Percy Priest

James Percy Priest ( born April 1, 1900 in Maury County, Tennessee, † October 12, 1956 in Nashville, Tennessee ) was an American politician. He represented the state of Tennessee as a deputy in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Percy Priest attended Central High School in Columbia and then the State Teachers ' College in Murfreesboro (now Middle Tennessee State University ), and the former Peabody College in Nashville. Subsequently, he taught at a school in Culleoka in his native Maury County 1920-1926. Thereafter, he joined the editorial staff of The Tennessean.

Priest ran for Tennessee's fifth congressional district, based in Nashville, in 1940 for the U.S. House of Representatives. He defeated the Democratic incumbent Joseph W. Byrns. Then he joined his swearing at the democratic election committee. After that, he was still reelected seven more times. His constituency was renamed in 1943 in the 6th District and 1953 back in the 5th district.

Priest was a member of the House Majority Whip 1949-1953.

Shortly before his death in 1956, he refused, just like two other MEPs Tennessee, Southern Manifesto to sign the one that spoke out against racial integration in public institutions. The two other deputies were Joe L. Evins and Ross Bass.

At the time of his death, Priest was the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and was nominated for the 90th Congress. The re-election had been to him were basically safe because no Republican has been elected more in the House of Representatives from Nashville since Reconstruction. Priest was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Nashville.

Honors

The J. Percy Priest Dam, a United States Army Corps of Engineers hydroelectric power plant, just east of Nashville at the Stones River (formerly visible from Interstate 40) has been named after him, as is the Percy Priest Lake ( created by the Dam ) and also a primary school.