By Ray Hill One of the most colorful and powerful Speakers of the U. S. House of Representatives was Joseph Gurney Cannon of Illinois. Deeply conservative and thoroughly autocratic, “ Uncle Joe” Cannon ruled the House with an iron fist until a combination of...

By Ray Hill Woodrow Wilson returned to America to face a hostile Republican Congress and a people tired of the war. Wilson believed if he could reach the American people, he could convince them the United States’ participation in the League of Nations was essential....

By Ray Hill Woodrow Wilson was the first Democrat to be reelected to a second consecutive term since Andrew Jackson.  He had campaigned on the slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War” in 1916 and the President faced a serious opponent in the person of Charles Evans Hughes. ...

By Ray Hill It may well be quite difficult for many readers to imagine the importance of newspapers decades ago, as we now live in an age where the Internet reigns supreme and daily papers are much diminished, if not dying.  The daily newspaper was one of, if not the...

By Ray Hill The story of Grace Moore is not at all political in nature and hopefully readers of this column will not be sorely disappointed.  Miss Moore’s story is, however uniquely and quintessentially American.  It is both an interesting story and certainly part of...

By Ray Hill Occasionally, a candidate comes out of nowhere to win an election.  It is not a common occurrence in politics, but it has happened throughout our history.  James Edward Murray was one such candidate. Born May 3, 1876 in Canada, young Murray was sent to the...

By Ray Hill One of the lesser-known political dynasties in the country was birthed in the hollows and coal fields of West Virginia.  The Kee family dominated the politics of Bluefield, West Virginia and father, mother, and son represented the Fifth Congressional...

By Ray Hill   Tennessee has been quite fortunate in oftentimes having an excellent Congressional delegation.  The landscape and economic condition of Tennessee would be much different had it not been for the ability of some of our Congressional delegation to...

By Ray Hill Governor Gordon Browning had unleashed a fierce assault on the Memphis political machine, as well as its leader, E. H. Crump.  Browning proposed to institute a county unit bill to render the huge voting majorities produced in Shelby County meaningless in...