F. M. Simmons - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Furnifold McLendel Simmons) American senator for North Carolina

F. M. Simmons


United States Senator from North Carolina
In office March 4, 1901 – March 4, 1931
Preceded by	Marion Butler
Succeeded by	Josiah Bailey
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1889
Preceded by	James E. O'Hara
Succeeded by	Henry P. Cheatham

Personal details
Born	(1854-01-20)January 20, 1854 Pollocksville, North Carolina
Died	April 30, 1940(1940-04-30) (aged 86) New Bern, North Carolina
Political party	Democratic

Furnifold McLendel Simmons (January 20, 1854 – April 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. 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." 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. 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. 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.

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

Leonard, John William (1907). "Men of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries".
"Simmons, Furnifold McLendel | NCpedia".
Zucchino, David (2020). Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 65–69, 75, 96. ISBN 978-0-8021-2838-6.
News & Observer: "What the obituary didn't say" by Rob Christensen Archived July 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
Chiles, Robert (2018). The Revolution of '28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal. Cornell University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-5017-0550-2.

External links

United States Congress. "F. M. Simmons (id: S000415)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
North Carolina History Project
North Carolina Election of 1898
Furnifold McLendel Simmons entry at The Political Graveyard
F. M. Simmons at Find a Grave

Party political offices
First	Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from North Carolina (Class 2) 1918, 1924	Succeeded byJosiah Bailey
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded byJames E. O'Hara	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district March 4, 1887 – March 4, 1889	Succeeded byHenry P. Cheatham
U.S. Senate
Preceded byMarion Butler	U.S. senator (Class 2) from North Carolina March 4, 1901 – March 4, 1931 Served alongside: Jeter Connelly Pritchard, Lee Slater Overman, Cameron A. Morrison	Succeeded byJosiah William Bailey
Political offices
Preceded byBoies Penrose Pennsylvania	Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1919	Succeeded byBoies Penrose Pennsylvania
Honorary titles
Preceded byFrancis E. Warren	Dean of the United States Senate November 24, 1929 – March 4, 1931	Succeeded byReed Smoot
Preceded byObadiah Gardner	Oldest living U.S. senator July 24, 1938 – April 30, 1940	Succeeded byFountain L. Thompson
Preceded byHenry Heitfeld	Most senior living U.S. senator (Sitting or former) October 21, 1938 – April 30, 1940	Succeeded byReed Smoot

v t e United States senators from North Carolina
Class 2	Johnston Martin Franklin Turner Stokes Branch Brown Mangum Reid Bragg Abbott Ransom Butler Simmons Bailey Umstead Broughton F. P. Graham Smith Lennon Scott Jordan Helms Dole Hagan Tillis
Class 3	Hawkins Bloodworth Stone Franklin Stone Locke Macon Iredell Mangum Strange W. A. Graham Haywood Badger Biggs Clingman Pool Merrimon Vance Jarvis Pritchard Overman Morrison Reynolds Hoey Ervin Morgan East Broyhill Sanford Faircloth Edwards Burr Budd

v t e Chairs of the United States Senate Committee on Finance
Campbell Eppes Sanford Holmes Lowrie Smith Forsyth Webster Wright Clay Evans Woodbury Calhoun Lewis Atherton Dickinson Hunter Pearce Fessenden Sherman Fessenden Sherman Morrill Bayard Morrill Voorhees Morrill Aldrich Penrose Simmons Penrose McCumber Smoot Harrison George Millikin George Millikin Byrd Long Dole Packwood Bentsen Moynihan Packwood Roth Baucus Grassley Baucus Grassley Baucus Wyden Hatch Grassley Wyden Crapo

v t e Deans of the United States Senate
Gunn/Langdon Foster Brown Hillhouse Anderson Gaillard Ruggles King Benton Mangum Pearce Bayard/Foot Foot Wade Sumner Chandler Anthony Edmunds Morrill Allison Hale Frye Cullom Gallinger Lodge Warren Simmons Smoot Borah Smith McKellar George Hayden Russell Ellender Aiken Eastland/McClellan Eastland Magnuson Stennis Thurmond Byrd Inouye Leahy Grassley

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