Charles L. Weltner

Charles Longstreet Weltner ( born December 17, 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia; † August 31, 1992 ) was an American politician. Between 1963 and 1967 he represented the state of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Charles Weltner attended the common schools and then studied until 1948 at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. After a subsequent law degree at Columbia University in New York City and its made ​​in 1950 admitted to the bar he began in Atlanta to work in his new profession. Between 1955 and 1957 he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Politically, Weltner member of the Democratic Party. Unlike many of his contemporaries in Georgia he stood for racial equality and the abolition of segregation. Even as a lawyer, he defended this position. In the congressional elections of 1962 he was in the fifth electoral district of Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of James Curran Davis on January 3, 1963. After a re-election in 1864 he was able to complete in Congress until January 3, 1967 two legislative sessions. This period was marked by the events of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. 1964, the 24th Amendment was passed in Congress. In 1966, Weltner opted not to run again because his party demanded the support of Lester Maddox from him. This was a radical segregationist and then applied to the Office of the Governor of Georgia. In 1968, Weltner but ran again for Congress, but without success.

In 1967, Weltner was Deputy Chairman of Democratic Party in Georgia. In the meantime, he worked as a lawyer. From 1976 to 1981 he was a judge at the Superior Court of the judicial district of Atlanta. In the years 1980 and 1981 he headed the legal advice ( Judicial Council ) of Georgia. Since 1981, Weltner judge was of the Supreme Court of his State. In June 1992 he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Presiding Judge. But this office he was able to exercise only for two months, until his death on 31 August of the same year.