ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
   Humphrey, Hubert Horatio)
Humphrey Humphrey, Hubert
   
   b. May 27, 1911, Wallace, S.D., U.S.
   d. Jan. 13, 1978, Waverly, Minn.
   38th vice president of the United States (1965-69), presidential
   candidate in 1968, and liberal Senate leader (1949-65; 1971-78) who
   built his political base on a Democrat-Farmer-Labor coalition
   reminiscent of the Populist movement.
   
   Originally a pharmacist, Humphrey held a variety of jobs--teacher,
   radio news commentator, federal administrator, and Army Air Forces
   instructor--before becoming Minnesota campaign manager for Pres.
   Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. During this period he was instrumental
   in merging the state's Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties.
   
   Humphrey's public political career was launched in 1945, when he was
   elected mayor of Minneapolis. Three years later he ran successfully
   for the U.S. Senate, in which he served for the next 16 years; after
   1961 he became assistant Senate majority leader. As a senator he
   developed a reputation as an effective, outspoken debater, a prolific
   initiator of legislation, and a skilled parliamentary leader. He won
   particular acclaim for achieving bipartisan support for the Nuclear
   Test-Ban Treaty (1963) and the Civil Rights Act (1964).
   
   When he became vice president under Lyndon B. [12]Johnson, Humphrey's
   earlier reputation as a glib and sometimes abrasive "do-gooder" was
   supplanted by a more conservative image, especially after he defended
   U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. As vice president, he served as
   chairman of the National Advisory Council of the Peace Corps,
   coordinator of the antipoverty program, and chairman of the Civil
   Rights Council.
   
   Following President Johnson's withdrawal from active politics in 1968,
   Humphrey became the Democratic presidential candidate, but, with his
   party divided over the Vietnam War, he was narrowly defeated by
   Republican Richard M. Nixon. He continued his interest in education by
   conducting classes at Macalester College, St. Paul, and at the
   University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and by his two-year association
   with the educational enterprises of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
   He was reelected to the Senate in 1970 as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor
   Party candidate from Minnesota. In 1972 he unsuccessfully sought the
   Democratic nomination for president but stayed in the Senate and
   thereafter played an active legislative role as well as those of elder
   statesman and party sage. In and out of the Senate he was assessed as
   one of the giants in the history of that body.
   
   Information about this topic in other articles:
      Humphrey, Hubert Horatio
         role in American history
              [13]The Vietnam War
              from United States, history of
   Tools
   [14]Email this article
   [15]Print this article
   
   More About This Topic
   [16]Article
   [17]Images
   [18]Index Entry
   [19]Internet Links
   
   [20][LINK] 
   [21]About Britannica.com | [22]Comments & Questions | [23]Company
   Information
   (c) 1999 Britannica.com Inc.