Albert Thomas | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's8th district | |
| In office January 3, 1937 – February 15, 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Joe H. Eagle |
| Succeeded by | Lera Millard Thomas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 12, 1898 Nacogdoches, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | February 15, 1966(1966-02-15) (aged 67) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Lera Millard Thomas |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Rice Institute University of Texas |
Albert Langston Thomas[1] (April 12, 1898 – February 15, 1966) was aDemocratic member of theU.S. House of Representatives for 29 years. FromHouston, Texas, he was responsible for bringing theJohnson Space Center to Houston.
Thomas was born inNacogdoches, Texas, on April 12, 1898, to James and Lonnie (née Langston) Thomas.[2] He attended local schools, worked in his father's store, and served as a lieutenant in the United States Army duringWorld War I before graduating from theRice Institute and theUniversity of Texas Law School. He marriedLera Millard. Thomas was admitted to the bar in 1927, and he practiced law and served as Nacogdoches County Attorney before moving to Houston in 1930 to become AssistantUnited States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.[3]
When long-time congressmanJoe H. Eagle did not seek reelection in 1936 so he could run for theUnited States Senate, Thomas sought and won the Democratic nomination, which was tantamount to election. In that primary, Thomas beatHouston mayorOscar F. Holcombe in what was something of an upset.[4] TheEighth District of Texas at that time comprised all ofHarris County, which included the state's largest city, Houston.
In Congress, Thomas was a protégé of Texas Senator (later President)Lyndon B. Johnson but maintained a generally conservative voting record. In 1949, he became chairman of the House subcommittee on independent office appropriations. He also served on the subcommittee on defense appropriations and on the joint committee on Texas House delegation. He was a typical Southern Democrat who through seniority rose to be the Chairman of theHouse Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense. In that capacity, he was able to steer projects to Texas including supporting Johnson's proposal to build theCorpus Christi Naval Air Station. Thomas also served on theJoint Committee on Atomic Energy and was instrumental in securing the location of the United StatesNational Aeronautics & Space Administration's Manned Spacecraft Center (later named after Lyndon Johnson) in Houston in 1961. Since its inception, Johnson Space Center has served as mission control for every U.S. crewed space flight includingApollo 11, the first lunar landing.[5]
Thomas was a member of theSuite 8F Group, a group of influential businessmen that included his college roommate at Rice University,George R. Brown.[6] Brown's companyBrown and Root donated the land on which the Johnson Space Center would be located to Rice University. Then Vice President Lyndon Johnson was chairman of the Space Council, and Thomas, a member of the NASA board, played leading roles in the eventual acceptance of Rice University's offer.
Along with the majority of the Texan delegation, Thomas declined to sign the 1956Southern Manifesto opposing the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court inBrown v. Board of Education. Thomas voted against theCivil Rights Acts of 1957 and1960,[7][8] but voted in favor of the24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and theCivil Rights Act of 1964,[9][10] and did not vote on theVoting Rights Act of 1965.[11]
In 1963, Thomas was seriously considering not running for a fifteenth term. Local Democrats organized an appreciation dinner on November 21, 1963, with over 3200 attendees to persuade him to run for another term. The most visible attendees werePresidentJohn F. Kennedy andVice PresidentLyndon B. Johnson who both spoke of Thomas's leadership. Kennedy said, "Next month, when the United States of America fires the largest booster in the history of the world into space for the first time, giving us the lead, fires the largest, payroll -- payload -- into space, giving us the lead. " here the President paused a second and grinned. "Itwill be the largest payroll, too," he quipped. The crowd roared.[12] "And who should know that better than Houston. We put a little of it right in here." The President then resumed in a more serious vein, "But in any case, the United States next month will have a leadership in space which it wouldn't have without Albert Thomas. And so will this city."[13]
Thomas accompanied the presidential party as it traveled toDallas the next day, wherePresident Kennedy was assassinated. He witnessedthe swearing in of PresidentLyndon B. Johnson onAir Force One.[14] The infamous “wink photo” was taken shortly thereafter.
In 1964, Thomas was named Chairman of theHouse Democratic Caucus.
By the time of his death inWashington, D.C., on February 15, 1966, at the age of 67, Thomas ranked eleventh in seniority in the House. The voters of Harris County elected his wifeLera Thomas to complete his term. Lera Thomas was the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.[15] In the fall of 1967, downtown Houston's Albert Thomas Convention and Exhibit Center (renovated in the late 1990s as theBayou Place entertainment and dining complex) was built and named in his honor.[2] He is interred inHouston National Cemetery.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's 8th congressional district 1937–1966 | Succeeded by |
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| National | |
| People | |
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