Glen H. Taylor

Glen Hearst Taylor ( born April 12, 1904 in Portland, Oregon, † April 28, 1984 in Millbrae, California ) was an American politician and entrepreneur.

Life

Early years and work in the entertainment industry

The son of an evangelical itinerant preacher Glen H. Taylor first moved with his parents and siblings through the Rocky Mountains, and later the family was resident in the state of Idaho. At the age of 15 years, Taylor joined a theater troupe to, from the 1920s to 1944, he led several companies in the entertainment industry and appeared as a country singer. His sister Lena Corinne Taylor, later married Morse, was a well-known and successful jazz singer under the name of Lee Morse.

Senator for Idaho

As a candidate of the Democratic Party was defeated Taylor in 1940 and 1942 in elections to the Senate of the United States respectively the Republican John W. Thomas. In 1944 he defeated in the primaries his party colleague David Worth Clark and in elections to the Senate, the Republicans and the outgoing governor CA Bottolfsen. At his campaign events Taylor joined with a cowboy hat on sitting on a horse and singing with his country band. His term of office as a senator in Washington for the State of Idaho lasted from 3 January 1945 to 3 January 1951. Taylor, who belonged to the left wing of his party and the progressivism was close, sat as an MP in particular for an economic policy within the meaning of the New Deal, a repression of cartels, for the civil rights movement and the prevention of war one.

Vice- presidential nomination in 1948

Although Taylor member of the Democratic Party remained, he was nominated in 1948 by the United States Progressive Party as a vice presidential candidate under Henry Agard Wallace.

On a campaign trip wanted Taylor on May 1, 1948 in Birmingham visit (Alabama ) organized by the Southern Negroe Youth Congress, which was held in a Baptist church. The program of the Progressive Party called for the complete abolition of racial segregation. Taylor tried demonstrative, the church entered through the designated door for African-Americans and not by the door for whites. Several times he was pushed by police officers, after he was arrested after repeated attempts. At the direction of the former local police chief Bull Connor, he was detained for several hours until the end of the event in custody. On May 4, a denazification court for misdemeanors ( police court), he was sentenced to 180 days in jail and $ 50 fine for the offense disorderly conduct ( German about Grober mischief ). Taylor appealed on the grounds that the sentence was unconstitutional. On March 31, 1949, pure white jury confirmed in his absence, the judgment on the grounds that the State of Alabama was entitled to punish violations of the (then constitutionally recognized ) principle of " separate but equal ". Taylor did not have to take the penalty, however, as the authorities of Alabama refrained to make a request for extradition to his home state of Idaho. The Supreme Court of Alabama held the judgment 1950 upright in the last instance.

In the presidential election on November 2, 1948 Wallace and Taylor received only 2.4% of the vote. The most successful they were in upstate New York with 8.25%.

Political candidates after 1948

Taylor's candidacy for the significantly left of the two established parties standing Progressive Party, which was decried in times of the Second Red anxiety and the McCarthy era when many Americans as pro-Communist, hurt his further political career. In an attempt to defend his Senate seat, he was defeated in 1950 already in the Democratic primary against David Worth Clark. Taylor's successor in the Senate, however, was the conservative Republican McCarthy supporters Herman Welker. 1954 Taylor was nominated by the Democratic Party for the Senate; However, he lost the election to Republican Henry Dworshak. In his last attempt to run for the Senate, Taylor was defeated in 1956 in the primaries of his party colleague Frank Church, the then senator. Taylor nonetheless ran as an independent write-in candidate and received 5.1 % of votes.

According to a scoring procedure of the University of California, San Diego Glen H. Taylor is considered one of the most politically " left " standing congressman after the Second World War.

Entrepreneurial activity

From 1950 to 1952 Glen H. Taylor led the construction company Coryell Construction. Was founded in 1958 Taylor, in order to increase its electoral prospects was toupee carrier since the election campaign in 1944, with his wife, Dora (* 1904, † 1997) in Millbrae, the company Taylor Topper. This company has developed from a small factory into the most important U.S. manufacturer of hair replacement parts for men. Taylor led the company until his disease to Alzheimer's disease in the late 1970s itself