient man who preached a "politics of joy," he was several times
a candidate for the PRESIDENCY.
John Kennedy. Before he went to Washington, Freeman was Minnesota's
governor for six years. None of the ups and downs of politics
though, could match what Freeman faced as a Marine lieutenant in
World War II, island hopping in the South Pacific. A bullet in the
head shattered his jaw, nearly killing him. Orville Freeman grew up
in Minneapolis, becoming a football star at the University of
Minnesota where he met his life-long friend and political protege'
Hubert Humphrey. While serving as governor from l954 to l960,
Freeman had to try settle a potentially violent strike by meat
packers against the Hormel company in Albert Lea. Then, Minnesota
Lutherans reacted to Freeman's nomination of John Kennedy, a
Catholic, for president. 
Washington
University in 1954 with a degree in business administration.
Following graduation, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served during
the Korean War era. He received a law degree from the University of
Missouri-Columbia in 1959. Inspired by Adlai Stevenson, he entered
public service at the age of twenty-six, when he was elected to
serve as a municipal judge in Rolla. Two years later he was elected
to the Missouri House of Representatives, where he was voted
majority floor leader in his second term. During his tenure, he
twice was awarded the St. Louis Globe-Democrat Meritorious Service
Award and twice was recognized by his colleagues for outstanding
public service. In 1966 he left the Missouri House of
Representatives, returned to Rolla and his law practice, and turned
his attention to raising a family and to civic affairs. He became
president of the local school board, a Kiwanis Club officer, and
chair of the local Red Cross chapter, the United Fund, and the ABLE
Commission, which helps the elderly. He also served on the board of
Boys' Town of Missouri. In 1980 he was elected state treasurer.
During his term he adopted money management procedures that saved
the state millions of dollars. In 1988 he became lieutenant
governor. Four years later he was elected Governor by a decisive
margin. He was reelected in 1996. He is former chair of both the
Democratic Governors' Association and the Southern Governors'
Association and past president of the Council of State Governments.
Governor Carnahan serves as a member of the National Governors'
Association Executive Committee.
attending
college in Los Angeles, he served in the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD) for 22 years. In 1963 he became the first black to
win a seat on the Los Angeles city council. Bradley served five
terms as mayor, during which Los Angeles became one of the world's
largest cities. Bradley was known as a consensus builder with a
cautious style. In 1982 and 1986 he was nominated for governor, but
lost both times.