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Benjamin Meek Miller
Benjamin Meek Miller (1864-1944) served as governor of Alabama during the worst years of the Great Depression. A large, bespectacled, dignified man, Miller had a long legal career before and after his term as governor of a state that was among the most severely affected by the Depression. In that difficult era, the man and the times did not perfectly meet, as he approved tax legislation relieving the burden on the poor but also backed business interests, using the state militia against striking -
william bankhead
William Brockman Bankhead was born on his family’s plantation in Moscow, Lamar County, Alabama, on April 12, 1874. He was the second son of Senator John Hollis Bankhead and Tallulah Brockman Bankhead. His brother was Senator John Hollis Bankhead II. He was a member of the university’s first football team in 1892 and graduated, A. B., June, 1893; captain, Co. C, Cadet corps, and winner of the trustees’ oratorical prize. He at once entered the law department of Georgetown university, at Washingto -
herbert hoover
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), America’s 31st president, took office in 1929, the year the U.S. economy plummeted into the Great Depression. Although his predecessors’ policies undoubtedly contributed to the crisis, which lasted over a decade, Hoover bore much of the blame in the minds of the American people. As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it. A successful mining engineer before -
dixie graves
Dixie Bibb Graves (1882-1965) served in the U.S. Senate for five months from 1937 to 1938, a position to which she was appointed by her husband, Gov. Bibb Graves to fill the seat of Hugo Black. Known as "Miss Dixie" by most Alabamians, Graves was an early advocate for women's rights who supported drafting women in times of war, participated in the Alabama suffrage movement, and was the first of only two women to have represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate. She was a descendent of Alabama's first -
Hugo Black
Hugo Black earned his law degree from the University of Alabama and then became one of Birmingham's leading trial lawyers. He set a goal of being elected senator by the age of 40. In the South, that meant he had to join the Democratic Party. He also believed that to be electable, he had to join the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which he thought was necessary to further his political career.
