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Charles E

Charles Edward Bennett (2 December 1910-6 September 2003) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-FL 2) from 3 January 1949 to 3 January 1967 (succeeding Emory H. Price and preceding Don Fuqua) and from FL-3 from 3 January 1967 to 3 January 1993 (succeeding Claude Pepper and preceding Corrine Brown).

Biography[]

Charles Edward Bennett was born in Canton, New York in 1910, and he was raised in Tampa, Florida. He served as editor of The Independent Florida Alligator at the University of Florida and as president of the student body, and he served in the US Army in New Guinea during World War II and was paralyzed by polio while overseas. After the war, he served in the US House of Representatives from his home in Jacksonville from 1949 to 1993, becoming the longest-serving Florida congressman, with 44 years of service. Bennett rarely faced serious opposition, as he was a conservative Southern Democrat who voted against all of the acts of the Civil Rights movement apart from the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He retired in 1993 and died in Jacksonville in 2003 at the age of 92.

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