Ezekiel C. Gathings

Ezekiel Candler Gathings ( born November 10, 1903 in Prairie, Monroe County, Mississippi; † May 2, 1979 in West Memphis, Arkansas ) was an American politician and represented the state of Arkansas for 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Gathings was born in Prairie ( Mississippi), where he attended the public school. Later he went to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He graduated in 1929 at the Law Department of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He was admitted as a lawyer in the same year and opened a practice in Helena. He then moved in 1932 to West Memphis and operated a practice.

Gathings sat 1935-1939 in the Senate from Arkansas and was elected as a Democrat to the 76th and the 14 subsequent Congresses. He practiced there his duties as an MP between January 1939 and January 3, 1969 3. In the spring of 1956 Gathings signed with 95 other prominent politicians, the Southern Manifesto, a protest against the racial integration of the public facilities in the United States. After his long service in Congress, he decided not to run for the 91st Congress in 1968. He returned to his job back as a lawyer. Later he also worked on the staff of the Port Authority of West Memphis.

Ezekiel Candler Gathings lived until his death on May 2, 1979 in West Memphis. He was buried in Crittenden Memorial Park in Marion.