Albert Gore, Sr.
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- This article is about the former United States Senator. For his son, see Albert Gore, Jr.
| Albert Arnold Gore, Sr. | |
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| January 1953–January 1971 | |
| Political party: | Democrat |
|---|---|
| Preceded by: | Kenneth D. McKellar |
| Succeeded by: | Bill Brock |
| Born: | December 26, 1907 Granville, Tennessee |
| Died: | December 5, 1998 Carthage, Tennessee |
| Spouse: | Pauline LaFon Gore |
pl:Albert Gore senior Albert Arnold Gore, Sr. (December 26, 1907–December 5, 1998), an American politician and member of the Democratic Party, was a U.S. Representative and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee. He was the father of former Vice President Albert A. Gore, Jr. In 1937, Gore married the former Pauline LaFon, and in addition to Al Jr., had a daughter, Nancy LeFon Gore, born in 1938. Nancy died of lung cancer in 1984.
The son of farmers Allen Gore and Margie Denny, Gore was born in Granville, Tennessee. He attended public school and graduated from the State Teachers' College in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (now Middle Tennessee State University), in 1932 and from the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School in 1936. He taught in the rural schools of Overton County, Tennessee, and his native Smith County (1926–1930).
He served as county superintendent of education of Smith County from 1932 to 1936, was admitted to the bar in 1936, and commenced practice in Carthage, Tennessee. After serving as Tennessee Commissioner of Labor from 1936 to 1937, he was elected as a Democrat to the 76th Congress in 1938, reelected to the two succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1939, until his resignation on December 4, 1944, to enter the U.S. Army. Re-elected to the 79th and to the three succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1945–January 3, 1953), he was not a candidate for re-election but was elected in 1952 to the U.S. Senate. In his 1952 election, he defeated six-term incumbent Kenneth McKellar. Gore's victory, coupled with that of Frank G. Clement for governor of Tennessee over incumbent Gordon Browning on the same day, is widely regarded as a major turning point in Tennessee political history and as marking the end of statewide influence for E. H. Crump, the Memphis political boss. Gore was re-elected in 1958 and again in 1964, and served from January 3, 1953, to January 3, 1971, after he lost reelection in 1970. In the Senate, he was chairman of the Special Committee on Attempts to Influence Senators during the 84th Congress.
Gore was one of only three Democratic senators from the 11 former Confederate states who did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto opposing integration, the other two being Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (who was not asked to sign) and Gore's fellow Tennesseean Estes Kefauver, who refused to sign. South Carolina Senator J. Strom Thurmond tried to get Gore to sign the Southern Manifesto, but was told "Hell no." by Gore. Gore could not, however, be regarded as an out-and-out integrationist, having voted against some major civil rights legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Gore later claimed that the 1964 vote was his biggest mistake.) He did support the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He had easily won renomination in 1958 over former governor of Tennessee Jim Nance McCord, which at that point was still tantamount to election (because of the traditional weakness of the Republican party in the post-Reconstruction South); by 1964 he faced an energetic Republican challenge from Memphian Dan Kuykendall, who ran a surprisingly strong race against him.
By 1970, Gore was considered to be fairly vulnerable for a three-term incumbent Senator. He faced a spirited primary challenge, predominantly from former Nashville news 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 the 1970 general election by Republican Congressman William E. Brock III. In this Senate race, Brock was widely perceived to have won by playing on white voters' fears of civil rights and desegregation for blacks. In fact, Gore was one of the key targets in the Nixon/Agnew "Southern strategy"; Spiro T. Agnew himself traveled to Tennessee in 1970 to mock Gore as the "southern regional chairman of the Eastern Liberal Establishment." Other prominent issues in this race included Gore's opposition to the Vietnam War and Gore's vote against Sen. Everett Dirksen's amendment on prayer in public schools.
After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law with Occidental Petroleum Company and became vice president and member of the board of directors, taught law at Vanderbilt University 1970-1972. He became chairman of Island Creek Coal Co., Lexington, Kentucky, in 1972, and in his last years operated an antiques store in Carthage. He died three weeks shy of his 91st birthday and is buried in Smith County Memorial Gardens in Carthage.
This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
[edit] External links
- Washington Post "Political Junkie" column: answers questions about Gore's civil rights record
- "Casting a Long Shadow", by David M. Shribman: Boston Globe article describing 1970 congressional races of Al Gore Sr., and George H. W. Bush.
- "Sons", by Nicholas Lemann: article on Albert A. Gore Jr., and George W. Bush, including some description of the former's relationship with his father.
- FBI FOIA
- Report from commentator Joseph Farah about Al Gore Sr's relationship with Russia.
| Preceded by: Kenneth D. McKellar | U.S. Senator (Class 1) From Tennessee 1953-1971 | Succeeded by: William E. Brock III |
| Served in Senate Alongside: Estes Kefauver, Herbert S. Walters, Ross Bass, Howard Baker | ||
