Harold Dunbar Cooley (July 26, 1897 – January 15, 1974) was an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. He represented the Fourth Congressional district of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

from 1934 to 1966.

Background

He was born on July 26, 1897 in Nashville, North Carolina. He was a graduate of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

at Chapel Hill and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Law School.

Career

He was a private practice lawyer and military veteran, serving in the United States Naval Aviation Flying Corps during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was a member of the Interparliamentary Conferences held at Cairo, Egypt, 1947 and at Rome, Italy, 1948 and served as president of the American group for two four-year terms. On July 7, 1934, he was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of United States Representative

Edward W. Pou Edward William Pou (; September 9, 1863 – April 1, 1934), was an American politician, serving in the United States Congress as a representative from 1901 until his death in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 1934. From March 1933 to April 1934, he w ...

. He was subsequently reelected 16 times, serving until his resignation on December 30, 1966. Cooley remains the longest-serving Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture in history. In 1947-8, he served on the

Herter Committee The House Select Committee on Foreign Aid, or Herter Committee, was established to study the proposal that had been launched by General George Marshall in his speech at Harvard on June 5, 1947 for a Marshall Plan, in part as Cold War anticommunism, ...

. He was one of the few Southern Congressmen not to sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto that opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

''. However, Cooley voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the original version of the

Civil Rights Act of 1960 The Civil Rights Act of 1960 () is a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. It dealt primarily wi ...

(while abstaining on the final version), the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was nearly defeated in 1964 by Republican

James Carson Gardner James Carson Gardner (born April 8, 1933) is an American businessman and politician who served as a U.S. Representative (1967–1969) and as the 30th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina (1989–1993). Early life Gardner was born in Rocky Mo ...

and then lost to Gardner by a stunning 13-point upset in 1966.OurCampaigns: 1966
/ref>

Death

He died on January 15, 1974, in Wilson, N.C. and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Nashville, N.C.

Legacy

His home at Nashville, the

Bissette-Cooley House Bissette-Cooley House is a historic home located at Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina. It was built in 1911, and is a two-story, double pile central hall plan Classical Revival frame dwelling. It has a slate covered, steeply pitched hippe ...

, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1985.

References

External links

Inventory of the Harold Dunbar Cooley Papers
in the

Southern Historical Collection The Southern Historical Collection is a repository of distinct archival collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which document the culture and history of the American South. These collections are made up of unique primary mat ...

, UNC-Chapel Hill * https://web.archive.org/web/20110829181738/http://www.fff.org/freedom/0498d.asp 1897 births 1974 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina North Carolina lawyers United States Naval Aviators Yale Law School alumni 20th-century American politicians People from Nashville, North Carolina 20th-century American lawyers {{NorthCarolina-politician-stub