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Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. ( November 2 , 1897 - January 21 , 1971 ) was an American Democratic Party politician who was a long-time United States Senator from the state of Georgia . He represented Georgia in the Senate from 1933 until his death. He was a founder and leader of the Conservative Coalition that dominated Congress from 1937 to 1963. BIOGRAPHY Russell was born in Winder, Georgia , the fourth of 13 children of Richard Brevard Russell, Sr. , a prominent lawyer and later chief justice of the state. He did not attend college but did take a LL.B. degree from the University Of Georgia School Of Law in 1918 . Russell served in the enlisted ranks of the United States Naval Reserve Forces in 1918 and, in 1919 , set up law practice with his father in Winder. He was elected to the Georgia House Of Representatives (1921-31), serving as its speaker 1927-31. His meteoric rise was capped by election, at age 33, as Governor Of Georgia , serving from 1931 to 1933 . He was a progressive governor who reorganized the bureaucracy, promoted economic development in the midst of the Great Depression , and balanced the budget. In 1932 one Robert E. Burns, an African American serving time on a Georgia chain gang, escaped to New Jersey and wrote a book entitled ''I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang'', condemning the Georgia prison system as inhumane. It became a popular movie but Russell demanded extradition. New Jersey refused and Russell was attacked from all quarters. Following the death of U.S. Senator William J. Harris in 1932 , Governor Russell defeated Congressman Charles Crisp to serve the remainder of Harris' term; he was elected on his own to serve a full term in 1936 and was subsequently reelected in 1942, 1948, 1954, 1960 and 1966. During his long tenure in the Senate, Russell served as chairman on Committee On Immigration (Seventy-fifth through Seventy-ninth Congresses), Committee On Manufactures (Seventy-ninth Congress), Committee On Armed Services (Eighty-second and Eighty-fourth through Ninetieth Congresses), and Committee On Appropriations (Ninety-first Congress). As the senior Senator he became President Pro Tempore Of The Senate during the Ninety-first and Ninety-second Congresses. Russell at first supported the New Deal and in 1936 he defeated the demagogic Governor Eugene Talmadge by defending the New Deal as good for Georgia. By 1937, however, Russell became a leader of the Conservative Coalition which controlled the Congress from 1937 to 1964. He proclaimed his faith in the "family farm" and supported most New Deal programs for parity, rural electrification, and farm loans. He supported agricultural research, 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. He was a member of the Warren Commission , which investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy . Russell was a prominent supporter of a strong national defense and became in the 1950's the most knowledgeable and powerful congressional leader in this area. He used his powers as chairman of the Armed Services Committee from 1951 to 1969 and then as chairman of the Appropriations Committee as an institutional base to add defense installations and jobs for Georgia. He was dubious about the Vietnam War , warning President Johnson repeatedly against deeper involvements. .]] Russell was a mentor of Lyndon B. Johnson and promoted his Senate career. The two disagreed over Civil Rights . Russell, as the south's leader in the senate, had repeatedly blocked and defeated civil rights legislation and had co-authored the Southern Manifesto in opposition to civil rights. He had not supported the States Rights party of J. Strom Thurmond in 1948, and he opposed civil rights laws as unconstitutional and unwise. (Unlike Theodore Bilbo , "Cotton Ed" Smith and James O Eastland , who had a reputation of being a ruthless, tough-talking, heavy-handed Race Baiters , He never promoted hatred or acts of violence to defend segregation.) But he gained support in Georgia's rural African American community by sponsoring federal welfare programs. Senator Russell died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC . Russell was regarded as a warm and friendly man, although he was very shy and never married. He was passionately interested in the history of classical Greece and Rome, as well as the history of The War Between the States. LEGACY Russell has been honored by having the following named for him:
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