L. Mendel Rivers

Lucius Mendel Rivers ( born September 28, 1905 in Gumville, Berkeley County, South Carolina, † December 28, 1970 in Birmingham, Alabama) was an American politician who is the State of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives took almost 30 years.

Life

Lucius Mendel Rivers attended the public school and college in Charleston. At the University of South Carolina in Columbia, he studied law. His admission to the bar he received in 1932, after which he opened a law firm in Charleston. Rivers was only a year later, in 1933, elected to the House of Representatives from South Carolina. He remained there until 1936. 1936 he was a delegate attended the Democratic National Convention.

Then Rivers in 1941 elected as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he represented the first congressional district of his state. Rivers was confirmed for another fifteen times. In his last three terms, he was the chairman of the United States House Committee on Armed Services. Rivers is one of numerous public officials, of whom it was known that they had problems with alcohol during this time. He became famous for his statement that Hugh Thompson was the only person who did deserve to be punished for the massacre at My Lai.

Rivers died in 1970 about two months after the re-election to his 16th term in office. He was buried in the Episcopal Church Cemetery in St. Stephen. Rivers was an Episcopalian, a member of the Freemasons, benefactor and patron of the Order of Elks ( Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks BPOE = ) and member of the Exchange Club. Furthermore, the nuclear submarine USS L. Mendel Rivers (SSN -686 ) was named in his honor, as well as the L. Mendel Rivers Library of Charleston Southern University.