J. Lister Hill | |
|---|---|
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| Chair of theSenate Labor Committee | |
| In office January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1969 | |
| Preceded by | Howard Alexander Smith |
| Succeeded by | Ralph Yarborough |
| Senate Majority Whip | |
| In office January 3, 1941 – January 3, 1947 | |
| Leader | Alben W. Barkley |
| Preceded by | Sherman Minton |
| Succeeded by | Kenneth S. Wherry |
| United States Senator fromAlabama | |
| In office January 11, 1938 – January 3, 1969 | |
| Preceded by | Dixie Bibb Graves |
| Succeeded by | James Allen |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromAlabama's2nd district | |
| In office August 14, 1923 – January 11, 1938 | |
| Preceded by | John R. Tyson |
| Succeeded by | George M. Grant |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joseph Lister Hill (1894-12-29)December 29, 1894 Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | December 20, 1984(1984-12-20) (aged 89) Montgomery, Alabama, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Henrietta McCormick |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (BA,LLB) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Columbia University |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1917–1919 |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
Joseph Lister Hill (December 27, 1894[1][2] – December 20, 1984) was an American attorney andDemocratic Party politician who representedAlabama in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1923 to 1938 and theUnited States Senate from 1938 to 1969.
As Senator, Hill was active on health-related issues and served asSenate Majority Whip from 1941 to 1947. He also served as the Chair of the Senate Committee on Labor from 1955 to 1969. At the time of his retirement, Hill was thefourth-most senior Senator. Hill was succeeded by fellow Democrat James Allen.
Hill was born inMontgomery, Alabama, on December 27, 1894 along with his twin sister, Amelie, to the surgeon Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill Jr. and his wife Lilly.[3] Lister Hill was named after Dr.Joseph Lister, the father of antiseptic surgery. Following his graduation from the Starke University School in Montgomery, he entered theUniversity of Alabama at the age of sixteen and graduated four years later with a BA and law degree and aPhi Beta Kappa key. While a student at the University of Alabama, he was a member ofDelta Kappa Epsilon. He also founded the Student Government Association (SGA) and was its first president, the Jasons Senior Men's Honorary (which the university ceased recognizing in 1976 for its all-male policy, but which still taps forty men each spring on the Franklin Mound), andThe Machine (the local chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon).
He also studied law at theUniversity of Michigan Law School atAnn Arbor, Michigan, and atColumbia Law School inNew York City. He wasadmitted to theAlabama bar in 1916 and commenced practice in Montgomery and also served as the president of the Montgomery Board of Education from 1917 to 1922.
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Hill was elected on August 14, 1923, as U.S. representative fromAlabama's 2nd congressional district to fill the vacancy created by the death of John R. Tyson. He served as Chairman of theHouse Committee on Military Affairs. On January 10, 1938, Hill was appointed to theU.S. Senate as a Democrat to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of SenatorDixie Bibb Graves for the term ending January 3, 1939; he was subsequently elected on April 26, 1938 to fill the remaining months of the term.
DuringWorld War II, Hill supported the interventionist side of America's foreign policy arguments and took an outspokenly "pro-British" stance, both speaking and voting in favor of theLend-Lease program. On October 23, 1941 he voted in favor of supplemental lend-lease funding to help theBritish Army.[4] On November 7, 1941 he voted in favor of legislation to amend several sections of the neutrality acts which was intended to make it easier for theUnited States to provide direct military aid to theUnited Kingdom duringWorld War II. The British privately described him as "reliably pro-British."[5][6] He was elected to a full term in November 1938 and re-elected in 1944, 1950, 1956, and1962. He did not seek re-election in 1968 and retired in January 1969.
A moderate-to-liberal[7][better source needed]populist Democrat, Hill distinguished himself in a number of fields, but was best known for the Hospital and Health Center Construction Act of 1946, better known as theHill-Burton Act. He also sponsored the Hill-Harris Act of 1963, providing for assistance in constructing facilities for theintellectually disabled and mentally ill. Additionally, he was recognized as the most instrumental man in Congress in gaining greatly increased support for medical research at the nation's medical schools and other research institution.
He sponsored other important legislation, including the Rural Telephone Act, the Rural Housing Act, the Vocational Education Act, and theNational Defense Education Act of 1958. "Hill also used his position and his persistence in improving conditions in rural areas to allot federal funds for rural libraries. For a decade, he worked to provide library service to those with no or inadequate facilities"[8] and was instrumental in passing theLibrary Services Act which ensured federal funding to support development of libraries in rural areas and dramatically changed the landscape of libraries in terms of viability, sustainability, and quality.
In 1954, Hill signed "The Southern Manifesto" condemning the Supreme Court's 9–0 decision inBrown vs Board of Education ordering school desegregation, but remained a close friend of Supreme Court Justice and fellow AlabamianHugo Black who voted for the decision. Hill voted against theCivil Rights Acts of 1957,[9] theCivil Rights Acts of 1960,[10] theCivil Rights Acts of 1964,[11] and theCivil Rights Acts of 1968,[12] as well as the24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution[13] and theVoting Rights Act of 1965.[14]
In 1956 he was honored by theAmerican Library Association for his support of the Library Services Act.[15]
However, Hill was as much a national figure as a representative of Alabama and the South. During his long years in the Congress, he would, from time to time, break with his southern colleagues to follow his own conscience. For example, in opposition to most southerners in the Congress, he favored federal control of offshore oil, with revenue to be earmarked for education.
Hill was the Senate Majority Whip from 1941 to 1947. He was Chairman of the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, which handled important legislation on veterans education, health, hospitals, libraries, and labor-management relations. He was a ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and a member of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
In the 1950s, Hill criticizedUS PresidentDwight Eisenhower's attempts to reduce hospital funding that had been granted under the Hill-Burton Act. Hill strongly supported rural electrification and federally subsidized freight rates.[16]
On September 4, 1964, PresidentLyndon B. Johnson signed the Nurse Training Act of 1964, naming Hill as one of the Members of Congress who pioneered the legislation.[17]
In 1962, Hill sought his last term in office but faced an unusually strongRepublican opponent inJames D. Martin, a petroleum products distributor fromGadsden. Like Hill, Martin supported theTennessee Valley Authority, aNew Deal project begun in 1933. Martin noted that the original sponsor of the interstate development agency was a Republican US Senator,George W. Norris ofNebraska. During the campaign, Martin proposed that the TVA headquarters be relocated fromKnoxville,Tennessee, to its original point of development,Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Hill had worked to fund other public works projects too, including the deepening of the Mobile Ship Channel, the building of the Gainesville Lock and Dam inSumter County, and theTennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, an ultimately successful strategy to link theTennessee River with theGulf of Mexico. In the campaign against Martin, Hill said, "If Alabama is to continue the progress and development she has achieved, she cannot do so by deserting the great Democratic Party."[18]
Hill pledged to seek renewed funding for theRedstone Arsenal andMarshall Space Flight Center inHuntsville, Alabama, and accused former President Eisenhower of having neglected the space program while the formerSoviet Union was placingSputnik into the atmosphere. Strongly endorsed byorganized labor, Hill accused the Republicans of exploiting the South to enrich the North and the East and attacked the legacy of former PresidentHerbert Hoover and the earlier "evils" of Reconstruction. Hill predicted that Alabama voters would bury the Republicans "under an avalanche."[19]
The 1962 midterm elections were overshadowed by theCuban Missile Crisis. Martin joined Hill in endorsing thequarantine ofCuba but insisted that the problem was an outgrowth of the failedBay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Hill said that SovietpremierNikita S. Khrushchev had "chickened out" because "the one thing the communists respect is strength."[20]The New York Times speculated that the blockade ordered by PresidentJohn F. Kennedy may have saved Hill from defeat.[21]
Despite the postwar bipartisan consensus forforeign aid, Martin hammered away at Hill's backing for such programs. He decriedsubsidies to foreign manufacturers and workers at the expense of Alabama's then large force oftextile workers: "These foreign giveaways have cost taxpayers billions of dollars and turned many areas of Alabama into distressed areas." Martin also condemned aid tocommunist countries and the impact of theUnited Nations on national policy. He questioned Hill's congressionalseniority as of little use when troops were dispatched in the fall of 1962 to compel thedesegregation of theUniversity of Mississippi.[22]
The Hill-Martin race drew considerable national attention. The liberal columnistDrew Pearson wrote fromDecatur, Alabama, that "for the first time sinceReconstruction, thetwo-party system, whichpolitical scientists talk about for the South, but never expect to materialize, may come to Alabama."[23]The New York Times viewed the Alabama race as the most vigorous off-year effort in modern Southern history but predicted a Hill victory on the basis that Martin had failed to gauge "bread-and-butter" issues and was perceived by many as an "ultraconservative."[24]
Hill defeated Martin by 6,019 votes, 201,937 (50.9 percent) to 195,134 (49.1 percent). Turnout dropped sharply in 1962 compared to 1960, when presidential electors dominated the ballot, and the state split between the national Democratic ticket and unpledged electors who ultimately voted for U.S. SenatorHarry F. Byrd, Sr., ofVirginia. Nearly 250,000 who had voted in the 1960 U.S. Senate election won by DemocratJohn Sparkman did not cast ballots in 1962. Hill won thirty-seven of the state's sixty-seven counties.[25] Martin's strong showing enabled him to be elected in 1964 to the U.S. House, representingthe 7th District.
In 1969, Hill was awarded thePublic Welfare Medal from theNational Academy of Sciences.[26] He received honorary degrees from thirteen colleges and universities, including theUniversity of Alabama andAuburn University. He was aMethodist, aFreemason, aUnited States Army veteran ofWorld War I—having been assigned to the Seventeenth and Seventy-first United States Infantry Regiments—and a member of theAmerican Legion.
Hill retired from the Senate in 1969, and was succeeded by fellow DemocratJames B. Allen of Gadsden, a formerlieutenant governor and a leader of his state'sconservative faction. Hill died in Montgomery on December 20, 1984, and is interred there atGreenwood Cemetery. Hill is the namesake of the small community ofListerhill, Alabama.[27]
His great-grandson,Joseph Lister Hubbard, is a former member of theAlabama House of Representatives from District 73 in Montgomery, holding office between 2010 and 2014. He was also the Democratic nominee forAttorney General of Alabama in the2014 elections.[28]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromAlabama's 2nd congressional district 1923–1938 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Military Affairs Committee 1937–1938 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Alabama 1938–1969 Served alongside:John H. Bankhead II,George R. Swift,John Sparkman | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Senate Majority Whip 1941–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of the Senate Executive Expenditures Committee 1941–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Labor Committee 1955–1969 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromAlabama (Class 3) 1938,1944,1950,1956,1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Senate Democratic Whip 1941–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Class 2 |  | |
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| Class 3 | ||
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| Education/Education and Labor (1869–1947) | | |
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| Labor and Public Welfare (1947–1977) | ||
| Labor and Human Resources (1977–1999) | ||
| Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (1999–present) | ||
| Expenditures in Executive Departments (1921–1952) | | |
|---|---|---|
| Government Operations (1952–1977) | ||
| Governmental Affairs (1977–2005) | ||
| Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2005–) | ||
Chairs of theUnited States House Committee on Armed Services | ||
|---|---|---|
| Military Affairs Committee (1822–1947) |  | |
| Naval Affairs Committee (1822–1947) | ||
| Armed Services Committee* (from 1947) | ||
*Alternately namedNational Security in 104th and 105th Congresses. | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
