Tom Luxsox Coins

Mississippi State

The relatively unknown NASA space center in coastal Mississippi received its name in honor of the Senate's most senior member at the time, John C. Stennis. This article intends to shed light on the man behind one of Mississippi's most revered figures.

Stennis was born in Kemper County, Mississippi on August 3rd, 1901. After he received a bachelor's degree in 1923 from Mississippi State University, he attended law school at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. While attending, he became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity. He won a seat on the Mississippi House of Representatives while still attending law school, and served until 1932.

From 1932 to 1937 Stennis worked as a prosecutor, and then as a circuit judge for a decade thereafter. Following the death of Senator Theodore Bilbo in 1947 a special elections was held to fill the vacant seat. Stennis won the special election as a Democrat to fill his seat, beating two sitting federal congressmen and two others. He served as a junior senator for 31 years under fellow Democrat James Eastland, together they became the longest running duo in senatorial history until surpassed by Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina. He continued as a senior senator for another decade.

Unlike the stereotypical southern career politician, his policy record changed radically over the course of his career. He began as a staunch opponent to the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, as well as the Voting rights act. By the end of his career in the 1980s, he supported the extension of the Civil Rights Act and campaigned for Mike Espy in 1986 for his successful bid to become the first black Congressman from the state since the end of Reconstruction. Stennis also had some fame in being the first Democrat to publicly criticize Joseph McCarthy on the Senate floor.

During the Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration proposed the Stennis Compromise, which would allow famously hard-of-hearing Stennis, and only Stennis, to listen to the Oval Office tapes and report back to the Senate on his findings. This stone-faced mockery of a Senator's handicapped did nothing to improve the image of he administration. It should come as no suprise that nothing came of this proposal.

Stennis' name is immortalized in a great number of public facilities and fixtures, including the aforementioned Space Center, a canal lock, a river dam, a Mississippi State University scholarship in Political Science, and an aircraft carrier with accompanying fighter squadron.

This article was written by Matthew Jorn is part of a series of entries highlighting the cultural, natural, and sociological virtues of Coastal Mississippi. Shopping for a Ford Focus Gulfport shoppers know they can trust Mr. Ford Gulfport Ford Dealers.

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