Thomas Carey Hennings Jr. (June 25, 1903September 13, 1960) was an

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political figure from Missouri. He was a

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member of the United States House of Representatives (from 1935 until 1940) and the United States Senate (from 1951 until 1960).

Early life

Born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri to Judge Thomas Carey Hennings, his father was an influential member of the Jefferson Club, an organization dedicated to overthrowing the bossism of the city's Democratic Political Machine. Hennings Jr. attended Soldan High School, and displayed talents in athletics, going on to run track and field at Cornell University. After graduating from Cornell in 1924, he finished his education at the law school of Washington University in St. Louis in 1926. He was admitted to the

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in 1926 and commenced practice in St. Louis, and served as assistant circuit attorney for that city from 1929 to 1934. He served as a colonel on the Governor's staff from 1932 to 1936 and was a lecturer on criminal jurisprudence at the

Benton College of Law Benton College of Law was a law school in St. Louis, Missouri. It opened in as Kent School of Law, and incorporated as Benton School of Law in 1897. George L. Corlis was its dean. James Avery Webb helped establish the school. The school initiall ...

in St. Louis from 1934 to 1938.

Congressional career

House of Representatives

Hennings was elected to the Seventy-fourth, Seventy-fifth, and Seventy-sixth Congresses and served from January 3, 1935, to December 31, 1940. He was the first Democrat in 22 years to represent Missouri's 11th congressional district.Edward V. Long, Tom Hennings-The Man from Missouri, 26 MO. L. REV. (1961) Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/mlr/vol26/iss4/3 Hennings enjoyed support from St. Louis' growing African American population. Hennings regularly hired African Americans to his offices in Washington D.C. and St. Louis. During the Second New Deal, he worked towards establishing an African American branch of the Civilian Conservation Corps at Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Within the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA), Hennings advocated for a "Negro Federal Employment Office" with all black staff. Hennings also sponsored anti-lynching bills while in the House. His work secured him the endorsements of two of St. Louis' black newspapers, the ''Argus'' and the ''American'' and the city's

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

chapter. Hennings resigned in 1940 to become a candidate for circuit attorney of St. Louis.

Time out of Office

Hennings was circuit attorney from 1941 to 1944, taking leave of absence in September, 1941 to volunteer in active duty in the United States Naval Reserve. Serving in the Pacific and Caribbean as a lieutenant commander for three years, he was discharged from active duty due to physical disability incurred in the line of duty. After which, he resumed the practice of law in the St. Louis firm of Green, Hennings, Henry and Evans.

Senate

He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1950 over Republican incumbent and former governor

Forrest Donnell Forrest Carl Donnell (August 20, 1884March 3, 1980) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator and the 40th governor of Missouri. Early life Donnell was born in Quitman, Missouri. Donnell graduated from Ma ...

in the only senate election that year where Democrats took a seat from Republicans, was reelected in 1956, and served from January 3, 1951, until his death from abdominal cancer in Washington, D.C. in 1960. Hennings did not sign the 1956

Southern Manifesto The Declaration of Constitutional Principles (known informally as the Southern Manifesto) was a document written in February and March 1956, during the 84th United States Congress, in opposition to racial integration of public places. The manife ...

, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

. While in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration (Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Congresses).

Personal life

Hennings died on September 13, 1960, and is buried Arlington National Cemetery. Hennings' daughter Karla Ann was briefly married to White House Counsel John Dean who would later be deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent cover-up.

References

* * , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hennings, Thomas C. Jr. 1903 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American politicians American prosecutors Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Cornell University alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri Democratic Party United States senators from Missouri Lawyers from St. Louis Politicians from St. Louis United States Navy officers Washington University School of Law alumni United States Navy reservists