F. M. Simmons
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Furnifold McLendel Simmons (January 20, 1854Template:Spaced ndashApril 30, 1940) was an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1887, to March 4, 1889, and U.S. senator from the state of North Carolina between March 4, 1901, and March 4, 1931. He served as chairman of the powerful Committee on Finance from March 4, 1913, to March 4, 1919. He was an unsuccessful contender for the 1920 Democratic Party nomination for president. Simmons was a staunch segregationist and white supremacist, and a leading perpetrator of the Wilmington insurrection of 1898.
Life and career
Simmons was born in Pollocksville, North Carolina, the son of Mary McLendel (Jerman) and Furnifold Greene Simmons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After Republicans won control of the North Carolina legislature in 1894, Simmons led efforts to disenfranchise black voters and return Democrats to power across the state. He allied with white supremacist newspapers to stoke fears of black men as predators of white women and too incompetent to be trusted as office holders or voters. Simmons also set up hundreds of "White Government Unions," which aimed to "announce on all occasions that they would succeed if they had to shoot every negro in the city."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a result, Democrats swept the 1898 election, and the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 broke out the following day.
In 1901 Simmons won the Democratic nomination for the US Senate. From his Senate seat, he then ran a powerful political machine, using A. D. Watts "to keep the machine oiled back home," in the words of one journalist.<ref>News & Observer: "What the obituary didn't say" by Rob Christensen Template:Webarchive</ref> Simmons remained in office for the next thirty years.
Senator Simmons refused to endorse Al Smith, the Democratic nominee for president in 1928 and the first Catholic nominated by a major party, winning him praise from members of the Ku Klux Klan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Still, rejecting the Democratic nominee in 1928, together with the Great Depression, led to Simmons being defeated in the 1930 Democratic primary by Josiah W. Bailey, who was backed by Governor O. Max Gardner.
Simmons died on April 30, 1940. He is the last U.S. Senator to have served during the presidency of William McKinley.
References
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External links
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- North Carolina History Project
- North Carolina Election of 1898
- Furnifold McLendel Simmons entry at The Political Graveyard
- Template:Find a Grave
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- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- 1854 births
- 1940 deaths
- Democratic Party United States senators from North Carolina
- North Carolina Democratic Party chairs
- Candidates in the 1920 United States presidential election
- Wake Forest University alumni
- Politicians from New Bern, North Carolina
- Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina
- Activists from North Carolina
- People from Jones County, North Carolina
- 20th-century United States senators
- 19th-century United States representatives
- Wilmington massacre conspirators
- Old Right (United States)