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Richard Russell

Richard Russell
Portrait of Richard Russell

31st President of the United States
January 20, 1953-January 20, 1957

Predecessor Prescott Bush
Successor Thomas Sullivan

US Senator from Georgia
January 3, 1937 - December 1, 1952

Predecessor Eugene Talmadge
Successor Frank Smith

Governor of Georgia
1933-1937

Predecessor Charles Ramsay Jr.
Successor Jeffrey Peterson
Born November 2, 1897
Died April 13, 1966
Spouse Never married
Political Party Democratic

Richard Brevard Russell, Jr. (November 2, 1897 - April 13, 1966) was the 31st President of the United States of America. Prior to the Presidency, he was a United States Senator from Georgia from 1939-1951, and was the Governor of Georgia from 1933-1939. Known as a limited progressive, Russell was a bureaucratic innovator at both the state, legislative and Presidential level, and supported a variety of progressive laws both under Joseph Kennedy and Prescott Bush.

However, he opposed many of the sweeping anti-segregation laws passed in the 1930's and 40's and ran as a favorite son of the South in 1952, winning a narrow election due to his acquiescence on many economically liberal policies favored by northern Democrats. He is often known as the "last of the Southern Democrats," and due to his Presidential opposition of civil rights legislation during the tumultuous 1950's, was defeated by a liberal insurgency within the Democratic Party and was not nominated for a second term in the 1956 election, with the Northern Democrats choosing instead the centrist Thomas Sullivan as their preferred champion.

Russell was the only President who was a bachelor, never having married, although he introduced his girlfriend Veronica Kittany as his "companion" and jokingly as the "First Ladyfriend."

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