Sid McMath
Sidney Sanders McMath ( born June 14, 1912 Columbia County, Arkansas; † 4 October 2003 in Little Rock, Arkansas ) was an American politician and 1949-1953 Governor of Arkansas.
Early years and political rise
Sidney McMath attended the public schools of his home. Then he visited the Henderson College, before he studied at the University of Arkansas law. There he made his law degree in 1936. During the Second World War he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He has received numerous awards for his bravery. After the war he remained in the reserve of the Marine Corps and brought it there until the Major General. Since 1947, McMath was politically active. This year, he was prosecutor in Garland County and Montgomery County. On November 2, 1948, he was elected as a candidate of his Democratic Party as the new governor of Arkansas.
Governor of Arkansas
McMaths term began on January 11, 1949 and ended, after a re-election in 1950, on 13 January 1953. During these four years, government bonds (General Obligation Bonds ) were issued to finance bridges and highways. Many roads have now been paved and the electrification reached the farthest corners of rural areas. In Little Rock, a new medical center was planned. The care of the mentally handicapped has been improved and more generally, the medical faculties of the universities of the country were better equipped and raised the minimum wage in Arkansas. Also in the race question McMath was more liberal than most of his predecessors. He supported laws against lynching and he appointed some African Americans in government bodies, which until then were only whites reserved. The choice of control law according to which entitlement to vote on the financial position of the selector depended, was abolished so that more blacks were allowed to vote. Even in the years after his term of office he retained this liberal course, which earned him many opponents in the conservative camp. McMath was also a supporter of President Harry S. Truman and an opponent of the so-called conservative " Dixiecrat " Democrats. In 1952, Governor McMath applied unsuccessfully for a third term. At that time he was attacked by his opponents sharp, which for one reason his election defeat was. he was accused of irregularities in some areas before. The allegations were never proven.
Further CV
In 1954 McMath ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1962 he undertook an unsuccessful attempt yet to be re- elected to the governorship. Instead, Sidney McMath was a successful lawyer. In this profession he worked until the 1990s. He won some spectacular trials and received it in American legal circles a certain reputation. In 1976 he became president of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. Sidney McMath died in October 2003 at the age of 91 years. He was married twice and had five children.