1. Jamie Lloyd Whitten was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who represented his native state of Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1941 to 1995.
23 Facts About Jamie Whitten
1. 2.
Jamie Whitten was at the time of his departure the longest-serving US Representative ever.
3.
Jamie Whitten is the longest-serving member of Congress ever from Mississippi.
4.
Jamie Whitten was a New Deal liberal on economic matters, and took a leading role in Congress in forming national policy and spending regarding agriculture.
5.
Jamie Whitten attended local public schools and the University of Mississippi where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
6.
Jamie Whitten worked as a school teacher and principal and was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served in 1931 and 1932.
7.
Jamie Whitten was admitted to the bar in 1932, and from 1933 to 1941, he was District Attorney of Mississippi's 17th District, which included his home county of Tallahatchie.
8.
In 1941, Jamie Whitten was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in a special election to represent the state's 2nd District, in the northern part of the state.
9.
Jamie Whitten was elected to a full term in 1942 and was re-elected 25 more times.
10.
Jamie Whitten's district was renumbered as the 1st District after the 1970 Census.
11.
Jamie Whitten had the support of the Democratic caucus and served as chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture.
12.
Jamie Whitten lost his influence after suffering a debilitating stroke in February 1992.
13.
Jamie Whitten required that scientists prove the danger of antibiotic use.
14.
Jamie Whitten was an ardent New Dealer who supported most liberal spending issues.
15.
Jamie Whitten supported distribution of free food to the poor from surplus commodity stocks, school lunch programs and food stamps in coalition with urban Democrats.
16.
Jamie Whitten voted against Reagan's economic plans, tax cuts, increased defense spending, balanced budget initiative, tort reform, welfare reform, abortion restrictions, missile defense system, and the Persian Gulf War.
17.
Jamie Whitten was originally a segregationist, as were many of his colleagues from Mississippi and the rest of the South.
18.
Jamie Whitten signed the Southern Manifesto condemning the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools.
19.
Jamie Whitten later apologized for these votes, calling them a "mistake" caused by severe misjudgment.
20.
Jamie Whitten voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
21.
Jamie Whitten retired to his home in Oxford, Mississippi and died there on September 9,1995, aged 85.
22.
Jamie Whitten is the 5th longest-serving Congressmember behind Dingell, Daniel Inouye, Carl Hayden, and Robert Byrd.
23.
Jamie Whitten authored That We May Live, written largely as a pro-development, pro-chemical pesticide answer to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the seminal 1962 book that helped spur the modern environmental movement.