For the American educator and pastor, see Oscar J. Underwood Jr.
Oscar Underwood
Senate Minority Leader
In office April 27, 1920 – December 3, 1923
Deputy
Peter G. Gerry
Preceded by
Office established
Succeeded by
Joseph Taylor Robinson
Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus
In office April 27, 1920 – December 3, 1923
Preceded by
Gilbert Hitchcock (acting)
Succeeded by
Joseph Taylor Robinson
United States Senator from Alabama
In office March 4, 1915 – March 3, 1927
Preceded by
Francis S. White
Succeeded by
Hugo Black
House Majority Leader
In office March 4, 1911 – March 3, 1915
Preceded by
Sereno E. Payne
Succeeded by
Claude Kitchin
House Minority Whip
In office March 4, 1899 – March 3, 1901
Leader
James D. Richardson
Preceded by
Office established
Succeeded by
James T. Lloyd
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 9th district
In office March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1915
Preceded by
Truman H. Aldrich
Succeeded by
George Huddleston
In office March 4, 1895 – June 9, 1896
Preceded by
Louis W. Turpin
Succeeded by
Truman H. Aldrich
Personal details
Born
Oscar Wilder Underwood
(1862-05-06)May 6, 1862 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died
January 25, 1929(1929-01-25) (aged 66) Accotink, Virginia, U.S.
Political party
Democratic
Spouses
Eugenia Massie
(m. 1885; died 1900)
Bertha Woodward
(m. 1904)
Education
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Oscar Wilder Underwood (May 6, 1862 – January 25, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician from Alabama, and also a candidate for President of the United States in 1912 and 1924. He was the first formally designated floor leader in the United States Senate, and the only individual to serve as the Democratic leader in both the Senate and the United States House of Representatives.[1]
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Underwood began a legal career in Minnesota after graduating from the University of Virginia. He moved his legal practice to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1884 and won election to the House of Representatives in 1894. Underwood served as House Majority Leader from 1911 to 1915, and was a strong supporter of President Woodrow Wilson's progressive agenda and a prominent advocate of a reduction in the tariff. He sponsored the Revenue Act of 1913, also known as the Underwood Tariff, which lowered tariff rates and imposed a federal income tax. He won election to the Senate in 1914 and served as Senate Minority Leader from 1920 to 1923. He unsuccessfully opposed federal Prohibition, arguing that state and local governments should regulate alcohol.
Underwood sought the presidential nomination at the 1912 Democratic National Convention, but the convention selected Woodrow Wilson after forty-six ballots. He declined the vice presidential nomination, which instead went to Thomas R. Marshall. Underwood ran for president again in 1924, entering the 1924 Democratic National Convention as a prominent conservative opponent of the Ku Klux Klan.[2] One of the few prominent anti-Klan politicians in the South at the time, Underwood and his supporters narrowly failed to win adoption of a Democratic resolution condemning the Klan. He experienced a boomlet of support on the 101st presidential ballot of the convention, but the Democrats nominated John W. Davis as a compromise candidate. Underwood declined to run for re-election in 1926 and retired to his Woodlawn plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, where he died in 1929.
^"U.S. Senate: Oscar Underwood: A Featured Biography". www.senate.gov. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
^Charles C. Alexander (2015). The Ku Klux Klan in the Southwest. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 162–. ISBN 978-0-8131-6197-6.
Oscar Wilder Underwood (May 6, 1862 – January 25, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician from Alabama, and also a candidate for President of the United...
substantially lowered tariff rates. The act was sponsored by Representative OscarUnderwood, passed by the 63rd United States Congress, and signed into law by...
states that did not hold primary elections favored his main rivals, OscarUnderwood of Alabama and Al Smith of New York, neither of which won any primary...
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Majority Leader OscarUnderwood of Alabama also loomed as a challenger. Clark found support among the Bryan wing of the party, while Underwood appealed to...
United States Senate from Alabama, following the retirement of Senator OscarUnderwood. Since the Democratic Party had dominated Alabama politics since disenfranchising...
America. Edward Henry, who was a friend of Debs, Lena Morrow Lewis, and Oscar Ameringer nominated Debs for the party's nomination on May 13, 1920, and...
(1911–1913) 63rd (1913–1915) vacant Francis S. White (D) 64th (1915–1917) OscarUnderwood (D) 65th (1917–1919) 66th (1919–1921) B. B. Comer (D) J. Thomas Heflin...
unexpired term of Joseph F. Johnston, did not run for re-election. OscarUnderwood, the House Majority Leader and a candidate for President in 1912, was...
German' in Three Amigos. He appeared in the films Twilight Zone: The Movie, Oscar, Top Dog, and Assassins. During the 1980s and 1990s, he guest-starred in...
sorted by number of delegates won in the nomination race Champ Clark OscarUnderwood Judson Harmon Eugene Foss Thomas Marshall Speaker of the House from...
that would end in 1915. After White retired, House Majority Leader OscarUnderwood was elected to a new term. Incumbent Democrat Marcus A. Smith was elected...
The Minority Party in Congress, p. 20. Sources differ on the dates that Underwood served as Whip: One indicates that he served from 1899 to 1901. See "Democratic...
White 18 64th 17 Elected in 1914. Mar 4, 1915 – Mar 3, 1927 Democratic OscarUnderwood 19 65th Re-elected in 1918. Died. 18 66th Vacant Mar 1, 1920 – Mar...
neither firm written rules of governance nor a clear mission. Since OscarUnderwood's election in 1920, the chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus has also...
from Kentucky Levi Underwood (1821–1902), Vermont State Senate Nerissa Bretania Underwood (born 1955), Guam Senate OscarUnderwood (1862–1929), U.S. Senator...
Majority party Minority party Leader Henry Cabot Lodge OscarUnderwood Party Republican Democratic Leader since March 4, 1919 April 27, 1920 Leader's seat...
Secretary of the Treasury Governor Al Smith of New York (campaign) Senator OscarUnderwood from Alabama Senator Samuel M. Ralston from Indiana Former Governor...
majority → Henry Cabot Lodge Unofficial April 27, 1920 – March 4, 1921 OscarUnderwood 67th March 4, 1921 – March 4, 1923 68th March 4, 1923 – December 3...
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