John Jackson Sparkman (20 December 1899-16 November 1985) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-AL 8) from 3 January 1937 to 6 November 1946 (succeeding Archibald Hill Carmichael and preceding Robert E. Jones Jr.) and a Democratic US Senator from Alabama from 6 November 1946 to 3 January 1979 (succeeding George R. Swift and preceding Howell Heflin).
Biography[]
John Jackson Sparkman was born in Hartselle, Morgan County, Alabama in 1899, and he was raised picking cotton on his father's farm along with his eleven brothers and sisters. He worked as a high school teacher before becoming a lawyer in Huntsville in 1925, and he served as a magistrate judge for Alabama's northern district from 1930 to 1931. Students from his Sunday school backed his successful bid for the US House of Representatives in 1936, and he won with 99.7% of the vote. He supported American military aid for Britain during World War II, and he went on to serve as House Majority Whip in 1946. That same year, he was elected to the US Senate, and he was Adlai Stevenson II's running mate in the 1952 presidential election, during which they were defeated by Dwight D. Eisenhower and his running mate Richard Nixon. Sparkman defended segregation during the Civil Rights era, and he signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto in opposition to racial integration. He served as Senator until his retirement in 1978, and he was the longest-serving Senator from Alabama until Richard Shelby beat his record in 2019.