Richard B. Russell, Jr., Senator From Georgia

Richard B. Russell, Jr., Senator From Georgia

In 1897, the year Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., was born, the world was poised for a dramatic swing into a century that would see more changes in religion, politics, society, science, technology, and war than almost all other centuries of human history combined. It was a wild ride for a boy born to fulfill great expectations in the mercurial modern political arena yet reared to venerate the worn and vanishing splendor of the American South. He would become one of the half dozen most powerful men in Washington for a period of almost twenty years, and it would be frequently admitted, most notably by President Harry Truman, that if Russell had not been from Georgia, if he had been from a state such as Indiana, Illinois or Missouri, the Presidency could not have been denied him. His love of the South and his native state was such that when Truman¿s remark was quoted to him, Russell replied: ¿I¿d rather be from Georgia than be President.¿ This book acquaints the reader with a fascinating and complex man of contrasts. An ardent segregationist who fought civil rights legislation, Richard B. Russell was also the devoted father of the School Lunch Program. A Georgia farm boy, Russell almost idolized the agricultural society from which America sprang but embraced the nuclear age and space technology. An intense family man, he appreciated women, fell in love easily, and conducted numerous affairs. Yet Russell never married. Deeply private, he lived his entire adult life in the public eye. Richard Russell was good company. His personal story makes good reading.

For more than two decades, Richard B. Russell of Georgia and Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas wielded immense influence on major national decisions affecting the political life of the United States. The changing political and personal relationship of these two extraordinarily powerful men is engagingly described in Colleagues.Russell, a prestigious senator and leader of the Senate's Southern bloc, became Johnson's mentor and friend on Capitol Hill, and their interactions -- as allies and sometimes as adversaries -- continued into Johnson's presidency. But their close friendship eventually fell victim to Johnson's civil rights and Vietnam policies, as well as to a minor patronage squabble. Goldsmith, a longtime UPI reporter and syndicated columnist, who knew both men well, traces their relationship through such events as the McCarthy censure, the 1957 and 1964 civil rights acts, the Kennedy assassination, and the Vietnam War. With information taken from notes made by Russell himself, as well as oral history accounts and other original sources, Goldsmith has produced a comprehensive account of friendship that had significant ramifications for twenty years of the nation's history.Finally, Goldsmith offers a concluding chapter based on the just-released White House tapes of both the Johnson and Kennedy administrations. New insights and information about the Russell and Johnson relationships are available for the first time.

On March 13, 1956, ninety-nine members of the United States Congress promulgated the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, popularly known as the Southern Manifesto. Reprinted here, the Southern Manifesto formally stated opposition to the landmark United State Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, and the emergent civil rights movement. This statement allowed the white South to prevent Brown's immediate full-scale implementation and, for nearly two decades, set the slothful timetable and glacial pace of public school desegregation. The Southern Manifesto also provided the Southern Congressional Delegation with the means to stymie federal voting rights legislation, so that the dismantling of Jim Crow could be managed largely on white southern terms. In the wake of the Brown decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional, seminal events in the early stages of the civil rights movement--like the Emmett Till lynching, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Autherine Lucy riots at the University of Alabama brought the struggle for black freedom to national attention. Orchestrated by United States Senator Richard Brevard Russell Jr. of Georgia, the Southern Congressional Delegation in general, and the United States Senate's Southern Caucus in particular, fought vigorously and successfully to counter the initial successes of civil rights workers and maintain Jim Crow. The South's defense of white supremacy culminated with this most notorious statement of opposition to desegregation. The Southern Manifesto: Massive Resistance and the Fight to Preserve Segregation narrates this single worst episode of racial demagoguery in modern American political history and considers the statement's impact upon both the struggle for black freedom and the larger racial dynamics of postwar America.

This book explores the significance of the peach as a cultural icon and viable commodity in the American South.

Traces the life of the South Carolina senator, describes his role in President Roosevelt's administration, and discusses his influence on government policy

This biography concentrates on the numerous legislative and diplomatic achievements of U.S. Senator Walter F. George (fl. 1922-1957), the son of a tenant farmer, who rose to become one of the most powerful men in the United States. His successes as a legislator (agricultural legislation, vocational education, work on the Bricker Amendment) and later in his role as a major authority on foreign policy made him a leader in the Senate. In the international field, he was responsible for the passage of Lend-Lease, was a major player in the formation of NATO, and played a definitive role in the 1955 Summit meeting between American and Soviet leaders. He was a major force in shaping American foreign policy during the first Eisenhower administration, when he breakfasted weekly with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to determine America's actions on the world stage. Probably his greatest accomplishment was the Senate's passage of the Formosa Agreement, which blunted the advance of communist aggression in South East Asia. His early career found him serving as prosecutor and judge, most importantly on the Georgia Supreme Court. Elected to the Senate in 1922. George achieved national notoriety in 1938 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to purge him in that year's elections for his general opposition to the New Deal and Roosevelt's court packing attempts in 1937. In effect forced from the Senate in 1957, he ended his long career as President Eisenhower's representative to NATO. In his thirty-five year Senate career, George worked through the "Roaring Twenties." the Great Depression, American rearmament, World War II, and the Cold War. George made a positive mark on each of these historic events. Book jacket.