John C. Stennis

John C. Stennis
United States Senator from Mississippi
In office November 5, 1947 – January 3, 1989
Preceded by	Theodore Bilbo
Succeeded by	Trent Lott
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1989
Deputy	George J. Mitchell
Preceded by	Strom Thurmond
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
In office January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1981
Preceded by	Richard Russell
Succeeded by	John Tower
Born	August 3, 1901 Kemper County, Mississippi
Died	April 23, 1995 (aged 93) Jackson, Mississippi
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Coy Hines
Children	John Hampton Stennis Margaret Jane Stennis ____
Alma mater	Mississippi A&M University University of Virginia
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Presbyterian

John Cornelius Stennis (August 3, 1901 – April 23, 1995) was a U.S. Senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a Democrat who served in the Senate for over 41 years, becoming its most senior member by his retirement.

Early life

Born in Kemper County, Mississippi, Stennis received a bachelor's degree from Mississippi State University in Starkville (then Mississippi A&M) in 1923.^[1] In 1928, Stennis obtained a law degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, where he was a member of ΦBK and ΑΧΡ^[2]. While in law school, he won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives, in which he served until 1932. Stennis was a prosecutor from 1932 to 1937 and a circuit judge from 1937 to 1947, both for Mississippi's Sixteenth Judicial District.

Stennis married Coy Hines, and together, they had two children, John Hampton and Margaret Jane. John Hampton Stennis (born ca. 1935), an attorney in Jackson, Mississippi, ran unsuccessfully in 1978 for the United States House of Representatives, having been defeated by the Republican Jon C. Hinson, then the aide to U.S. Representative Thad Cochran, who ran successfully to succeed James O. Eastland] for the other Mississippi seat in the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Senator

Upon the death of Senator Theodore Bilbo in 1947, Stennis won the special election to fill the vacancy, winning the seat from a field of five candidates (including two sitting Congressmen: John E. Rankin and William M. Colmer). He remained in the Senate until 1989. From 1947 to 1978, he served alongside fellow Mississippi senator and Democrat James Eastland; thus, notwithstanding his long service Stennis would serve 31 years as Mississippi's junior Senator. He and Eastland were at the time the longest serving Senate duo in American history, later broken by the South Carolina duo of Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings. He later developed a good relationship with Eastland's successor, Republican Thad Cochran.

Stennis wrote the first Senate ethics code, and was the first chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee.

In 1973, Stennis was almost fatally wounded by two gunshots after being mugged outside his Washington home. In October 1973, during the Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration proposed the Stennis compromise, wherein the hard-of-hearing Stennis would listen to the contested Oval Office tapes and report on their contents, but this plan went nowhere. Time Magazine ran a picture of John Stennis that read :"Technical Assistance Needed." The picture had his hand cupped around his ear.

Stennis lost his left leg to cancer in 1984.

He was unanimously selected President pro tempore of the Senate during the 100th Congress (1987–1989). During his Senate career he chaired, at various times, the Select Committee on Standards and Conduct, and the Armed Services, and Appropriations committees. Because of his work with the Armed Services committee (1969–1980) he became known as the "Father of America's Modern Navy", and he was subsequently honored by having a supercarrier, USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) named after him. He is one of only two members of Congress to be so honored, the other being former Georgia Democrat Carl Vinson.

Civil rights record

As a Senator, Stennis was a strong supporter of racial segregation. In the 1950s and 1960s he vigorously opposed the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and he signed the Southern Manifesto of 1956, supporting filibuster tactics to block or delay passage in all cases.

Near the end of his career, in the 1980s, he supported civil rights legislation including the 1982 extension of the Voting Rights Act^[3], though he voted against establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a federal holiday^[4]. Stennis campaigned (along with Governor Bill Allain) for Mike Espy in 1986 during Espy's successful bid to become the first black Congressman from the state since the end of Reconstruction.

Civil liberties

As a prosecutor, he sought the conviction and execution of three share croppers whose murder confessions had been extracted by torture^[5]. The convictions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Brown v. Mississippi (1936) that banned the use of evidence obtained by torture. The transcript of the trial indicates Stennis was fully aware of the methods of interrogation, including flogging, used to gain confessions.

Joseph McCarthy

Stennis was the first Democrat to publicly criticize Joseph McCarthy on the Senate floor during the Red Scare.

Opposition to Bork

Stennis opposed President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. On October 23, 1987, Stennis voted with six Republicans and all but two Democrats to provide the 42-to-58 refusal to confirm the Bork nomination.^[6]

Retirement

In 1982, his last election, Stennis easily defeated Republican Haley Barbour in a largely Democratic year.

Declining to run for re-election in 1988, Stennis retired from the Senate in 1989. He had not lost an election in sixty years. He took a teaching post at his alma mater, which he held until his death in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of ninety-three.

At the time of Stennis' retirement, his continuous tenure of 41 years and 2 months in the Senate was second only to that of Carl Hayden. (It has since been surpassed by Robert Byrd, Strom Thurmond, Ted Kennedy, and Daniel Inouye, leaving Stennis sixth).

John Stennis is buried at Pinecrest Cemetery in Kemper County.

Naming honors

• John C. Stennis Space Center
• John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development (Stennis Center for Public Service)
• John C. Stennis National Student Congress of the National Forensic League
• John C. Stennis Lock and Dam
• John C. Stennis Institute of Government
• John C. Stennis Scholarship in Political Science
• John C. Stennis Vocational Complex
• USS John C. Stennis Aircraft Carrier and Carrier Strike Group
• USS John C. Stennis University
• John C. Stennis Oral History Collection at Mississippi State University in Starkville^[7]

Quote

"I want to plow a straight furrow right down to the end of the row."

Notes

References

• Stennis Center for Public Service. "Tribute to John C. Stennis". Retrieved June 16, 2005.

External links

• Stennis Center for Public Service
• USS John C. Stennis website
• John C. Stennis Space Center
  • NASA Biography
• John C. Stennis Institute of Government
• Biographical Sketch of John C. Stennis, via Mississippi State University
• John C. Stennis at Find a Grave

• John C. Stennis at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

United States Senate
Preceded by Theodore Bilbo	United States Senator (Class 1) from Mississippi November 5, 1947 – January 3, 1989 Served alongside: James Eastland, Thad Cochran	Succeeded by Trent Lott
Political offices
Preceded by Richard B. Russell, Jr. Georgia	Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee 1969–1981	Succeeded by John Tower Texas
Preceded by Strom Thurmond South Carolina	President pro tempore of the United States Senate 1987–1989	Succeeded by Robert C. Byrd West Virginia
Preceded by Mark O. Hatfield Oregon	Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee 1987–1989
Honorary titles
Preceded by Warren G. Magnuson Washington	Dean of the United States Senate January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1989	Succeeded by Strom Thurmond South Carolina