Duncan U. Fletcher

Duncan Upshaw Fletcher ( * January 6, 1859 in Americus, Georgia, † June 17 1936 in Washington DC ) was an American politician (Democratic Party), who represented the state of Florida in the U.S. Senate.

Rise in Florida

Born in Sumter County Duncan Fletcher was still an infant when his parents moved with him in 1860 in Monroe County. He later attended the public schools and the Gordon Institute in Barnesville. In 1880 he made his first degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville; after which he studied at the same university, the law, was admitted to the bar in 1881 and thereafter began in Jacksonville (Florida ) to practice as a lawyer.

In his new home Fletcher was one of the founding members of the local Bar Association and its first president was. In 1896 he was one of three lawyers who oversaw the entrance examination of James Weldon Johnson to the Bar. As a member of the committee voted against Johnson's recording, Fletcher scored his vote crucial to ensuring that Johnson was able to move as the first African American in the legal registry association of the state.

Soon Duncan Fletcher began to engage in local politics. He was elected in 1887 in the City Council of Jacksonville and graduated from 1893-1895 a first term as mayor of this city; 1901-1903 he held that post for a second time. He also sat in the House of Representatives of Florida in 1893; Furthermore, he stood from 1900 to 1907 the Board of Education ( Board of Public Instruction) in Duval County ago. He was 1908 President of the Inland Waterways Association Gulf Coast and later the Mississippi to Atlantic Waterway Association. Later he acted more as a curator of Stetson University and St. Luke's Hospital Association in Jacksonville. He was also vice president of the Children's Home Society of Florida and honorary president of the Southern Commercial Congress.

U.S. Senator

1909 Fletcher was elected by the state legislature of Florida in the United States Senate, where he took his seat on March 4 of this year. As a result, it was confirmed four times as a senator, in his last candidacy in 1932 even unopposed. In Congress, he has held numerous high offices; among other things, he was from 1916 to 1919 Chairman of the Trade Committee, where he also directed the Subcommittee to Investigate the Titanic disaster. In 1932, he stood before the Banking Committee, who sought to identify the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. From the Committee's work out a process developed for the reform of the U.S. financial system; immediate consequences were two securities laws ( the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) and the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission, 1935.

The establishment of the Everglades National Park in Florida is also largely due to Fletcher back in 1928 the corresponding bill brought; Signed in 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt the law. On June 17, 1936 during his fifth term in office, Duncan Fletcher died in the capital Washington; He was buried in Jackson Vill. To date, he is for a term of 27 years, the longest of the Senate belonging politician from Florida. According to him, a high school in Neptune Beach, a middle school in Jacksonville Beach, and a complex of buildings at the University of Florida were named.