Statesman Oscar Underwood is Born
Although born and raised elsewhere, Oscar Underwood was among Alabama’s most important 20th-century politicians. He was a powerful figure in the U.S. Congress and a two-time presidential candidate.
Underwood was born on May 6, 1862, in Louisville, Ky. A bout of chronic bronchitis dominated his youth. The family relocated to Minnesota seeking a more suitable climate. After his health improved, he studied law at the University of Virginia.
Underwood arrived in Birmingham in the mid-1880s. The young attorney soon made politics his profession as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In Washington, he was an early proponent of tariff reform. By the 1910s, he rose to House Majority Leader and chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Out of respect, southern Democrats put his name into consideration for president in 1912.
In 1914, Underwood won election to the U.S. Senate, where he would hold several leadership positions. Like most southern Democrats, Underwood opposed women’s suffrage. Unlike many colleagues, he fought Prohibition and took a strong stand against the Klan—earning him a mention in John F. Kennedy’s book Profiles in Courage.
Underwood ran again for president in a crowded field of candidates in 1924. After ten days and more than 100 deadlocked votes—the longest nomination fight in history—compromise candidate John Davis of West Virginia emerged the victor, only to then be soundly defeated by Republican Calvin Coolidge.
After four decades in Washington, Underwood chose not to run for reelection in 1926. He retired to his nearby home in Virginia, where he died in 1929. His family fulfilled his wish that he be buried in Alabama, the adopted state he had represented for more than half of his life.
— Scotty Kirkland
Whereville, Alabama
Identify and place this Alabama landmark and you could win $25! Winner is chosen at random from all correct entries. Multiple entries from the same person will be disqualified. Send your answer with your name, address and the name of your rural electric cooperative, if applicable. The winner and answer will be announced in the June issue.
Submit by email: [email protected], or by mail: Whereville, 340 Technacenter Drive, Montgomery, AL 36117.
April’s answer: These white cliffs are located on the Tombigbee River at Epes in Sumter County. They are part of the Selma chalk formations, which were deposited about the same time as England’s White Cliffs of Dover. The chalk is a form of limestone, a sedimentary rock deposited when this part of Alabama was still underwater. (Photo courtesy of Rural SW Alabama; ruralswalabama.org) The randomly drawn correct guess winner is James Darden of Central Alabama EC.
