Claude Denson Pepper (September 8, 1900 – May 30, 1989) was an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a spokesman for liberalism and the elderly. In foreign policy he shifted from pro-Soviet in the 1940s to anti-Communist in the 1950s. He represented Florida in the United States Senate from 1936 until 1951, and the Miami area in the United States House of Representatives from 1963 until 1989. Image File history File linksMetadata P00021822. ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami Area  Ranked 22nd  - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²)  - Width 361 miles (582 km)  - Length 447 miles (721 km)  - % water 17. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Senate composition following 2006 elections The United States Senate is... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

U.S. Senate

Born in Dudleyville, Alabama in a poverty-stricken sharecropper shack, Pepper graduated from the University of Alabama and Harvard Law School. He briefly taught law at the University of Arkansas, and then moved to Perry, Florida, where he opened a law practice. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1929. After being defeated for reelection he moved his law practice to Tallahassee, the state capital. He lost in the Democratic primary for the United States Senate in 1934, but won in a 1936 special election following the death of Senator Duncan Fletcher. In the Senate, Pepper became a leading New Dealer and close ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was unusually articulate and intellectual, and, collaborating with labor unions, he was often the leader of the liberal-left forces in the Senate. His reelection in a heavily fought primary in 1938 solidified his reputation as the most prominent liberal in Congress. He sponsored the Lend-Lease Act. Because of the power of the Conservative Coalition, he usually lost on domestic policy. However he was more successful in promoting an international foreign policy based on friendship with the Soviet Union. He gave lukewarm support to Harry S. Truman in 1948, saying the Democrats should nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower instead; but he did not support his friend Henry A. Wallace that year. He was re-elected in 1944, but lost his bid for a third full term in 1950 by a margin of over 60,000 votes. Ed Ball, a power in state politics who had broken with Pepper financed his opponent, Congressman George A. Smathers. A former supporter of Pepper, Smathers repeatedly attacked "Red Pepper" for having far-left sympathies, condemning both his support for universal health care and his alleged support for the Soviet Union. Mr. Pepper had traveled to the Soviet Union in 1945 and, after meeting Soviet dictator Joe Stalin, declared he was "a man Americans could trust."^[1]. The University of Alabama (also known as Alabama, UA or colloquially as Bama) is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. Founded in 1831, UA is the flagship campus of the University of Alabama System. ... Harvard Law School (HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ... The University of Arkansas known also as the U of A or UA, is a public co-educational land-grant university. ... Perry is a city located in Taylor County, Florida. ... The Florida House of Representatives, one of the two Chambers of the Florida Legislature, is composed of 120 members, each representing a district. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Senate composition following 2006 elections The United States Senate is... Duncan Andrew Gwynne Fletcher OBE (born 27 September 1948 in Salisbury (now Harare), Zimbabwe) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer and current coach of the English cricket team. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: New Deal For other uses of old Deal and The New Deal, see New Deal (disambiguation). ... Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... The Lend-Lease program was a program of the United States during World War II that allowed the United States to provide the Allied Powers with war material without becoming directly involved in the war. ... The Conservative coalition was a coalition in American politics bringing together Republicans (most of whom were conservatives) and the minority of conservative Democrats, most of them from the South. ... President Truman announces that Germany had surrendered (May 8 1945) Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953); as Vice President, he succeeded to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ... D. D. Eisenhower during WWII Dwight David Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower, October 14, 1890 - March 28, 1969), nicknamed Ike, was an American soldier and politician, who served as the thirty-fourth President of the United States (1953-1961). ... Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) was the 33rd Vice President of the United States (1941–45), the 11th Secretary of Agriculture (1933–40), and the 10th Secretary of Commerce (1945–46). ... George Smathers George Armistead Smathers (born November 14, 1913) is an American lawyer and politician who represented Florida in the United States Senate for eighteen years. ... Universal health care is a health care system in which all residents of a geographic or political entity have their health care paid for, regardless of medical condition or financial status. ...

U.S. House

Pepper returned to law practice in Miami and Washington, failing in a comeback to regain his Senate seat in 1958. In 1962 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from a liberal district around Miami and Miami Beach, becoming one of very few former United States Senators in modern times to be elected to the House after their Senate careers. He remained there until his death in 1989, rising to chair of the powerful Rules Committee in 1983. At this stage Pepper was staunchly anti-Communist and anti-Castro; he supported aid to the Nicaraguan "Contra" rebels. Pepper in the early 1970s chaired the Joint House-Senate Committee on Crime then, in 1977, became chair of the new House Select Committee on Aging, which became his base as he emerged as the nation's foremost spokesman for the elderly, especially regarding Social Security programs. He succeeded in strengthening the Medicare. In 1986 he passed a federal law that abolished most mandatory retirement ages. In the 1980s he worked with Alan Greenspan in a major reform of the Social Security system that maintained its solvency by slowly raising the retirement age, thus cutting benefits for workers retiring in their mid-60s. Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... Social Security, in the United States, refers to the Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. ... President Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. ... Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist and was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. ...

Pepper served in Congress and the Senate longer than any other Floridian and became known as the "grand old man of Florida politics". He was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1950 and 1983. Republicans often joked that he and Tip O'Neill were the only Democrats who really drove President Reagan crazy. When he died, his body lay in state for two days under the Rotunda of the United States Capitol; he was the 26th American so honored. Time (whose trademark is capitalized TIME) is a weekly American newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. ... Thomas Phillip ONeill, Jr. ... The United States Capitol The United States Capitol is the capitol building that serves as the location for the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. ...

A number of places in Florida are named for Pepper, including the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University (housing a think tank devoted to aging) and the Claude Pepper Federal Building in Miami, as well as several public schools. Large sections of US 27 in Florida are named Claude Pepper Memorial Highway. Pepper's wife Mildred was also well known and respected for her humanitarian work as well. She was also honored with a number of places named in Florida. They had no children; he never fully recovered from her death in 1979, and had her preserved in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental, which was later to be displayed in Claude Pepper Center in Tallahassee, Florida. Covered in mold, Claude Pepper joined her upon his death on May 30th, 1989. The Florida State University (commonly referred to as Florida State or FSU)[4] is a public research university located in Tallahassee, the capital city of Florida. ... This article is about the institution. ... This U.S. Highway article needs to be cleaned up to conform to both a higher standard of article quality and accepted design standards outlined in the WikiProject U.S. Highways. ...

Red Accusations and hoax "Redneck Speech" in 1950

In 1950 George Smathers, formerly a supporter, broke with Pepper and ran against him in the Democratic primary for Senate. The contest was extremely heated, and revolved around policy issues, especially charges that Pepper represented the far left and was too supportive of Stalin. Pepper's opponents circulated widely a 49-page booklet titled The Red Record of Senator Claude Pepper.^[2] George Smathers George Armistead Smathers (born November 14, 1913) is an American lawyer and politician who represented Florida in the United States Senate for eighteen years, from 1951 until 1969, as a member of the Democratic Party. ...

Part of American political lore is the Smathers "redneck speech," which Smathers reportedly delivered to a poorly educated audience. The "speech" was never given; it was a hoax dreamed up by one reporter. Smathers did NOT say, as was reported in Time Magazine during the campaign: "Are you aware that Claude Pepper is known all over Washington as a shameless extrovert? Not only that, but this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law, and he has a sister who was once a thespian in wicked New York. Worst of all, it is an established fact that Mr. Pepper, before his marriage, habitually practiced celibacy."

The Smathers campaign denied his having made the speech, as did the reporters who covered his campaign, but the hoax followed Smathers to his death.^[3]

References

• Pepper, Claude, and Hays Gorey, Eyewitness to a Century (1987), autobiography.
• Crispell, Brian Lewis, Testing the Limits: George Armistead Smathers and Cold War America (1999)
• Danese, Tracy E. Claude Pepper and Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose, and Power (2000)

Notes

1. ^ Fund, John. PoliticalJournal:George Smathers, RIP, January 24, 2007
2. ^ Pepper & Gorey 1987, 205
3. ^ Crispell (1999), pp. 66-67, and Pepper & Gorey (1987), pp. 203-204.

External link

• Biographical Dictionary of the US Congress

William Luther Hill (October 17, 1873 - January 5, 1951) a US Senator from Florida, serving as a Democrat in 1936. ... These are tables of congressional delegations from Florida to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... George Smathers George Armistead Smathers (born November 14, 1913) is an American lawyer and politician who represented Florida in the United States Senate for eighteen years, from 1951 until 1969, as a member of the Democratic Party. ... These are tables of congressional delegations from Florida to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Charles Edward Bennett (December 2, 1910 - September 6, 2003) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida from 1949 to 1993. ... Edward John Gurney was a U.S. Representative and a Senator from Florida; born in Portland, Maine on January 12, 1914; attended the public schools of Skowhegan and Waterville; graduated from Colby College, Waterville, Maine in 1935; received law degrees from the Harvard Law School 1938 and from Duke University... These are tables of congressional delegations from Florida to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Paul Grant Rogers (born June 4, 1921) is an American lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Florida. ... These are tables of congressional delegations from Florida to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Daniel Andrew Mica, a Democratic Politician and US Representative from Florida. ... These are tables of congressional delegations from Florida to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (also known as Ileana Ros; born July 15, 1952) is a Republican United States Representative from Floridas 18th district (map), having held that office since 1989. ...

External links

• Claude Pepper Foundation
• Claude Pepper Center