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Harley M. Kilgore
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Harley M. Kilgore
Harley Martin Kilgore (January 11, 1893 – February 28, 1956) was a United States senator from West Virginia.
He was born on January 11, 1893, in Brown, West Virginia. He was born to Quimby Hugh Kilgore and Laura Jo Kilgore. His father worked as an oil driller and contractor. He attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1914 and was admitted to the bar the same year.
He taught school in Hancock, West Virginia in 1914 and 1915, and organized the first high school in Raleigh County, West Virginia in the latter year. He was the school's first principal for a year, and commenced the practice of law in Beckley, West Virginia in 1916. During the First World War he served in the infantry from 1917 and was discharged as a captain in 1920; in 1921 he organized the West Virginia National Guard and retired as a colonel in 1953. He was married to Lois Elaine Lilly in Huntington, West Virginia, in 1921.
He was judge of the Raleigh County criminal court from 1933 to 1940, and was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1940, and won re-election twice. He was a member of the Senate from January 3, 1941, until his death in Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1956. Kilgore was a member of the Truman Committee, and from October 1942, he chaired the Subcommittee on War Mobilization of the Military Affairs Committee, otherwise known as the Kilgore Committee, that oversaw U.S. mobilization efforts for World War II. He also helped establish the National Science Foundation in 1950.
Senator Kilgore was West Virginia's favorite-son candidate in 1948 Democratic presidential primaries and won his home state unopposed.
In 1950 Kilgore joined a small group of liberals, including Paul Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, trying to stop the McCarran Act of 1950. The bill was designed to suppress the American Communist Party. Kilgore proposed a substitute bill that would allow the president to lock up subversives without trial in a time of national emergency. The model was the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The goal was to split the McCarran coalition, but the substitute was instead added to the bill. For years, critics charged that the liberals favored concentration camps. The ploy failed to stop the new law; the Senate voted 57 to 10 to overturn Truman's veto, with Kilgore voting against the bill and in support of the veto. Kilgore did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto despite school segregation being legally required in West Virginia prior to Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Kilgore died on February 28, 1956, aged 63 and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1942, American manufacturing expert Herbert Schimmel advised Kilgore to form a committee to centralize scientific research done for the war effort. The Kilgore Committee drafted legislation for an Office of Technological Mobilization, which would have power to fund research, share patents and trade secrets, and facilities that could help the war effort. Additionally, the organization would be able to draft scientists and facilities for the war effort.
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Harley M. Kilgore
Harley Martin Kilgore (January 11, 1893 – February 28, 1956) was a United States senator from West Virginia.
He was born on January 11, 1893, in Brown, West Virginia. He was born to Quimby Hugh Kilgore and Laura Jo Kilgore. His father worked as an oil driller and contractor. He attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of West Virginia University at Morgantown in 1914 and was admitted to the bar the same year.
He taught school in Hancock, West Virginia in 1914 and 1915, and organized the first high school in Raleigh County, West Virginia in the latter year. He was the school's first principal for a year, and commenced the practice of law in Beckley, West Virginia in 1916. During the First World War he served in the infantry from 1917 and was discharged as a captain in 1920; in 1921 he organized the West Virginia National Guard and retired as a colonel in 1953. He was married to Lois Elaine Lilly in Huntington, West Virginia, in 1921.
He was judge of the Raleigh County criminal court from 1933 to 1940, and was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1940, and won re-election twice. He was a member of the Senate from January 3, 1941, until his death in Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1956. Kilgore was a member of the Truman Committee, and from October 1942, he chaired the Subcommittee on War Mobilization of the Military Affairs Committee, otherwise known as the Kilgore Committee, that oversaw U.S. mobilization efforts for World War II. He also helped establish the National Science Foundation in 1950.
Senator Kilgore was West Virginia's favorite-son candidate in 1948 Democratic presidential primaries and won his home state unopposed.
In 1950 Kilgore joined a small group of liberals, including Paul Douglas and Hubert Humphrey, trying to stop the McCarran Act of 1950. The bill was designed to suppress the American Communist Party. Kilgore proposed a substitute bill that would allow the president to lock up subversives without trial in a time of national emergency. The model was the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The goal was to split the McCarran coalition, but the substitute was instead added to the bill. For years, critics charged that the liberals favored concentration camps. The ploy failed to stop the new law; the Senate voted 57 to 10 to overturn Truman's veto, with Kilgore voting against the bill and in support of the veto. Kilgore did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto despite school segregation being legally required in West Virginia prior to Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Kilgore died on February 28, 1956, aged 63 and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1942, American manufacturing expert Herbert Schimmel advised Kilgore to form a committee to centralize scientific research done for the war effort. The Kilgore Committee drafted legislation for an Office of Technological Mobilization, which would have power to fund research, share patents and trade secrets, and facilities that could help the war effort. Additionally, the organization would be able to draft scientists and facilities for the war effort.
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