Difference between revisions of "Herbert Brownell"
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Revision as of 03:08, July 7, 2021
| Herbert Brownell, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| 62nd Attorney General of the United States From: January 21, 1953 – October 23, 1957 | |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Predecessor | James P. McGranery |
| Successor | William P. Rogers |
| Former Chair of the Republican National Committee From: April 1, 1946 – June 27, 1948 | |
| Predecessor | Harrison E. Sprangler |
| Successor | Brazilla Carroll Reece |
| Former State Representative from New York's 10th District From: January 1, 1933 – December 31, 1937 | |
| Predecessor | Langdon Post |
| Successor | MacNeil Mitchell |
| Information | |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Doris A. McCarter (died 1979) Marion "Riki" Taylor (div.) |
Herbert Brownell, Jr. (February 20, 1904 – May 1, 1996) was a lawyer and Republican civil rights hero from New York who served as the United States Attorney General under the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. He was previously the chair of the Republican National Committee during the mid-1940s, and a state representative preceding that.
Brownell is a distant relative of women's suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony.[1]
Political career
Eisenhower Administration
Brownell was successful in his efforts for President Eisenhower to appoint pro-civil rights judges into federal judicial positions.[2] He proved crucial in the appointment of Earl Warren to the United States Supreme Court, led the DOJ in filing a brief to the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, and later convinced Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration in Arkansas during the Little Rock crisis.[3]
Brownell wrote the original version of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and the legislation was submitted to Congress by Eisenhower.[3] After passing the House with most of the opposition from Democrats,[4] the bill was weakened in the Senate under the direction of then-Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson,[5] who pushed through a jury trial amendment to compromise with segregationists.[6] In order to prevent the Democrats on the national level as being viewed as civil rights obstructionists, Johnson ensured that rather than the bill going down in a filibuster by the Southern Democrats, the legislation be weakened to prevent progress if enacted. The Senate passed on July 24th an amendment which removed authority for the attorney general to intervene in civil rights cases,[1][7] and on August 2nd the jury trial amendment.[8] Only then was the Act passed by the Senate,[9] which Eisenhower still signed into law.
An outspoken opponent of communist sedition, Brownell recommended to Eisenhower in 1953 that calls to give clemency to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg be rejected.[2] The Rosenbergs were ultimately executed for conspiring to hand U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.
Brownell and Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Republican senator who exposed communist infiltration of the United States State Department and the U.S. Army, alleged that President Truman had known that Treasury Undersecretary Harry Dexter White was a Soviet spy when Truman appointed him as the first head of the International Monetary Fund.[10] This has now been refuted by declassified documents through the Freedom of Information Act which attest Truman and the White House had not known of the existence of the Army Signals Intelligence (forerunner of the NSA) Venona project which identified Soviet spies in government.[11] FBI director J. Edgar Hoover did warn Truman that White was under suspicion, but Truman dismissed Hoover's allegations. The 1997 bipartisan Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, states in its findings:[12]
The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled. As does that of Harry Dexter White of the Treasury Department.
Brownell also worked secretly to undermine some of the "excesses" of McCarthy.[1]
Brownell resigned from the Eisenhower Administration on October 23, 1957, which was accepted in a letter by Eisenhower.[13]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Brownell, Herbert, Jr.. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 New York Times News Service (May 4, 1996). HERBERT BROWNELL JR., IKE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Zak, Michael (February 20, 2007). Herbert Brownell, GOP civil rights hero. American Thinker. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ HR 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957.. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ The Civil Rights Act of 1957. Us House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ DiEugenio, James (October 7, 2018). The Kennedys and Civil Rights: How the MSM Continues to Distort History, Part 2. Kennedys and King. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957. AMENDMENT TO DELETE AUTHORITY FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL TO SEEK PREVENTIVE RELIEF IN CIVIL RIGHTS CASES UNDER THE 14TH AMENDMENT.. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957. AMENDMENT TO GUARANTEE JURY TRIALS IN ALL CASES OF CRIMINAL CONTEMPT AND PROVIDE UNIFORM METHODS FOR SELECTING FEDERAL COURT JURIES.. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957.. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 6, 2021.
- ↑ Time Magazine, The White Case Record, Nov. 30, 1953.
- ↑ Chairman's Forward, Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy (1997).
- ↑ Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Appendix A, 7. The Cold War (1997).
- ↑ Letter Accepting Resignation of Herbert Brownell, Jr., as the Attorney General.. The American Presidency Project. Retrieved July 6, 2021.