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John E. Rankin

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For other people named John Rankin, seeJohn Rankin (disambiguation).
John E. Rankin
Chairman of theHouse Veterans' Affairs Committee
In office
January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953
SpeakerSam Rayburn
Preceded byEdith Nourse Rogers
Succeeded byEdith Nourse Rogers
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives
fromMississippi's1stdistrict
In office
March 4, 1921 – January 3, 1953
Preceded byEzekiel Candler
Succeeded byThomas Abernethy
Personal details
Born
John Elliott Rankin

(1882-03-29)March 29, 1882
Itawamba County, Mississippi
DiedNovember 26, 1960(1960-11-26)(aged 78)
Tupelo, Mississippi
Political partyDemocratic

John Elliott Rankin(March 29, 1882 – November 26, 1960) was aDemocraticpolitician fromMississippiwho served sixteen terms in theU.S. House of Representativesfrom 1921 to 1953. He was co-author of the bill for theTennessee Valley Authorityand from 1933 to 1936 he supported theNew Dealprograms of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt,which brought investment and jobs to the South.

Rankin proposed a bill to prohibitinterracial marriageand opposed a bill to prohibit state use of thepoll tax,which southern states had used since the turn of the century to disenfranchise most blacks and many poor whites. He used his power to support segregation and deny federal benefits programs to African Americans. For instance, in 1944, following thePort Chicago disaster,theU.S. Navyasked Congress to authorize payments of $5,000 to each of the victims' families. But when Rankin learned most of the dead were black sailors, he insisted the amount be reduced to $2,000; Congress settled the amount at $3,000 per family.[1]

He was the main House sponsor of theG.I. Bill.Rankin insisted that its administration be decentralized, which led to continued discrimination against black veterans in the South and their virtual exclusion from one of the most important postwar programs to build social capital among United States residents. In the South, black veterans were excluded from loans, training and employment assistance.[2]Thehistorically black collegeswere underfunded and could accept only about half the men who wanted to enroll.[2]

On the floor of the House, Rankin expressed racist views ofAfrican Americans,[3]Japanese Americans,[4]andJews,[5]accusingAlbert Einsteinof being acommunistagitator.[6]During World War II, Rankin supported a bill that would incarcerate all Japanese Americans in the US and its territories in what he called "concentration camps".[7]He later helped to establish theHouse Un-American Activities Committeewhich questioned theHollywood Tenscreenwriters during theMcCarthy Era.[8]He described an anti-lynching bill as "a bill to encourage Negroes to think they can rape our white women!" while shaking his fist at a gallery of mostly colored persons.[9]

Early life

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Rankin was born on March 29, 1882, nearBolandsinItawamba County, Mississippito a family that had planter ancestors with large holdings before theCivil War.His parents were Thomas Braxton Rankin, a schoolteacher and resident ofTupelo,and Venola Modeste (née Rutledge), born inArkansasas the daughter of Robert Rutledge and Ellen (née Conoway) Rutledge. His paternal ancestors had come to Mississippi fromSouth Carolinain 1840.

After attending local schools and a normal school, Rankin attended college, graduating from theUniversity of Mississippilaw school in 1910. He was admitted to the bar the same year and established a practice inClay County,near where he grew up. From 1911 to 1915, he served as the prosecuting attorney ofLee County.[10]

He married Annie Laurie Burrous; the couple had a daughter, Annie Laurie Rankin.

He became prosecutingattorneyofLee Countyin 1912, a position he held until 1915.[11]

Military service

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Rankin served in theUnited States Army,enlisting just before the end ofWorld War I.[12]In all, he spent 21 days at the Army's officers’ training camp. He would use his brief stint in the military to his political advantage, frequently portraying himself as a former war soldier who supported his fellow veterans.[10]

Political career

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Rankin twice ran unsuccessfully forCongress,in 1916 and 1918. He then started a newspaper called The New Era, which published anti-immigrant rhetoric and openly defended segregation and lynching.[10]

Election to Congress

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Since passage of a new constitution in 1890 that effectivelydisenfranchisedAfrican Americans, Mississippi had become a one-party state dominated by Democrats.

Roosevelt signing theRural Electrification Actin 1935, with Rankin (left) and SenatorGeorge W. Norris(R-Nebraska) (right).

In 1920, Rankin ran once again for a seat in theU.S. House of Representatives,challenging Democratic incumbentEzekiel Candler.During the campaign, Rankin pledged to support nationalJim Crowlaws, using his newspaper as a venue to promote his candidacy. With the support of the local labor unions, Rankin defeated Candler in a runoff.[10]Rankin would serve sixteen consecutive terms (March 4, 1921 – January 3, 1953) asMississippi's First DistrictRepresentative.

Southern clout

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Appointed to the Census Committee as a freshman congressman, Rankin played an important role in opposing a reapportionment bill that would have reduced the representation of Mississippi, as well as one to reduce the overall representation of the South. Both bills were based on the fact that Southern states had disenfranchised most of their black voters but kept apportionment based on total population in each state, resulting in outsize representation for their white populations. The powerful Democrats consistently defeated northern representatives' effort to reduce southern apportionment.[13]

Tennessee Valley Authority

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Rankin testifying before ajoint congressional committee investigating the Tennessee Valley Authorityin 1938.

Rankin coauthored the bill to create theTennessee Valley Authority,bringing major investment into the rural South. He was a supporter of theRural Electrification Administrationunder President Roosevelt's administration, which also benefited many Southerners. He strongly supported Roosevelt'sNew Dealand advocated economic intervention in poor rural communities, but expected that most benefits would flow to southern whites.

Support for segregation

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He supported racial segregation and opposed civil rights legislation.[14]He claimed that the constitutional rights of blacks were best protected through segregation throughout the United States, and that the racist use of a poll tax in elections was a defense against aCommunistplot to undermine American elections.[10]

After 1937, he became active in theConservative Coalitionthat largely controlled domestic policy.[15][16]

Populist issues

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Rankin supported theJudicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937,known as the "court-packing plan."[10]The bill itself never came up for a vote in either congressional chamber, although he voted for its substitute version in the U.S. House that would have provided additional incentives for the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court justices in order to ensure new appointments by President Roosevelt.[17][non-primary source needed]

Rankin opposed the creation of the UN, stating, "TheUnited Nationsis the greatest fraud in all History. Its purpose is to destroy the United States. "[14]

In the1948 United States presidential election,Rankin opposed the re-election of PresidentHarry S. Trumanand supported theDixiecratticket headed byStrom ThurmondandFielding L. Wright.[10]He was subsequently removed by the House Democratic leadership from the HUAC.

Veteran's affairs

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Rankin chaired the Committee on World War Veterans' Legislation (Seventy-secondthroughSeventy-ninthCongresses)[18][title incomplete]and theCommittee on Veterans' Affairs(Eighty-firstandEighty-secondCongresses).[19][title incomplete]In the first role he was the main House sponsor of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as theG.I. Bill of Rights.Edward Humes says it was Rankin "who served as the primary force behind the version of the bill that actually got passed into law."[20]He insisted on a provision that the federal program would be administered in a decentralized manner by the states. This ensured that southern states could continue to practice discrimination against black veterans. According to historian Gavin Wright, "In a comprehensive econometric analysis, Sarah Turner and John Bound find that although the GI Bill had substantial positive benefits for black and white veterans outside the South, those from the South made no significant gains in educational attainment."[2]

Rankin sought to prevent the desegregation of VA hospitals. He argued for treating black veterans in rural, isolated all-black hospitals.[21]

House Un-American Activities Committee

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Rankin helped establish theHouse Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC) as a standing committee in Congress in February 1945 by leading the conservative coalition of Republicans and Southern Democrats.[22][better source needed]In the postwar years, he was active in probing theCommunist Party, USA.

He was criticized for failing to investigate violence and murder perpetrated by chapters of theKu Klux Klan.After HUAC's chief counsel Ernest Adamson announced: "The committee has decided that it lacks sufficient data on which to base a probe," Rankin added: "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."[23]

Rankin called forHenry A. Wallaceto be prosecuted under theLogan Actdue to Wallace's tour of western Europe in 1947.[24]

Bigotry

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African Americans

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Rankin introduced a bill in 1920 to prohibit interracial marriage. During that decade, he opposed bills to makelynchinga federal crime; although such a bill overwhelmingly passed the House, it was not approved by the Senate. In these positions, he was similar to other southern Democrats: he opposed other bills to support African American civil rights, such as any efforts toward desegregation and the elimination ofpoll taxesfor federal elections. Poll taxes had been used by southern states to disfranchise most blacks and many poor whites since the turn of the century. Rankin argued that equal opportunity hiring practices (as required by the Roosevelt administration for defense contractors) "persecuted" whites, anti-lynching bills encouraged rape, and racial equality would destroy "the white man's civilization throughout the world."[25]

During World War II, Rankin alleged that the U.S. Army's loss of a certain battle was due to the cowardice of black soldiers. Fellow RepresentativeHelen Gahagan Douglasreplied that many black soldiers had been decorated for bravery despite serving in a segregated Army.[26]Rankin was known to use the slur "nigger"on the floor of theHouse.

When African AmericanAdam Clayton Powell Jr.was elected to Congress from New York in 1944, Rankin vowed to avoid sitting next to him. In 1945, Powell, a fellowDemocrat,called for Rankin's impeachment. Although freshmen congressmen were expected not to speak during their first year in office, Powell rose after one of Rankin's outbursts to say that "the time has arrived to impeach Rankin, or at least expel him from the party."[3]

During a debate about the 1949Peekskill RiotsinCortlandt Manor,Westchester County,New York,Rankin again used the word "nigger" while addressing the House. Violence had erupted after a racist mob of white anti-communists attackedpeopleleaving a concert where the African American singer and political radicalPaul Robesonhad been performing. Rankin condemned Robeson for inciting the trouble because of hiscivil rights activism.[27]

The next person to speak was RepresentativeJacob Javits(R-New York) who instead condemned the white mob in Peekskill for violatingconstitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and free assembly.[28]Angered by these comments, Rankin bellowed, "It was not surprising to hear the gentleman from New York defend the Communist enclave." He then wanted it known that the American people are not in sympathy "with thatniggerCommunist and that bunch of Reds who went up there. "[28]

On a point of order, RepresentativeVito Marcantonio(R-New York) protested toHouse SpeakerSam Rayburn(D-Texas) that "the gentleman from Mississippi used the word 'nigger.' I ask that the word be taken down and stricken from the RECORD inasmuch as there are two members in this house of Negro race." Rayburn claimed that Rankin had not said "nigger" but "Negro"; but Rankin yelled over him, saying "I said Negro! Just as I have said since I have been able to talk and shall continue to say."[29]Speaker Rayburn defended Rankin, ruling that "the gentleman fromMississippiis not subject to a point of order... referred to the Negro race and they should not be afraid of that designation. "[29]

American Jews

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Rankin wasantisemiticand frequently combined racism against African Americans with invective againstAmerican Jews.In a 1943 speech on the floor of the House quoted in bothThe Jewish Newsof Detroitand the antisemitic magazineThe Defenderof Wichita he said,[30][31]

When those communistic Jews—of whomthe decent Jewsare ashamed—go around here and hug and kiss these Negroes, dance with them, intermarry with them, and try to force their way intowhite restaurants, white hotels and white picture shows,they are not deceiving any red-blooded American, and, above all, they are not deceiving the men in our armed forces—as to who is at the bottom of all this race trouble.

The better element of the Jews, and especially the old line American Jews throughout the South and West, are not only ashamed of, but they are alarmed at, the activities of these communistic Jews who are stirring this trouble up.

They have caused the deaths of many good Negroes who never would have got into trouble if they had been left alone, as well as the deaths of many good white people, including many innocent, unprotected white girls, who have been raped and murdered by vicious Negroes, who have been encouraged by those alien-minded Communists to commit such crimes.

In a paper by William L. Strickland, professor ofpolitical scienceat theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst,he observes that "Rankin was an equal opportunity bigot" as he once — on the floor of the House of Representatives — called the Jewish newspaper columnistWalter Winchell"the littlekike."[3][5][32]This incident, reported byTimemagazine in its February 14, 1944 issue, inspired the novelistLaura Z. Hobsonto write her story about antisemitism,Gentleman's Agreement(1947).[33]

Rankin claimed that theImmigration and Nationality Actwas opposed solely by American Jews:

They whine about discrimination. Do you know who is being discriminated against? The white Christian people of America, the ones who created this nation... I am talking about the white Christian people of the North as well as the South... Communism is racial. A racial minority seized control in Russia and in all her satellite countries, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and many other countries I could name. They have been run out of practically every country in Europe in the years gone by, and if they keep stirring race trouble in this country and trying to force their communistic program on the Christian people of America, there is no telling what will happen to them here.[34]

In late 1945,Albert Einsteinbacked calls for the United States to break off diplomatic relations withSpain'sleaderFrancisco Franco,because the Spanish dictator had been an ally ofAdolf Hitler.Rankin condemned Einstein on the floor of Congress, calling him a "foreign-born agitator" who sought "to further the spread of Communism throughout the world."[6]

An article in anADL Bulletin,entitled "The Plot AgainstAnna M. Rosenberg",attributed the attacks on Rosenberg's loyalty to" professional anti-Semites and lunatic nationalists, "including the" Jew-baiting cabal of John Rankin,Benjamin H. FreedmanandGerald Smith."[35]

During the 1951 espionage trial ofJulius and Ethel Rosenberg,who were charged and convicted of passing information about theatomic bombto theSoviet Union,Rankin was condemned by Jewish groups for repeatedly calling the Rosenbergs a pair of "communist kikes".[36]

Japanese Americans

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In his first term as representative, Rankin introduced ananti-miscegenationbill to prevent whites from marrying "Mongolians" and African Americans. A decade later, in 1930 he lobbied against Hawaii's bid for statehood on the grounds that it would add "two Jap senators" to Congress.[25]

Rankin was one of the few Southern congressmen to support West Coast politicians and lobbyists calling for the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans, proposing that every person of Japanese ancestry in the United States be deported at the end of the war. He reintroduced a defeated "concentration camp bill" to remove ethnic Japanese from the country and all U.S. territories. (Most ethnic Japanese Americans were removed from the West Coast.) As the war progressed, he continued to speak out against Japanese Americans, testifying in favor of labeling Japanese and African American blood donations to prevent them from "contaminating" white recipients and limiting the segregated442nd Regimental Combat Teamto labor battalions instead of active combat.[25]

Senatorial aspirations

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In 1947 Rankin ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate that was vacated by the death ofTheodore G. Bilboin office. He finished last among five major candidates with 13% of the vote.

Final years and death

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In 1952, Rankin was defeated for re-election to the House by CongressmanThomas G. Abernethy,also a Democrat, after their districts were joined throughredistricting.At that time, most blacks in Mississippi were still disenfranchised, a status that persisted until after Congressional passage of theVoting Rights Act of 1965.

Rankin died at his home inTupeloon November 26, 1960. He is interred in Greenwood Cemetery inWest Point, Mississippi.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Allen 1989,p. 67.
  2. ^abcWright 2010.
  3. ^abcHaygood 1993,p. 118.
  4. ^Conrat & Conrat 1992,p. 34.
  5. ^abTime,February 14, 1944.
  6. ^abRowe & Schulmann 2007.
  7. ^Edelson 2013,p. 89.
  8. ^Harcourt 2017,p. 1.
  9. ^California Eagle,April 23, 1937.
  10. ^abcdefgZwiers 2017.
  11. ^Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  12. ^Vickers 1993.
  13. ^Clark 2016.
  14. ^abDallek 1991,p. 505.
  15. ^Woods 2004,p. 1.
  16. ^Reichley 2000,p. 232.
  17. ^GovTrack,"House Vote #11 in 1937 (75th Congress)".
  18. ^"1931 to 1947".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 22 (14th ed.). 1955. p. 845.OCLC4167797.
  19. ^"1949 to 1953".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 22 (14th ed.). 1955. p. 845.OCLC4167797.
  20. ^Humes 2006,p. 26.
  21. ^Grillot, Peretz & Philippe 2020.
  22. ^Kern 2003,p. 384.
  23. ^Gunther 1947,p. 789.
  24. ^Schmidt 1960,p. 29.
  25. ^abcHerzinger 2020.
  26. ^Caro 2002,p. 346.
  27. ^Ford 2008,pp. 97–98.
  28. ^abDuberman 1989,p. 373.
  29. ^ab95 Cong. Rec. 13124 (1949).
  30. ^Slomovitz 1943.
  31. ^Winrod 1943.
  32. ^Strickland 2009.
  33. ^Hobson 1983,pp. 322–323, 328–329.
  34. ^98 Cong. Rec. 4320 (1952).
  35. ^Svonkin 1997,p. 120.
  36. ^Michels 2005,p. 258.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of theU.S. House of Representatives
fromMississippi's 1st congressional district
1921-1953 		Succeeded by
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