Richard Russell Jr.

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Richard Russell Jr.
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office January 3, 1969 – January 21, 1971
Preceded by	Carl Hayden
Succeeded by	Allen J. Ellender
Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations
In office January 3, 1969 – January 21, 1971
Leader	Mike Mansfield
Preceded by	Carl Hayden
Succeeded by	Allen Ellender
Chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services
In office January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1969
Leader	Lyndon B. Johnson Mike Mansfield
Preceded by	Leverett Saltonstall
Succeeded by	John C. Stennis
In office January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1953
Leader	Ernest McFarland
Preceded by	Millard Tydings
Succeeded by	Leverett Saltonstall
United States Senator from Georgia
In office January 12, 1933 – January 21, 1971
Preceded by	John S. Cohen
Succeeded by	David H. Gambrell
66th Governor of Georgia
In office June 27, 1931 – January 10, 1933
Preceded by	Lamartine Griffin Hardman
Succeeded by	Eugene Talmadge
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
In office 1921–1931
Personal details
Born	Richard Brevard Russell Jr. (1897-11-02)November 2, 1897 Winder, Georgia, U.S.
Died	January 21, 1971(1971-01-21) (aged 73) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Parents	Richard Russell Sr. Ina Dillard
Relatives	Robert Lee Russell (brother)
Alma mater	Gordon State College University of Georgia School of Law
Profession	Attorney
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Navy
Unit	Reserves
Battles/wars	World War I

Richard Brevard Russell Jr. (November 2, 1897 – January 21, 1971) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 66th Governor of Georgia from 1931 to 1933 before serving in the United States Senate for almost 40 years, from 1933 to 1971. Russell was a founder and leader of the conservative coalition that dominated Congress from 1937 to 1963, and at his death was the most senior member of the Senate.^[1][2] He was for decades a leader of Southern opposition to the civil rights movement.^[3]

Born in Winder, Georgia, Russell established a legal practice in Winder after graduating from the University of Georgia School of Law. He served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1921 to 1931 before becoming Governor of Georgia. Russell won a special election to succeed Senator William J. Harris and joined the Senate in 1933.^[4] He supported the New Deal^[5] early in his Senate career but helped establish the conservative coalition of Southern Democrats. He was the chief sponsor of the National School Lunch Act, which provided free or low-cost school lunches to impoverished students.^[6]

During his long tenure in the Senate, Russell served as chairman of several committees, and was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services for most of the period between 1951 and 1969. He was a candidate for President of the United States at the 1948 Democratic National Convention and the 1952 Democratic National Convention. He was also a member of the Warren Commission.^[7]

Russell supported racial segregation and co-authored the Southern Manifesto with Strom Thurmond.^[8] Russell and 17 fellow Democratic Senators, along with one Republican, blocked the passage of civil rights legislation via the filibuster. After Russell's protégé, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law,^[9] Russell led a Southern boycott of the 1964 Democratic National Convention.^[10] Russell served in the Senate until his death from emphysema in 1971.

Early life[]

Russell was born in Winder, Georgia, the fourth child (and first son) of 15 children born to Ina (née Dillard) and Richard Brevard Russell. His father became a prominent lawyer and later chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. The younger Russell graduated in 1914 from the Seventh District Agricultural and Mechanical School in Powder Springs, Georgia, and from Gordon Institute in Barnesville, Georgia, the following year.

Russell enrolled in the University of Georgia School of Law in 1915 and earned a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree in 1918.^[11] While at UGA, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society.

Russell served briefly in the United States Navy near the end of World War I, and was discharged after the Armistice. In 1919, he set up a law practice with his father in Winder and joined the Democratic Party.

Dominated by white conservatives, Democrats controlled state government and the Congressional delegation. The Republican Party was no longer competitive, hollowed out in the state following the effective disenfranchisement of most blacks by Georgia's approval of a constitutional amendment, effective in 1908, requiring a literacy test, but providing a "grandfather clause" to create exceptions for whites.^[12]

Political career - Governor of Georgia, 1931–1933[]

Russell was quickly successful in elective office. He was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1920, and repeatedly gained re-election, serving 1921–31. He was elected as speaker of the house, serving 1927–31.

This meteoric rise in politics was capped by his election in 1930, at age 33, as Governor of Georgia. He was sworn into office in January 1931 by his father, who had become a Georgia Supreme Court justice nine years before.

Russell was a progressive governor who reorganized the bureaucracy, promoted economic development in the midst of the Great Depression, and balanced the state budget.^[13]

Russell became embroiled in an extradition controversy in 1932. White convict Robert Elliott Burns, serving time on a Georgia chain gang, had escaped in the 1920s to New Jersey. Years later Burns wrote an account of his imprisonment, and his book I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! was published in 1932. It condemned the Georgia prison system and convict leasing as inhumane. It was quickly adapted as a successful motion picture of the same name, starring Paul Muni. Russell demanded extradition of Burns but New Jersey refused, and Russell was attacked from all quarters.^{[citation needed]}

Senate career, 1933–1971[]

Following the death of U.S. Senator William J. Harris in 1932, Governor Russell ran in a special election called to fill the seat for the rest of the term. Russell defeated Congressman Charles R. Crisp to serve the remainder of Harris's term.

He was elected on his own in 1936 to serve a full term, and was subsequently re-elected in 1942, 1948, 1954, 1960, and 1966.

During his long tenure in the Senate, Russell served as chairman of the Committee on Immigration (75th through 79th Congresses), the Committee on Manufactures (79th Congress), the Committee on Armed Services (82nd and 84th through 90th Congresses), and the Committee on Appropriations (91st Congress). As the senior senator, he became President pro tempore of the Senate during the 91st and 92nd Congresses.

Russell at first supported the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. In 1936, he defeated the demagogic former Governor Eugene Talmadge for the US Senate seat by defending the New Deal as good for Georgia.^[14]

By 1937 Russell became a leader of the conservative coalition, made up of both Republicans and Southern Democrats, who wielded significant influence within the Senate from 1937 to 1964. The coalition controlled important committees, and resisted many efforts during this time to pass progressive legislation. Russell proclaimed his faith in the "family farm" and supported most New Deal programs for parity, rural electrification, and farm loans. He also supported promoting agricultural research, providing school lunches, and giving surplus commodities to the poor. He was the chief sponsor of the National School Lunch Act of 1946, with the dual goals of providing proper nutrition for all children and of subsidizing agriculture. He ran as a regional candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952, winning widespread newspaper acclaim but few delegates.

Russell and President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963

During World War II, Russell was known for his uncompromising position toward Japan and its civilian casualties. In the late months of the war, he held that the US should not treat Japan with more lenience than Germany, and that the United States should not encourage Japan to sue for peace.^[15]

Russell was a highly respected senatorial colleague and skilled legislator.^{[citation needed]} He chaired the Senate investigation into the firing of General Douglas MacArthur. Conducted during a political firestorm over the firing, Russell's chairmanship prevented public rancor and the layered political motivations that surrounded the firing from interfering with a dignified and insightful investigation into the incident. Military historians have printed transcripts of the hearings as an example to instruct on the proper relationship between civilian and military officials in a democracy.

Russell competed in the 1952 Democratic presidential primary, but was shut out of serious consideration by northern Democratic leaders. They believed that his support for segregation was untenable outside of the Jim Crow South. When Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) was elected to the Senate, he sought guidance from knowledgeable Senate aide Bobby Baker. He said that all senators were "equal" but Russell was the most "equal"—meaning the most powerful. Johnson assiduously cultivated Russell through all of their joint Senate years and beyond.

Russell's support for first-term senator Lyndon B. Johnson paved the way for Johnson to become Senate Majority Leader. Russell often dined at Johnson's house during their Senate days. But, their 20-year friendship came to an end during Johnson's presidency, in a fight over the 1968 nomination as Chief Justice of Abe Fortas, Johnson's friend and Supreme Court justice.^{[16][page needed]}

In early 1956, Russell's office was continually used as a meeting place by Southern fellow senators Strom Thurmond, James Eastland, Allen Ellender, and John Stennis, the four having a commonality of being dispirited with Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 ruling by the US Supreme Court that said that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.^[17]

In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy requested Russell place the Presidential wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns during an appearance at Arlington National Cemetery for a Memorial Day ceremony.^[18]

Russell scheduled a closed door meeting for the Senate Armed Services Committee for August 31, 1961, at the time of Senator Strom Thurmond requesting the committee vote on whether to vote to investigate "a conspiracy to muzzle military anti-Communist drives."^[19]

In late February 1963, the Senate Armed Services Committee was briefed by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara on policy in the Caribbean. Russell said afterward that he believed that American airmen would strike down foreign jets in international waters and only inquire on the aircraft’s purpose there afterward.^[20]

In January 1964, President Johnson delivered the 1964 State of the Union Address, calling for Congress to "lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those who seek entry into our country, particularly those who have much needed skills and those joining their families."^[21] Russell issued a statement afterward stating the commitment by Southern senators to oppose such a measure, which he called "shortsighted and disastrous," while admitting the high probability of it passing. He added that the civil rights bill's true intended effect was to intermingle races, eliminate states' rights, and abolish the checks and balances system.^[22]

Although he had served as a prime mentor of Johnson, Russell and Johnson disagreed over civil rights. Johnson supported this as President. Russell, a segregationist, had repeatedly blocked and defeated federal civil rights legislation via use of the filibuster,^[23] and had co-authored the Southern Manifesto, which opposed school desegregation and civil rights. He had not supported the States Rights' Democratic Party of Strom Thurmond in 1948, but he opposed federal civil rights laws as unconstitutional and unwise.

Unlike Theodore Bilbo, "Cotton Ed" Smith, and James Eastland, who had reputations as ruthless, tough-talking, heavy-handed race baiters, Russell never justified hatred or acts of violence to defend segregation. But he strongly defended white supremacy and apparently did not question it or ever apologize for his segregationist views, votes and speeches. Russell was key, for decades, in blocking meaningful civil rights legislation intended to protect African Americans from lynching, disenfranchisement, and disparate treatment under the law.^[24] After Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Russell (along with more than a dozen other southern Senators, including Herman Talmadge and Russell Long) boycotted the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.^[25]

From 1963 to 1964, Russell was one of the members of the Warren Commission, which was charged to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Russell's personal papers indicated that he was troubled by the Commission's single-bullet theory, the Soviet Union's failure to provide greater detail regarding Lee Harvey Oswald's period in Russia, and the lack of information regarding Oswald's Cuba-related activities.^[26][27]

In June 1968, Chief Justice Earl Warren announced his decision to retire. President Johnson afterward announced the nomination of Associate Justice Abe Fortas for the position. David Greenburg wrote that when Russell "decided in early July to oppose Fortas, he brought most of his fellow Dixiecrats with him."^[28] The friendship between Russell and Johnson ended over his opposition to this nomination.

Russell was a prominent supporter of a strong national defense.^[29] He used his powers as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1951 to 1969, and then as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee as an institutional base to gain defense installations and jobs for Georgia. He was dubious about the Vietnam War, privately warning President Johnson repeatedly against deeper involvement.^[30]

A statue of Russell by Frederick Hart is in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Personal life[]

Russell died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center due to complications from emphysema. He is buried in the Russell family cemetery behind the Russell home near Winder. This area was designated as the Russell Homeplace Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

His younger brother, Robert Lee Russell, was a lawyer and served as a federal judge, appointed by President Roosevelt and later by President Truman. Brother-in-law Hugh Peterson served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1935 to 1947.

Russell was the uncle of Betty Russell Vandiver, and his support aided the career of her husband, Ernest Vandiver, who was lieutenant governor of Georgia from 1955 to 1959 and governor from 1959 to 1963. After Russell's death in 1971, Ernest Vandiver was disappointed at not being named as an interim replacement by new governor Jimmy Carter. He ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 1972.

Russell was a lifelong bachelor.

Legacy[]

Russell has been honored by having the following named for him:

• The Russell Hall, one of the academic buildings of Gordon State College.
• The Russell Senate Office Building, oldest of the three U.S. Senate office buildings. In 2018, Senate minority leader Charles Schumer called for the renaming of the building with the name of recently deceased Senator John McCain.^[31]
• The Richard B. Russell Federal Building in Atlanta.
• Russell Hall dormitory and the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Building which houses the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.
• The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Southern Center in Athens, Georgia.
• The Russell Auditorium at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia.^[32]
• Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake, part of the Richard B. Russell Multiple Resource Area, located on the upper Savannah River between Elberton, Georgia, and Calhoun Falls, South Carolina. A Georgia state park on the shores of that lake also bears Russell's name.^[33]
• The Richard B. Russell Airport in Rome, Georgia, the regional general aviation airport serving Floyd County, Georgia.^[34]
• USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687), a United States Navy submarine which served from 1975 to 1994.
• Russell-Brasstown Scenic Byway, a national scenic byway in the Georgia mountains.
• , one of two major commercial thoroughfares and commuter-connectors to Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia.
• just off of Russell Pkwy (mentioned above) in Warner Robins.
• Richard B. Russell Elementary School in Smyrna, Georgia.
• Richard B. Russell Jr. Middle School in Winder, Georgia.
• A bronze statue of Russell stands on the lawn of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta.
• The United States Postal Service honored Russell with a 10¢ Great Americans series postage stamp on May 31, 1984.
• Senator Russell's Sweet Potatoes are a favorite southern dish around the holidays.^[35][36]

In popular culture[]

• The actor Wright King played Russell in the 1974 ABC television film The Missiles of October, a study of John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Russell was portrayed by Frank Langella in the 2016 HBO television drama All the Way.
• In episode 5 of the 2011 television miniseries The Kennedys, Russell was played by Mackenzie Gray.
• In Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory novel series, the Confederate ambassador to the United States in 1941 is heavily implied to be Russell, before being declared persona non grata by the United States, prior to the start of an alternate World War II.
• Russell is portrayed by Richard Jenkins in the film LBJ.

See also[]

• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)
• List of Speakers of the Georgia House of Representatives
• List of members of the American Legion

References[]

Further sources[]

Primary sources[]

• Logue, Calvin McLeod and Freshley, Dwight L., eds. (1997). Voice of Georgia: Speeches of Richard B. Russell, 1928–1969^{[ISBN missing]}
• Nixon, Richard. "Remarks Honoring the Late Senator Richard Brevard Russell in Atlanta, Georgia. January 23, 1971". American Reference Library – Primary Source Documents. Retrieved June 21, 2016.

Scholarly secondary sources[]

External video
Booknotes interview with Gilbert Fite on Richard B. Russell, Jr., Senator From Georgia, August 2, 1992 C-SPAN

• Campbell, Charles E. (2013). Senator Richard B. Russell and my Career as a Trial Lawyer. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press^{[ISBN missing]}
• Caro, Robert A. (2002). The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol 3: Master of the Senate^{[ISBN missing]}
• Fite, Gilbert (2002). Richard B. Russell Jr., Senator from Georgia
• Finley, Keith M. (2008). Delaying the Dream: Southern Senators and the Fight Against Civil Rights, 1938–1965 Baton Rouge: LSU Press ISBN 0807133450
• Franklin, Sekou (2014). "The elasticity of anti-civil rights discourse: Albert Gore, Sr., Richard Russell, and constituent relations in the 1950s and 1960s". Social Identities. 20 (1): 90. doi:10.1080/13504630.2013.840574. S2CID 144032586.
• Goldsmith, John A. (1993). Colleagues: Richard B. Russell and His Apprentice, Lyndon B. Johnson.^{[ISBN missing]}
• Grant, Philip A. Jr. "Editorial Reaction to the 1952 Presidential Candidacy of Richard B. Russell." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1973 57(2): 167–178.
• Mann, Robert (1996). The Walls of Jericho: Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell and the Struggle for Civil Rights.^{[ISBN missing]}
• Mead, Howard N. "Russell vs. Talmadge: Southern Politics and the New Deal." Georgia Historical Quarterly 1981 65(1): 28–45.
• Shelley II, Mack C. (1983). The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress
• Ziemke, Caroline F. "Senator Richard B. Russell and the 'Lost Cause' in Vietnam, 1954–1968," Georgia Historical Quarterly 1988 72(1): 30–71.
•  This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.

• United States Congress. "Richard Russell Jr. (id: R000536)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richard Russell, Jr..

• United States Congress. "Richard Russell Jr. (id: R000536)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Richard Brevard Russell Jr. biography
• Letter from Senator Russell to President Truman 7 August 1945 after Bombing of Hiroshima
• The New Georgia Encyclopedia entry for Richard B. Russell Jr.
• Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies
• Russell Community and Hall at UGA
• Richard B. Russell State Park
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Richard B. Russell" is available at the Internet Archive
• Legends of the Dead-Ball Era, 1909–1913: Childhood baseball card collection of Richard B. Russell, Jr. from the Digital Library of Georgia
• Russell House historical marker
• Appearances on C-SPAN