By Ray Hill In the twentieth century, only four nominees to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States have been rejected; all were the nominees of a Republican president and three of the four were rejected by Democrats, who controlled the United States...
By Ray Hill One of the responsibilities of the United States Senate as set out in the Constitution is that of advising and consenting to nominations made by the Executive Branch of the federal government. Between 1894 and 1968 - - - a span of seventy-four years - - -...
By Ray Hill For two decades, Eugene “Gene” Talmadge, was a fixture in Georgia politics. Bold, brash and plain spoken, Gene Talmadge was almost always on the ballot for some office until his death. Born on September 23, 1884 in Forsyth, Georgia, Gene...
By Ray Hill Matthew Mansfield Neely may be the most resilient politician in our nation’s history. Perhaps the only person in recorded history who made a better comeback than Neely was Lazarus and while Lazarus came back from the dead only once, Neely came back from...
By Ray Hill Sergeant Alvin York was already quite famous when Warner Brother’s studio released a movie based on his life in 1941. The film would go on to become the highest grossing movie of the year, making York even more famous. Sergeant York topped Clark Gable...
By Ray Hill William Anderson was a rare commodity in Tennessee: a military hero who was a liberal, representing a largely rural district. After commanding the submarine Nautilus and making the first successful run under the polar ice cap surrounding the North Pole,...
Tom Murray of Tennessee By Ray Hill Lest anyone believes being elected to Congress is glamorous and allows one to bask in the limelight of attention by the press and the public, there are far more congressmen slogging through the daily chores that make up a...
By Ray Hill Pat Sutton, congressman from Tennessee’s Seventh District, had been renominated over a strong opponent in the 1950 election and reelected that fall. Clearly ambitious, Sutton, like several other Tennessee politicians, was carefully watching Tennessee’s...
A Tennessean on the U.S. Supreme Court By Ray Hill I daresay few of my readers recall a Knoxvillian once sat on the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Edward Terry Sanford served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1923 until his unexpected death...
By Ray Hill With just weeks before Tennesseans went to the polls, candidates hustled for votes in October of 1964. Tennessee, once solidly Democratic, had become a battleground state. Tennessee had supported Franklin D. Roosevelt in all four of his presidential...
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