John C. Stennis

John C. Stennis
Stennis in 1967
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office January 3, 1987 – January 3, 1989
Deputy	George J. Mitchell
Preceded by	Strom Thurmond
Succeeded by	Robert Byrd
United States Senator from Mississippi
In office November 5, 1947 – January 3, 1989
Preceded by	Theodore Bilbo
Succeeded by	Trent Lott
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from the Kemper County district
In office January 1928 – January 1932 Serving with Joseph H. Daws
Personal details
Born	John Cornelius Stennis (1901-08-03)August 3, 1901 Kemper County, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	April 23, 1995(1995-04-23) (aged 93) Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Coy Hines
Children	2, including John
Education	Mississippi State University (BA) University of Virginia (LLB)
John C. Stennis's voice John C. Stennis testifies on televising Senate proceedings before the Senate Rules Committee Recorded April 14, 1983

John Cornelius Stennis (August 3, 1901 – April 23, 1995) was an American politician who served as a U.S. senator from the state of Mississippi. He was a Democrat who served in the Senate for over 41 years, becoming its most senior member for his last eight years. He retired from the Senate in 1989, and is, to date, the last Democrat to have been a U.S. senator from Mississippi. Furthermore, at the time of his retirement, Stennis was the last senator to have served during the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

While attending law school, Stennis won a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives, holding office from 1928 to 1932. After serving as a prosecutor and state judge, Stennis won a special election to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy following the death of Theodore G. Bilbo. He won election to a full term in 1952 and remained in the Senate until he declined to seek re-election in 1988. Stennis became the first Chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and also chaired the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Appropriations. He also served as President pro tempore of the Senate from 1987 to 1989. In 1973, President Richard Nixon proposed the Stennis Compromise, whereby the famously hard-of-hearing Stennis would be allowed to listen to, and summarize, the Watergate tapes, but this idea was rejected by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Stennis was a zealous supporter of racial segregation. Along with James Eastland, he supported the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948 headed by Strom Thurmond,^[1] and signed the Southern Manifesto, which called for massive resistance to the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. He also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He supported the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982 but voted against the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. He was also the trial level prosecutor of Brown v. Mississippi (1936). The transcript of the trial indicated Stennis was fully aware that the confession was obtained by subjecting three black defendants to brutal whippings and hanging by the officers.