Thomas Albert Jenkins (October 28, 1880 – December 21, 1959) was a member of the Ohio state senate and a long-serving

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from Ohio's 10th District (from 1925 to 1959). He was born in Oak Hill,

Jackson County, Ohio Jackson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,653. Its county seat is Jackson. The county is named for Andrew Jackson, a hero of the War of 1812 who was subsequently elected Presiden ...

Background

Jenkins graduated from Providence College, Oak Hill, Ohio, in 1901 and received a law degree from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

at Columbus in 1907.

Career

Jenkins was admitted to the bar that same year (1907) and commenced practice in

Ironton, Ohio Ironton is a city in and the county seat of Lawrence County, Ohio, United States. Located in southernmost Ohio along the Ohio River northwest of Huntington, West Virginia, the city includes the Downtown Ironton Historic District. The popula ...

. He was prosecuting attorney of Lawrence County, Ohio, from 1916 to 1920. In 1923 and 1924, Jenkins served in the

Ohio Senate The Ohio Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly. The State Senate, which meets in the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, first convened in 1803. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such that half of the se ...

and was a delegate to the Republican State convention in 1920 and 1924.

Congress

He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1925 – January 3, 1959). Jenkins was a delegate to

Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...

from Ohio in 1940, 1944. In 1947, 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 anticommuni ...

. After the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the n ...

and during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended ...

Jenkins spoke out in favor of giving aid to the British and campaigned against isolationism. He had a reputation for being so outspokenly pro-British that in the 1940 election, his opponent, isolationist Democrat John P. Kelso referred to him as the "Congressman from London." Jenkins responded by calling his opponent a "Craven stooge for Herr Hitler." In March 1941, he discussed the outcome of the British raid into Norway known as

Operation Claymore Operation Claymore was a British commando raid on the Norwegian Lofoten Islands during the Second World War. The Lofoten Islands were an important centre for the production of fish oil and glycerine, used in the German war economy. The landi ...

when news of it played on American news reels, and argued this was proof that Britain could win if only we gave them the help they needed. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1958. Jenkins voted in favor of the

Civil Rights Act of 1957 The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dw ...

Death

Jenkins died in 1959 and was interred at Woodland Cemetery, in Ironton, Ohio.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Thomas A. 1880 births 1959 deaths County district attorneys in Ohio Republican Party Ohio state senators Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni People from Oak Hill, Ohio People from Ironton, Ohio 20th-century American politicians Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio