Albert Gore, Sr. (1907-1998)
Jackson County native Albert Gore, Sr., was the son of a farmer who lost most of his money during the Great Depression when three local banks collapsed in one week. Gore had to work odd jobs, including teaching school and fiddling at barn dances, to pay his way through college.
He graduated from State Teachers College in Murfreesboro (now Middle Tennessee State University). Gore earned a law degree from the YMCA law school in Nashville while serving as superintendant of Smith County schools during the 1930s.
As an active member of the Tennessee Young Democrats, Gore was chosen by Congressman Gordon Browning to run his gubernatorial campaigns in 1934 and 1936. Once Browning was elected in 1936, Gore was named commissioner of labor, where he started the state’s unemployment and coal mine safety inspection programs.
In 1938, Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as an avid supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. He served on a secret House committee that brought the Oak Ridge nuclear facility to East Tennessee during World War II. In 1952 Gore ran for U.S. senator and beat the powerful Crump machine ally, Kenneth McKellar.
Gore formed an alliance with the other senator from Tennessee, Estes Kefauver, and together brought a more moderate form of politics to the Democratic Party in the state. Gore, along with Kefauver, refused to sign the anti-integration Southern Manifesto. Gore’s civil rights record was mixed. He voted against the 1964 Civil Rights bill, but the next year voted for a civil rights act.
Gore believed in standing up for those who were not rich. He fought for progressive taxation, minimum wage, and public works projects as ways to relieve poverty. He sponsored a bill which was the first federal health insurance program, and is considered the forerunner of Medicare. He also wrote bills for the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which is the largest public works program in history.
By 1970, a Republican resurgence caused Gore to lose his Senate seat to William Brock III. Gore retired from politics, but saw his son, Al Gore, Jr., enter the political field, eventually becoming vice president of the United States in 1993.Picture Credits:
- Photograph of Senator Al Gore, Sr. United States Senate
- Photograph of Senator Al Gore, Sr., announcing that he plans to run for a third term. Who is the young man beside him? It is his son Albert Jr., 15 years old, the future vice president of the United States. Photo by Bill Preston, courtesy of The Tennessean
- A photograph of Al Gore Sr. (right) and Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver (left) and President John Kennedy. Undated. Courtesy of the Albert Gore Research Center, Middle Tennessee State University
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