20 Facts About Jennings Randolph

Jennings Randolph was an American politician from West Virginia.

Jennings Randolph was the last surviving member of the United States Congress to have served during the first 100 days of Franklin D Roosevelt's administration.

Jennings Randolph was born in Salem, West Virginia, the son of Idell and Ernest Fitz Jennings Randolph.

Jennings Randolph attended the public schools, and graduated from the Salem Academy in 1920 and Salem College in 1922.

Jennings Randolph engaged in newspaper work in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1924.

Jennings Randolph was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress, but was elected to the Seventy-third and to the six succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4,1933, to January 3,1947.

Jennings Randolph was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection during the Republican landslide of 1946.

Jennings Randolph was elected in a special election on November 4,1958 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy triggered by the death of Matthew M Neely.

Jennings Randolph was reelected in 1960,1966,1972 and 1978, and served from November 5,1958 to January 3,1985.

Jennings Randolph was chairman of the Committee on Public Works and its successor, the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Jennings Randolph was not a candidate for reelection in 1984.

Jennings Randolph voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1960,1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the US Supreme Court.

Jennings Randolph was best known for sponsoring eleven times an amendment to the Constitution that would grant citizens aged between 18 and 21 the right to vote.

Jennings Randolph first introduced the amendment in 1942, arguing that young soldiers fighting in World War II should be able to vote.

Jennings Randolph derided the protesters as "braless bubbleheads" and claimed that the equal rights activists did not speak for women, citing those more radical feminists that supported, as he put it, the "right to unabridged abortions".

In 1972, when the amendment passed the Senate, Jennings Randolph was a co-sponsor.

Jennings Randolph was the founder and first president of the Congressional Flying Club.

Jennings Randolph was a strong advocate for programs to advance air travel and airport development.

In subsequent years, Jennings Randolph co-authored the Federal Airport Act as well as legislation that created the Civil Air Patrol, the National Air and Space Museum, and National Aviation Day.

Jennings Randolph introduced legislation to establish a Department of Peace in 1946 with the goal of strengthening America's capacity to resolve and manage international conflicts by both military and nonmilitary means.