Jamie L. Whitten
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Jamie Lloyd Whitten (b. April 18, 1910, Cascilla, Mississippi – d. September 9, 1995, Oxford, Mississippi) was a United States Representative from Mississippi.
Jamie Whitten attended local public schools and the University of Mississippi; he briefly served as an educator before joining the bar in 1932.
In 1941, Whitten was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Congressman Wall Doxey to run for a senate seat, in the first Congressional district of Mississippi, a largely white and rural district located in the northeastern part of the state. He was subsequently elected to the next 27 Congresses.
Throughout most of his tenure in the House, Whitten served on the Appropriations Committee, ultimately serving as Chairman from the 1979 retirement of George H. Mahon until newly elected, liberal Democrats in the House Democratic Caucus removed him in favor of William Huston Natcher after the 1992 election. His service from November 4, 1941 to January 3, 1995 set a record for length of service in the House, which as of February 2007 is still unbroken, though Michigan Congressman John Dingell, if he remains in office, would surpass it in 2009.
Whitten was originally a very conservative segregationist, having signed the Southern Manifesto condemning the U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education, which desegregated public schools and voting along with the entire Mississippi delegation to Congress and almost all of his southern colleagues against the Civil Rights Act of 1957, Civil Rights Act of 1960, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Civil Rights Act of 1968, Civil Rights Act of 1970, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.
However, Whitten later apologized for these votes, calling them a "mistake" caused by severe misjudgement. Later in his career he voted for many liberal issues, because he feared that if he did not, he would be expelled from the Appropriations Committee Chairmanship by the new liberal Democrats, as actually occurred in 1992. He also frequently clashed with the Reagan administration on policy matters. He voted against Reagan's economic plans, tax cuts, increased defense spending, balanced budget initiative, tort reform, welfare reform, abortion restrictions, missile defense system, and the Persian Gulf War.
The Jamie Whitten Historical Site is located at the bridge of the Natchez Trace Parkway over the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, two projects which Whitten had successfully fought to fund over his house tenure, overcoming strong opposition from Conservatives to their construction using federal funds.
He was also noted as the author of That We May Live, written largely as a pro-development, pro-chemical pesticide answer to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the seminal 1962 book which helped to spur the modern environmental movement.
Declining to run for reelection to a historic 28th term in 1994, Whitten retired from the House as America's longest serving Congressman (53 years and two months). Whitten retired to his home in Oxford, Mississippi and died there on September 9, 1995, aged 85, eight months after leaving office.
| Preceded by Wall Doxey |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi's 2nd congressional district 1941 - 1973 |
Succeeded by David R. Bowen |
| Preceded by Thomas G. Abernethy |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi's 1st congressional district 1973 - 1995 |
Succeeded by Roger F. Wicker |
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