- Howard W. Smith
Infobox_Congressman
name= Howard Worth Smith
state=Virginia
district=8th
term=1931-1967
preceded=R. Walton Moore
succeeded=William L. Scott
date of birth=birth date|1883|2|2|mf=y
place of birth=Broad Run, Va.
date of death=death date and age|1976|10|3|1883|2|2|mf=y
place of death=Alexandria, Va.
spouse=
profession=Attorney
religion=Episcopalian
party=Democrat|Howard Worth Smith (
February 2 1883 —October 3 1976 ), Democratic U.S. Congressman from Virginia, was a leader of theConservative Coalition and an avid segregationist.Early life and education
Born in Broad Run,
Fauquier County ,Virginia , onFebruary 2 ,1883 , he attended public schools and graduated from Bethel Military Academy,Warrenton, Virginia , in 1901. He took his LLB at the law department of theUniversity of Virginia atCharlottesville in 1903, was admitted to the bar in 1904 and practiced inAlexandria, Virginia .During
World War I , he was assistant general counsel to the Federal Alien Property Custodian. From 1918 - 1922, he was Commonwealth Attorney ofAlexandria, Virginia . He served as a judge 1922-1930 (he was often referred to as "Judge Smith," even while in Congress), and also engaged in banking, farming, and dairying.Congressional career
He was elected in 1930 to Congress. He initially supported
New Deal measures such asTennessee Valley Authority Act and theNational Industrial Recovery Act and authored the anti-CommunistSmith Act in 1940.A leader of the
Conservative coalition , Smith led the opposition to the National Labor Relations Board. Conservatives created a special House committee to investigate the NLRB, headed by Smith and dominated by opponents of the New Deal.The committee conducted a sensationalist investigation that undermined public support for the NLRB and, more broadly, for the New Deal. In June 1940, amendments proposed by the Smith Committee passed by a large margin in the House, due in part to the Smith's new alliance with William Green, president of the
American Federation of Labor . The AFL was convinced the NLRB was controlled by leftists who supported theCongress of Industrial Organizations not the AFL in organizing drives. New Dealers stopped the Smith amendments but Roosevelt gave way and replaced the CIO-oriented members on the NLRB with men acceptable to Smith and the AFL. [Storrs p 212]As chairman of the all-powerful
United States House Committee on Rules after 1955, Smith controlled the flow of legislation in the House.Opposition to civil rights legislation
An opponent of racial integration, Smith used his power as Rules Committee chairman to keep much civil rights legislation from even coming to a vote on the House floor.
When the
Civil Rights Act of 1957 came before Smith's committee, Smith said::"The Southern people have never accepted the colored race as a race of people who had equal intelligence . . . as the white people of the South."Speaker
Sam Rayburn tried to reduce his power in 1961 with only some success, but Smith's close ties to other southern Democrats, and to Republicans, kept him in power.Smith held up the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 . One of Rayburn's reforms was the "Twenty-One Day Rule" requiring a bill to be sent to the floor within 21 days. Under pressure, Smith released the bill.Two days before the vote, Smith offered an amendment to insert "sex" after the word "religion" thereby adding gender as a
protected class ofTitle VII of the Act. One of Smith's opponents denied that he was trying to help women at all; RepresentativeCarl Elliott of Alabama, later claimed,:"Smith didn't give a damn about women's rights...he was trying to knock off votes either then or down the line because there was always a hard core of men who didn't favor women's rights." [Dierenfield p 194] .The
Congressional Record has Smith, when introducing the amendment, creating laughter in the chambers while reading a letter from "a lady." However, the Record also demonstrates, during arguments for a second vote on the amendment, more serious arguments from Smith, voicing concerns that white women would suffer greater discrimination without a protection for gender. [Gold, 1981]Due to his close association with feminist leader
Alice Paul , Smith may have supported equal rights for women since the 1920s. CongresswomanMartha Griffiths , a liberal feminist from Michigan, actively supported Smith's amendment of including "sex" in Title VII. [Freeman, 1991] Smith preferred to have no Civil Rights Act but preferred one that outlawed sexual discrimination than one without.Post-congressional career
In 1966, Smith was defeated for renomination by a more liberal Democrat, George C. Rawlings, Jr. Rawlings was in turn soundly defeated by Republican
William L. Scott . He resumed the practice of law inAlexandria, Virginia , where he died at age 93 onOctober 3 1976 ; internment was in Georgetown Cemetery,Broad Run, Virginia .1995 Portrait controversy
In January 1995, the House Rules Committee chairman, Republican Congressman
Gerald B.H. Solomon , had a portrait of Smith hung in the Committee hearing room. TheCongressional Black Caucus requested that it be removed.:"It is an affront to all of us... [Smith is] perhaps best remembered for his obstruction in passing this country's civil rights laws. A man who in his own words never accepted the colored race as a race of people who had equal intelligence and education and social attainments as the White people of the South,"said Georgia Congressman John Lewis. [cite web
date=February 13 ,1995
author=
url= http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n14_v87/ai_16624572
title= CBC members get portrait removed from House Rules Committee meeting room - Congressional Black Caucus
publisher=Jet
accessdate=2007-03-24]
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