John E. Rankin

John Elliott Rankin
Former U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 1st Congressional District From: March 4, 1921 – January 3, 1953
Predecessor	Ezekiel "Zeke" Chandler
Successor	Thomas G. Abernethy
Information
Party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Annie Laurie Burrous

John Elliott Rankin (March 29, 1882 – November 26, 1960) was a virulently bigoted, racist, antisemitic, and anti-Zionist Democrat from Mississippi who represented the state's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1921 to 1953. A staunch leftist for most of his life (particularly his early political career), Rankin was an instrumental figure in the implementation of early New Deal programs.

A hardline economic populist and progressive, Rankin shared the racial demagoguery of like-minded Mississippi Democrats James K. Vardaman and Theodore G. Bilbo. Although mainstream sources claim he "moved rightward" in his later career, it was more likely a reflection of his old-school progressivism coming at odds with the direction of the New Deal in the 1940s.

U.S. House of Representatives

In 1916, Rankin sought to deny incumbent Democrat Ezekiel S. "Zeke" Chandler renomination, though the attempt failed. After another failed bid in the 1918 midterms, he ousted Chandler in the 1920 primaries with the aid of organized labor interests and was elected to the House that year.

During the 1920s, Rankin held a strongly left-wing voting record like most racist Southern Democrats, opposing the conservative policies of Republican presidential administrations. He opposed the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill in 1921, falsely claiming that it "encouraged rape."

New Deal era, World War II

In the 1930s, Rankin was an adamant supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, sponsoring the 1933 bill along with Nebraska liberal Republican George Norris which established the Tennessee Valley Authority despite criticisms from conservatives that the measure was socialist. He similarly led the fight to establish the Rural Electrification Administration.

Rankin and Sen. Theodore Bilbo were known for their virulent racial bigotry.

In 1937, Rankin was among the hardcore supporters of Roosevelt who backed the infamous court packing scheme that year, voting for the weaker U.S. House substitute which would provide incentives for the retirement of Supreme Court justices in order to pursue pro–New Deal replacements by FDR. The power-grab effort, opposed by the majority of the American people, was defeated by the Conservative Coalition.

Rankin initially opposed the creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee because he thought it would be led by Samuel Dickstein, a Jewish Democrat from New York. He only supported the committee after learning that Dickstein would not be chairing the HUAC, with the position instead going to Martin Dies, Jr., a Texas segregationist. When Dies refused to thoroughly investigate the Ku Klux Klan, Rankin commented, "After all, [the Klan] is an old American institution."

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Rankin joined many progressives in calling for the internment of Japanese-Americans. He claimed to be for "catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps... Damn them! Let's get rid of them now." In late 1942, Rankin introduced a bill that aimed to remove all American residents of Japanese descent from the United States.

Although Rankin voted for the internationalist Lend-Lease Act, he denounced the war effort in an antisemitic diatribe, accusing it of being incited by "Wall Street and a little group of our international Jewish brethren." New York Democratic representative Michael M. Edelstein, angry with the antisemitic "international Jewish conspiracy" trope, denounced Rankin before dying of a heart attack abruptly after. The event was reported in the media only by The New York Times, which placed it on the twenty-fourth page.

In 1944, Rankin initially sought to provide $5,000 to families of several hundred sailors killed in Port Chicago, California; after finding out that many of the victims were black, he pushed to reduce the benefits down to $2,000.

At one point, Rankin accused fellow Democrat Frank E. Hook of being a Communist, and Hook in turn called him a liar. The Mississippi Democrat then assaulted Hook, who did not physically retaliate due to believing that forcefully using his strength could seriously injure Rankin.

Despite Rankin's professed anti-Communism, he strongly extolled Soviet leader and mass murderer Joseph Stalin:

“	Stalin was educated for the priesthood. ... The Bible says, teach a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart therefrom. It was but natural therefore that when Stalin got in power he should open the churches ... Stalin broke up the Comintern ... He restored rank and discipline in his army and introduced the incentive payment plan among the men who work in his factories.	”
—Rankin to colleagues, 1940s

Post–World War II years

Rankin's unrestrained racist, antisemitic rhetoric, which included openly calling Jewish commentator Walter Winchell a "slime-mongering k***," ended his bid for higher office as people connected the dots between the manner of hatred he spouted and the horrific atrocities of the Holocaust. When seeking a U.S. Senate seat following the death of Bilbo, he finished the primary in fifth place with only 13% of the vote. The victor of the special election, John Stennis, carried a history of racism though, unlike Rankin, was not a public demagogue.

During the 1948 presidential election, Rankin supported the candidacy of States' Rights Democratic Party leader Strom Thurmond instead of Harry S. Truman due to the fact that the latter introduced a civil rights program.

Following redistricting after the 1950 census, Rankin's district was merged with that of Thomas G. Abernethy, who represented Mississippi's 4th congressional district. He lost the 1952 primary to Abernethy, and his political career ended.

External links

• John E Rankin: Equal Opportunity Racist – published March 29, 2017