Albert Gore Sr. | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait,c. 1953 | |
| United States Senator fromTennessee | |
| In office January 3, 1953 – January 3, 1971 | |
| Preceded by | Kenneth McKellar |
| Succeeded by | Bill Brock |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's4th district | |
| In office January 3, 1945 – January 3, 1953 | |
| Preceded by | Himself |
| Succeeded by | Joe L. Evins |
| In office January 3, 1939 – December 4, 1944 | |
| Preceded by | John R. Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | Himself |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Albert Arnold Gore (1907-12-26)December 26, 1907 |
| Died | December 5, 1998(1998-12-05) (aged 90) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingAlbert Jr. |
| Alma mater | Middle Tennessee State University (BA) Nashville School of Law (LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1944–1945 |
| Rank | Private |
| Unit | Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Albert Arnold Gore Sr. (December 26, 1907 – December 5, 1998) was an American politician who served as aUnited States senator fromTennessee from 1953 to 1971. A member of theDemocratic Party, he previously served as aU.S. representative from the state's4th congressional district from 1939 to 1953. He was the father ofAl Gore, who served as the 45thvice president of the United States from 1993 until 2001, and who held Tennessee's other U.S. Senate seat from 1985 to 1993. A native ofGranville, Tennessee, Gore graduated fromMiddle Tennessee State Teachers College and taught school. From 1932 to 1936 he was superintendent of schools forSmith County. He attended the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School, now theNashville School of Law, from which he graduated in 1936.
He was admitted to the bar later that year, and also accepted appointment as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor, a position he held until 1937. In 1938, Gore was elected to theUnited States House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th congressional district. He was twice re-elected, and served from 1939 until resigning in December 1944. DuringWorld War II, Gore briefly served in theUnited States Army as part of a program that enabled members of Congress to join the military incognito to obtain firsthand information on training, readiness, and treatment of service members. He served from December 1944 to March 1945, when he was discharged and took the House seat to which he had been elected again in November 1944. He was thereafter re-elected in 1946, 1948, and 1950, and served from 1945 until 1953. In1952, Gore was a successful candidate for the U.S. Senate. He was reelected in1958 and1964, and served from January 1953 to January 1971. Gore was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in1970.
In the Senate, Gore championed theFederal Aid Highway Act of 1956. In 1956, he also opposed the segregationistSouthern Manifesto, but he voted against theCivil Rights Act of 1964. Gore reversed course a year later and supported theVoting Rights Act of 1965. During the presidency ofLyndon Johnson, Gore backed most of Johnson'sGreat Society programs. Gore's 1970 defeat was blamed in part on his opposition to continuing U.S. involvement in theVietnam War. After leaving the Senate, Gore practiced and taught law atVanderbilt University. He later served as a vice president of theOccidental Petroleum Company and was a member of its board of directors. Gore also served on the boards of directors of several other companies and operated a farm on which he bred Angus cattle. Gore died at the age of 90 inCarthage, Tennessee on December 5, 1998, and was buried at Carthage's Smith County Memorial Gardens.
Gore was born inGranville, Tennessee, in 1907, the third of five children of Margie Bettie (née Denny) and Allen Arnold Gore.[1][2] Gore's ancestors includedAnglo-Irish immigrants who first settled inVirginia in the mid-18th century and moved to Tennessee after theAmerican Revolutionary War.[3][fn 1] As teenagers, Allen Gore andCordell Hull were friends.[5]
Gore studied atMiddle Tennessee State Teachers College, and taught school inOverton andSmith Counties from 1926 to 1930. He first sought elective public office at age 23, when he ran unsuccessfully forsuperintendent of schools in Smith County. A year later, he was appointed to the position following the death of the incumbent.[6] Gore graduated from the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School, now theNashville School of Law, in 1936 and attainedadmission to the bar.
After serving as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor from 1936 to 1937, Gore was elected as a Democrat to the 76th Congress in 1938, re-elected to the two succeeding Congresses, and served from January 3, 1939, until he resigned on December 4, 1944, to enter theU.S. Army.[7]
Gore was one of several members of Congress who joined the military incognito for short tours, in order to observe training and combat and provide first-hand reports to the U.S. House and Senate.[8] He completed basic training atFort Meade, Maryland, after which he was assigned to theAllied Military Government for Occupied Territories in Germany as a prosecutor in one of the military government courts.[9] Gore served as aprivate and was discharged in March 1945 so he could take the seat in the U.S. House to which he had been reelected in November 1944.[10][11]
Gore was re-elected to the 79th and to the three succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1945, to January 3, 1953). In 1951, Gore proposed in Congress that "something cataclysmic" be done by U.S. forces to end theKorean War: a radiation belt (created bynuclear weapons) dividing the Korean peninsula permanently into two.[12]
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In 1952, Gore was not a candidate for House re-election but was elected to theU.S. Senate. In his1952 election, he defeated six-term incumbentKenneth McKellar in the Democratic primary. Gore's victory is widely regarded as a major turning point in Tennessee political history, largely marking the end of statewide influence forE. H. Crump, theMemphispolitical boss. During his first term, Gore was instrumental in sponsoring and enacting the legislation creating theInterstate Highway System. Gore was re-elected in1958 and again in1964, but lost reelection in1970.
Gore was one of only three Democratic senators from the formerConfederate states who did not sign the 1956Southern Manifesto opposingintegration, the others beingSenate Majority LeaderLyndon B. Johnson of Texas (who was not asked to sign), and Tennessee's other Senator,Estes Kefauver. South Carolina SenatorStrom Thurmond tried to get Gore to sign the Manifesto, but Gore refused.[13][14] Gore voted in favor of theCivil Rights Acts of 1960 and1968,[15][16] as well as theVoting Rights Act of 1965 and theconfirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.[17][18][19] Gore voted in favor of the initial Senate resolution on theCivil Rights Act of 1957 on August 7, 1957,[20] but did not vote on House amendment to bill on August 29, 1957.[21] Gore also did not vote on the24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,[22] and Gore voted against theCivil Rights Act of 1964.[23]
Gore easily won renomination in 1958 over former governorPrentice Cooper. At the time, the Democratic nomination was still consideredtantamount to election in Tennessee, since the Republican Party was largely nonexistent in many parts of the state. In 1964, he faced an energetic general election challenge fromDan Kuykendall, chairman of theShelby County Republican Party, who ran a surprisingly strong race against him. While Gore won, Kuykendall held him to only 53 percent of the vote, in spite of President Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory inthe concurrent presidential election.
By 1970, Gore was considered to be fairly vulnerable for a three-term incumbent Senator, as a result of his liberal positions on many issues such as theVietnam War (which he opposed)[24] and civil rights. This was especially risky, electorally, as at the time the Republican Party was becoming more competitive in Tennessee. He faced a spiritedprimary challenge, predominantly from formerNashvillenews anchor Hudley Crockett, who used his broadcasting skills to considerable advantage and generally attempted to run to Gore's right. Gore fended off this primary challenge, but he was ultimately unseated in the1970 general election by Republican congressmanBill Brock. Gore was one of the key targets in theNixon/Agnew "Southern strategy." He had earned Nixon's ire the year before when he criticized the administration's "do-nothing" policy toward inflation. In a memo[25] to senior advisorBryce Harlow, Nixon aideAlexander Butterfield relayed the President's desire that Gore be "blistered" for his comment.[26]Spiro T. Agnew traveled to Tennessee in 1970 to mock Gore as the "Southern regional chairman of the Eastern Liberal Establishment". Other prominent issues in the race included Gore's vote againstEverett Dirksen's amendment on prayer in public schools, and his opposition to appointingClement Haynsworth andG. Harrold Carswell to the U.S. Supreme Court. Brock won the election by a 51% to 47% margin.[citation needed]
In 1956, he gained national attention after his disapproval of theSouthern Manifesto. Gore voted against theCivil Rights Act of 1964, in fact filibustering against it, although he supported theVoting Rights Act of 1965. Gore was a vocal champion of theFederal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which secured creation ofinterstate highways. Later, he backed theGreat Society array of programs initiated byPresident Johnson's administration, and introduced a bill with aMedicare blueprint. In international politics, he moved from proposing in the House to employnuclear weapons for establishing a radioactive demilitarized zone during theKorean War, to voting for thePartial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and speaking against theVietnam War, pivots that likely contributed to the loss of his Senate seat in 1970.[27]
On May 15, 1937, inTompkinsville, Kentucky, Gore married lawyerPauline LaFon (1912–2004), the daughter of Maude (née Gatlin) and Walter L. LaFon.[citation needed] Together, they had two children: Nancy LaFon Gore (1938–1984)[citation needed] andAlbert Gore Jr. (born 1948), who followed in his father's political footsteps by representing Tennessee as a U.S. representative and as a senator, and later served asVice President of the United States underBill Clinton.
After leaving Congress, Gore Sr. resumed the practice of law and also taught law atVanderbilt University.[citation needed] He continued to representOccidental Petroleum, where he became vice president and member of the board of directors.[citation needed] Gore became chairman of Island Creek Coal Co.,Lexington, Kentucky, an Occidental subsidiary, in 1972, and in his last years operated Gore Antique Mall, anantiques store in Carthage.[28] He lived to see his son Albert Gore Jr. become Vice President of the United States. Gore Sr. died on December 5, 1998, at the age of 90 and is buried in Smith County Memorial Gardens in Carthage.[citation needed] The Interstate Highway System in Tennessee is designated the "Senator Albert Gore Sr. Memorial Interstate System" in his honor.[6][29]
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBiographical Directory of the United States Congress.Federal government of the United States.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTennessee's 4th congressional district 1939–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromTennessee (Class 1) 1952,1958,1964,1970 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from Tennessee 1953–1971 Served alongside:Estes Kefauver,Herbert S. Walters,Ross Bass,Howard Baker | Succeeded by |
| New office | Chair of the Senate Attempts to Influence Senators Committee 1955–1957 | Position abolished |
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