Graves, Dixie Bibb, 1882-1965

<p>Dixie Bibb Graves, the first woman to serve in Congress from Alabama, came to Washington through an unusual route. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt surprised the country by nominating Senator Hugo Lafayette Black to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1937, Alabama Governor Bibb Graves provoked a storm of criticism by naming his 55-year-old wife, Dixie Bibb Graves, to fill the Senate seat. “She has as good a heart and head as anybody,” the governor told the press.</p>

<p>Dixie Bibb was born on July 26, 1882, on a plantation near Montgomery, Alabama, to Payton and Isabel Bibb. The family was long associated with Alabama politics. Two of her ancestors had served as the first and second state governors. Dixie was raised with an orphaned cousin, Bibb Graves, and the two married in 1900 after Bibb Graves graduated from Harvard University and was serving as a state legislator. Although Dixie Graves’s political power was clearly derivative, she boasted a long career in state and regional women’s clubs, such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Alabama Federation of Women’s Clubs. From 1915 to 1917, while her husband served overseas in the Army, she was president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She also campaigned for women’s suffrage in Alabama. Bibb Graves was governor twice, from 1927 to 1931 and 1935 to 1939; Alabama’s constitution prohibited consecutive terms in the statehouse. Dixie Graves was comfortable enough on the stump to fill in for her husband, beginning with the 1934 campaign. Press accounts described her as a woman who was “at home with deep-sea fishing tackle, a shotgun, a garden spade, or a silver ladle at the banquet table.” She also was credited with drafting some of her husband’s speeches and influencing key decisions. Her campaign skills impressed enough people that she was mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate for 1938.</p>

<p>Governor Graves’s appointment of his wife in August 1937 provoked great controversy, but it also made political sense. Alabama, like other southern states at the time, was dominated by the Democratic Party, and power within the party was divided among local organizations and machines. Senator Hugo Black’s departure for the Supreme Court had presented Governor Graves with an unexpected problem. The state constitution precluded Graves from filling the Senate vacancy himself, and there was an impressive list of viable claimants to the seat, each representing a substantial political constituency or faction in the state. One historian listed as likely appointment prospects a former U.S. Senator, five U.S. Representatives, a state senator, an industrialist, and a lawyer. For Graves, described by associates as “a natural-born dealer,” to appoint his wife meant that he did not have to choose among political factions within the state; he had left it to the voters to choose. In addition, Dixie Graves’s income as a Senator would be a welcome addition: the Senate rate was twice the governor’s salary.</p>

<p>Dixie Bibb Graves (July 26, 1882 – January 21, 1965) was a First Lady from the State of Alabama and the first woman to serve as a United States Senator from Alabama. She was appointed to the Senate by her husband, Governor Bibb Graves, when Senator Hugo Black resigned his to take his place on the U.S. Supreme Court in August 1937. Graves was succeeded by fellow Democrat Lister Hill, who would serve for over 4 decades.</p>

<p>Dixie Bibb was born on July 26, 1882, on the family plantation outside of Montgomery, Alabama. Her parents were Peyton and Isabel Thorpe Bibb. She attended the local public schools. In 1900, at the age of 18, she married state legislator David Bibb Graves, who was also her first cousin.</p>

<p>Graves became a civic leader. She was a trustee of Alabama Boys' Industrial School in Birmingham and president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy from 1915 to 1917. She was active in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs, and the women's suffrage movement.</p>