Bankhead, William Brockman, 1874-1940

<p>William Brockman Bankhead (April 12, 1874 – September 15, 1940) was an American politician who served as the 42nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936 to 1940, representing Alabama's 10th and later 7th congressional districts as a Democrat from 1917 to 1940. Bankhead was a prominent supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal of pro-labor union legislation, thus clashing with most other Southern Democrats in Congress at the time. Bankhead described himself as proud to be a politician, by which he meant that he did not neglect matters that concerned his district or reelection. He was the father of actress Tallulah Bankhead.</p>

<p>Bankhead was born at the Bankhead plantation in Lamar County, Alabama. His father, John H. Bankhead, was an active politician who had served in the Alabama legislature, and later as US Representative and Senator. His mother was Tallulah James Brockman, granddaughter of South Carolina state Senator Thomas Patterson Brockman, and he was raised as a Methodist. Bankhead's brother, John H. Bankhead II, also served in the Senate.</p>

<p>William Bankhead attended the University of Alabama, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and played on the university's first football team, organized in 1892. He studied law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, graduating in 1895.</p>

<p>He was immediately admitted to the bar in Alabama, and practiced law in Huntsville. In 1898, he became city attorney of Huntsville, serving until 1902. In 1900, he was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives for one term, serving through 1901.</p>

<p>In 1905, he moved to Jasper, Alabama. In 1910 he was appointed solicitor of the fourteenth judicial circuit of Alabama, serving until 1914. In 1914, he sought the Democratic nomination for US Representative, but failed. In 1916 he was elected Representative from the newly created 10th Congressional District. Bankhead held the 10th District until it was abolished after the 1930 Census, when Alabama lost a seat. He was the only person ever elected from the 10th District.</p>

<p>After reapportionment and redistricting following the 1930 Census, Bankhead was re-elected Representative from the 7th District in 1932, and was re-elected three times, serving until his death in 1940. Bankhead served as chairman of the House Rules Committee from April 1934 until January 1935, taking over for Edward W. Pou who died in office. In 1934, he was chosen House Majority Leader by his fellow Democrats. On June 4, 1936, he was chosen Speaker of the House to succeed Jo Byrns, who had died that morning. Bankhead served as Speaker until his death on September 15, 1940. His cause of death was a stomach hemorrhage. At the 1940 Democratic National Convention three months before his death, he finished second to Henry A. Wallace on the Vice Presidential ticket, losing the delegate count 626–329.</p>

<p>As Speaker, Bankhead held the second-highest political office of any Alabamian, after only Vice President William R. King.</p>

<p>BANKHEAD, WILLIAM BROCKMAN, (son of John Hollis Bankhead, brother of John Hollis Bankhead 2d, and uncle of Walter Will Bankhead), a Representative from Alabama; born in Moscow, Lamar County, Ala., April 12, 1874; attended the country schools; was graduated from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 1893 and from the Georgetown University Law School at Washington, D.C., in 1895; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Huntsville, Ala.; member of the State house of representatives in 1900 and 1901; city attorney of Huntsville, 1898-1902; moved to Jasper, Walker County, Ala., in 1905 and continued the practice of law; solicitor of the fourteenth judicial circuit of Alabama, 1910-1914; unsuccessful candidate for nomination to the Sixty-fourth Congress in 1914; elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-fifth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1917-September 15, 1940); chairman, Committee on Rules (Seventy-third Congress); majority leader (Seventy-fourth Congress), Speaker of the House of Representatives (Seventy-fourth to Seventy-sixth Congresses); delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1940; died on September 15, 1940, in Washington, D.C.; funeral services were held in the Hall of the House of Representatives; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery, Jasper, Ala.</p>

<p>William Bankhead (1874-1940) was a member of one of Alabama's most important political families and served as Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives. He took an active role in passing Depression-era and New Deal legislation and sided with Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in opposing isolationists in Congress as World War II loomed on the horizon. He was also the father of controversial actress Tallulah Bankhead and uncle to politician and businessman Walter William Bankhead.</p>

<p>William Brockman Bankhead was born on April 12, 1874, in Moscow, Lamar County, to John Hollis Bankhead and Tallulah Brockman. John Bankhead was a lawyer and member of the Alabama House of Representatives who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The couple's other son, John H. Bankhead II, also served in the Alabama legislature and the U.S. Senate. Growing up in rural Alabama not far from the Mississippi state line, Bankhead attended local country schools.</p>

<p>Bankhead graduated from the University of Alabama in 1892 and earned a law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 1895. Returning to Alabama, Bankhead practiced law in Huntsville, where he was appointed city attorney in 1898. In 1900, Bankhead married Adelaide Eugenia Sledge, with whom he had two daughters, Eugenia and Tallulah. Bankhead was elected to the Alabama legislature in 1900 and 1902 and moved to Jasper, Walker County, in 1905 to practice law with his older brother John. From 1910 to 1914, he served as a prosecutor and in 1916 was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, where he would serve until his death in 1940.</p>

<p>A loyal Democrat, Bankhead strongly supported Pres. Woodrow Wilson, and in 1928 he endorsed New York governor Alfred E. Smith for president despite opposition from many of his fellow southerners because Smith was a Catholic and anti-prohibitionist. Republican Herbert Hoover won the 1928 presidential election, but less than a year after his inauguration, the nation was plunged into the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis in American history. For Bankhead and his fellow Democrats, the economic calamity provided an excellent opportunity to re-capture the White House in 1932. Bankhead supported New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination and, after FDR's election, was an effective champion of the president's New Deal legislative program.</p>

<p>By the mid-1930s, political observers, including Roosevelt, recognized Bankhead as one of the South's leading politicians. In 1935, he was elected House majority leader and the following year was elected Speaker of the House after the death of Tennessean Joseph W. Byrns. As Speaker, Bankhead loyally guided Roosevelt's legislative program through the House, including the president's controversial and unsuccessful plan to expand the size of the Supreme Court. Perhaps the most important piece of domestic legislation passed under Bankhead's House leadership was the Fair Labor Standards Act, introduced by fellow Alabamian senator Hugo Black. The legislation established a federal minimum wage and a 40-hour work week, eliminated child labor, and required overtime pay for workers.</p>

<p>Given his national prominence, Bankhead sought the 1940 Democratic presidential nomination but loyally stepped aside when Roosevelt sought an unprecedented third term. His commitment to the president was not, however, reciprocated. Bankhead expressed an interest in the vice-presidential nomination, but Roosevelt coolly hinted that he was too old and infirm to serve. Despite the president's rebuff, Bankhead was invited to deliver the keynote address on behalf of Roosevelt's candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. On September 10th, Bankhead visited Chicago to open the president's reelection campaign. Just before he was to speak, however, Bankhead fainted and was rushed back to a Washington, D.C., hospital. His health continued to deteriorate, and on September 15 he suffered an abdominal hemorrhage and died.</p>

<p>An adroit legislator who strongly supported Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Bankhead was arguably Alabama's most influential political leader in the first half of the twentieth century. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Jasper. In 1942, the 198,000-acre Alabama National Forest was renamed the William B. Bankhead National Forest in his honor. His home now operates as Bankhead House and Heritage Center.</p>