John James Duncan Sr. (March 24, 1919 – June 21, 1988) was an American attorney and

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who represented

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

's 2nd Congressional District in the

U. S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from 1965 until his death in 1988.Michael Rogers
John J. Duncan Sr.
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009. Retrieved: 21 March 2011. He also served as Mayor of

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

, from 1959 to 1964, and as assistant

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

of Knox County, from 1948 until 1956. He is the father of Congressman John J. "Jimmy" Duncan, Jr., who succeeded him in Congress, and current Tennessee State Senator

Becky Duncan Massey Becky Duncan Massey is a Republican member of the Tennessee Senate for the 6th district, encompassing Knoxville and Knox County. Biography Early life and education Becky Duncan Massey was born on January 2, 1955. Her father was John Duncan, ...

Early life

Duncan was born in

Huntsville, Tennessee Huntsville is a town in Scott County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 1,270 at the 2020 census and 1,248 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Scott County. History Huntsville was named after a long hunter known only by the ...

, the sixth of ten children of Cassie (Lee) and Flem Baird Duncan. After completing grade school in the Huntsville area and Hunstville High School, he won a $25 scholarship from

Sears-Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

.Becky French Brewer and Douglas Stuart McDaniel, Park City (Arcadia Publishing, 2005), pages 119-120. He enrolled in the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

in 1939, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science two years later.Congressman John Duncan
in

Tennessee Blue Book The ''Tennessee Blue Book'' is an official government manual for the U.S. state of Tennessee, published by the Secretary of State of Tennessee. The ''Blue Book'' is typically published on a biennial basis. Its contents include details on the organ ...

1975-1978, page 48 Following the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, serving from May 1942 to December 1945. While in the army, he served as a special agent in the Security and Intelligence Division with the same paygrade as a master sergeant. After the war, Duncan enrolled in

Cumberland University Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee. It was founded in 1842. The campus's current historic buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896. History 1842-1861 The university was founded by the Cumberland ...

's law school, from which he graduated in June 1947. He became the state commander of the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

in 1954.

Political career

Knox County prosecutor

Following his graduation, Duncan returned to Knoxville, where he had accepted a position as assistant attorney general of Knox County.Milton Klein, "Academic Freedom at UT," ''Journal of East Tennessee History'', Volume 69 (1997), page 67. In late 1952, Duncan became embroiled in a local controversy when, as commander of the

's East Tennessee Division, he drafted a resolution condemning University of Tennessee's film society for a planned showing of several films starring

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

, who had been accused of being a communist sympathizer. Reacting to the resolution, University of Tennessee president

Cloide Brehm Cloide Everett Brehm (March 23, 1889 – July 25, 1971) was the 15th president of the University of Tennessee, serving in that position from 1946 until his retirement in 1959. Milton M. KleinAndrew D. Holt, UT's Sixteenth President (1959-1970), acce ...

cancelled the event. The school's newspaper, the ''Orange and White'', nevertheless blasted Duncan's accusations as "nonsense."

Mayor of Knoxville

In 1959, Duncan was elected mayor of Knoxville in an election held to replace Mayor Jack Dance, who had died while in office. One of his first initiatives was to complete the overhaul of

Market Square The market square (or sometimes, the market place) is a Town square, square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world.Knoxville College Knoxville College is a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which was founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America. It is a United Negro College Fund member school. A slow peri ...

initiated a series of

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

s to protest

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of humans ...

at downtown-area lunch counters.William MacArthur, ''Knoxville, Crossroads of the New South'' (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Continental Heritage Press, 1982), page 151. With the backing of the Chamber of Commerce, Duncan formed a Good Will Committee, which encouraged downtown businesses to integrate their lunch counters. By July 1960, most downtown businesses had done away with their policies of segregation. Duncan's early intervention in the crisis is often cited as one of the reasons Knoxville avoided the widespread integration-related violence that plagued other Southern cities during this period. Like his predecessors, Duncan struggled to alleviate the city's unemployment problem, which had been brought on by the closure of several textile mills and the shift of the city's major retail centers to West Knoxville.Bruce Wheeler, Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South (Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 2005), pages 101, 134. Numerous companies expressed interest in relocating to Knoxville, but could not do so due to a lack of suitable industrial sites. Duncan proposed a bond issue to fund the preparation of a large industrial site, but met immediate opposition from the city's conservative elements, which rejected government subsidies for business, and the bond proposal was defeated in a referendum.

Congressional career

In 1964, roughly 10 months into his second term as mayor, Duncan won a hard-fought Republican

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 ...

in the Knoxville-based Second Congressional District. The district's seven-term incumbent,

Howard Baker Sr. Howard Henry Baker Sr. (January 12, 1902 – January 7, 1964) was an American politician and a United States Representative from Tennessee. Biography Baker was born in Somerset, Kentucky, in 1902 to James F. Baker, an attorney and newspaper pu ...

, had died that January, and his wife

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), the Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United Stat ...

held the seat for the rest of his term as a caretaker. Duncan was heavily favored due to his popularity as mayor of Knoxville and the heavy Republican tilt of the district. The 2nd had been one of the few areas of Tennessee where most residents supported the Union over the Confederacy. Its residents identified with the GOP soon after the return of peace, and have continued to support the Republicans through good times and bad ever since. As a result, the 2nd's seat has been in the hands of the GOP or its predecessors without interruption since 1857. He defeated Democrat Willard Yarborough by just under 10 percentage points—the closest race in the district since Baker's first run in 1950. The contest was closer than expected in part because the 2nd was nearly swept up in

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

's national landslide in that year's presidential election;

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...

just barely carried it. Duncan never faced another close contest, and was reelected 11 times, including two unopposed runs in 1972 and 1982. He often won re-election by some of the largest majorities of any congressman. He was a member of the

House Ways and Means Committee The Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other program ...

for much of his congressional career. A staunch conservative, he supported U.S. involvement in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, and advocated tougher policies against antiwar demonstrators. Duncan voted against the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...

but in favor of the

Civil Rights Act of 1968 The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applie ...

. He was one of the first congressmen to endorse

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

for president in 1967. In the late 1970s, Duncan engaged in a protracted legislative struggle with environmentalists over the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

's construction of

Tellico Dam Tellico Dam is a dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee, on the Little Tennessee River as part of the Tellico Project. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported as early as 1936 but ...

, on the

Little Tennessee River The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portio ...

, in Duncan's district.Kenneth Murchison, ''The Snail Darter Case: TVA Versus the Endangered Species Act'' (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2007), pages 165, 173. The dam's completion had been halted over concerns for the endangered snail darter, which lived in the river. After numerous failed attempts to amend the

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

to allow the dam's completion, Duncan managed to insert a rider into the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act in July 1979, on a day when most House members were absent. The dam's opponents cried foul, but the bill nevertheless passed the Senate and was signed into law, allowing TVA to finally close the dam's gates. Duncan served in the House until his death from cancer in 1988.

Personal life

Duncan married Lois Swisher of

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

in 1942. They had four children, including John J. "Jimmy" Duncan Jr., who won his father's former congressional seat in the

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-larges ...

that followed his father's death.

References

External links

*
John J. Duncan Sr. Papers
University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries * {{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, John Sr. 1919 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American lawyers Tennessee lawyers Mayors of Knoxville, Tennessee People from Scott County, Tennessee Cumberland University alumni Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee Deaths from cancer in Tennessee Deaths from prostate cancer United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army non-commissioned officers University of Tennessee alumni