Tennessee’s Modern Republican Party: Dan Kuykendall By Ray Hill There are a handful of folks who deserve the lion’s share of the credit for creating a true two-party system in Tennessee.  From 1900-1970, Tennesseans only elected three Republican governors. Howard...

John L. Lewis By Ray Hill Perhaps the most famous union leader in American history today is the late Jimmy Hoffa and that is most likely due to the circumstances surrounding his disappearance.  For decades, the most prominent labor leader in the United States was John...

Tennessee and Right-to-Work, Part 4: The Tennessee Congressional Delegation and the Taft-Hartley Bill By Ray Hill Both Houses of Congress had passed the Taft-Hartley Bill, as both chambers had a majority of Republicans. The 1946 elections had been a terrific success...

Georgia Lusk of New Mexico By Ray Hill Like anyone fascinated with history, I always take special note of “firsts”; for instance the first person ever to be popularly elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee was also our longest-serving senator, Kenneth D....

Tennessee and Right-to-Work Part 3 The Tennessee Congressional Delegation and the Taft-Hartley Bill   By Ray Hill Only two members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation in the House of Representatives had voted against the labor bill sponsored by Congressman...

Tennessee and Right-to-Work Part 2 The Tennessee Congressional Delegation and the Taft-Hartley Bill By Ray Hill The loss by Democrats of both Houses of Congress to the Republicans led to several proposed reforms in the federal government.  Perhaps the signal...

Burning Down Washington, D.C. By Ray Hill Those cities which are also capitols for their respective countries are always highly cognizant of several things, not the least of which are social status and one’s address.  In 1922, one of the more elegant and desirable...

Tennessee and Right-to-Work: The Tennessee Congressional Delegation and the Taft-Hartley Bill By Ray Hill The 1946 election saw a Republican electoral tidal wave.  The Chairman of the Republican National Committee was a Tennessean, Congressman Carroll Reece.  The...

The Fall of Congressman Clifford Davis, V By Ray Hill Cliff Davis was sixty-six years old as he faced voters in the Democratic primary in August of 1964. For forty years, Cliff Davis had been a political favorite of the people of Shelby County, but his popularity was...

By Ray Hill Clifford Davis had represented Shelby County in the U.S. House of Representatives for twenty-four years when he announced he was running for his fourteenth term in 1964.  Davis had been the Democratic nominee in a 1940 special election and had won again in...