biography
| name: |
Bankhead, John Hollis
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1872–1946)
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| biography:
| Lawyer and politician, born in Moscow, Alabama, USA. The uncle of Tallulah Bankhead, he studied at Georgetown Law School (1893) and returned to Alabama and the law office of his father's business friend. As a state representative (1903–5), he once wrote a law to disenfranchise African-Americans. In 1930 he ran successfully for the US Senate as a ‘Jeffersonian Democrat’ and embraced New Deal farm programmes (Democrat, 1931–46). The Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act (1937) established the Farm Security Administration which, among other things, assisted migrant workers. During the war he fought unsuccessfully the president's policy of keeping food prices low. He collapsed during a political battle to prevent the continuation of price controls, and died a month later. |
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