Helen Douglas Mankin (September 11, 1896 – July 25, 1956) was an American politician. She was the second woman to represent Georgia in the

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Life

Mankin was born September 11, 1896, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Fulton County, Georgia Fulton County is located in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,066,710, making it the state's most-populous county and its only one with over one million inhabi ...

. She grew up there, attending public and private schools. She graduated with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

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, Rockford,

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, in 1917. She graduated with an LL.B. from

Atlanta Law School The Atlanta Law School was a private, night law school for working professionals and others seeking a legal education. The school's faculty members were practicing lawyers and judges from across the state of Georgia. History The school began in 18 ...

, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1920. During and after the

First World War 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 ...

, Mankin served as an ambulance driver in the American Women's Hospital Unit No. 1, a Red Cross unit attached to the French army in 1918 and 1919. She was there as a civilian and was not officially a military veteran. After the war and earning her law degree, Mankin entered private practice as an attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. She entered politics, and served as a Democratic member of the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...

from 1937 until 1946.Georgia Encyclopedia-Helen Douglas Mankin
/ref> In 1946, Mankin was elected as a Democrat to represent the fifth congressional district of Georgia in the 79th United States Congress, filling the seat left vacant by the resignation of

Robert Ramspeck Robert C. Word Ramspeck (September 5, 1890 – September 10, 1972) was an American politician and businessman. Ramspeck was born in Decatur, Georgia. As a young man he was a federal police officer. He was admitted to the bar in 1920. He woul ...

. She took her seat February 12, 1946. She was an unsuccessful candidate in that year's

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primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

when she sought renomination to run for reelection. She won the

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, gaining major support from Atlanta's

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community, but lost in the

county unit system The county unit system was a voting system used by the U.S. state of Georgia to determine a victor in statewide primary elections from 1917 until 1962. History Though the county unit system had informally been used since 1898, it was formally enac ...

, a voting system similar to the presidential electoral college that Georgia then used for primary elections. The county-unit system gave disproportionate weight to the votes of rural counties, severely discounting the votes of large urban areas, such as Atlanta's Fulton County. Mankin then was an unsuccessful

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candidate in the

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of 1946. Mankin's term of office concluded January 3, 1947. She continued to live in Atlanta, and she died there on July 25, 1956.

References

* *Spritzer, Lorraine Nelson. ''The Belle of Ashby Street: Helen Douglas Mankin and Georgia Politics''. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1982.
MANKIN, Helen Douglas
Office of the Historian: Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk
Helen Douglas Mankin (1894-1956)
''New Georgia Encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Mankin, Helen Douglas 1896 births 1956 deaths Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers Politicians from Atlanta Atlanta Law School alumni American Red Cross personnel Rockford University alumni Female members of the United States House of Representatives Women state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives Women in Georgia (U.S. state) politics Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century American lawyers

Life

See also

References