Repository:
Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies
Abstract: The collection consists of the papers of Henderson L. Lanham from his service in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1957. Includes subject files, correspondence, legislative files, case files, newspaper clippings, press releases, speeches, and political campaign material. The bulk of the materials document Lanham's activities with the House Committees on Public Works, Foreign Affairs, Expenditures in the Executive Departments, and its Special Subcommittee investigating the Veterans Administration. There is also a small amount of personal material.
Henderson Lovelace Lanham was born in Rome, Georgia on September 14, 1888 to John Henderson and Julia Thompson Lanham. Educated in the public schools of Rome and Piedmont Institute in Rockmart, Georgia, Lanham received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Georgia in 1910. He also received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Georgia in 1911 and a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1912. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship Fraternity.
After he graduated, Lanham returned to Rome and served as chairman of the Board of Education in the city of Rome from 1918 to 1919. In 1929, he was elected as a member to the House of Representatives from Floyd County to the Georgia General Assembly. He served in this position until 1933 and again from 1937 until 1940. From 1941-1946, he was Solicitor General for the Rome Judicial Circuit.
In November, 1946, Lanham was elected as a Democrat to the United States Congress. He served the 7th district until his death in 1957.
While serving in the U. S. Congress, Lanham was appointed to the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department in 1947, to the Committee on Public Works (1949-1951), the Committee on Foreign Affairs (1951-1955), and the Committee on Appropriations (1955-1957). Lanham was the third ranking majority member on the Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments, chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Relations with International Organizations and Special Subcommittee Investigating the Veterans Administration.
He also served as a ranking majority member of the Select Committee to Investigate Lobbying Activities during the 81st Congress. Lanham was a member of the subcommittees on Appropriations for Foreign Aid and the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare. Throughout his tenure in the House, Lanham was a stanuch segregationist and was one of the signers of the Southern Manifesto in 1956.
Lanham married Anne White Phinizy on September 1, 1915. They had one daughter. He died on November 10, 1957 due to a train collision with his automobile.
The collection consists of the papers of Henderson L. Lanham from his service in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1957. Includes subject files, correspondence, legislative files, case files, newspaper clippings, press releases, speeches, and political campaign material. The bulk of the materials document Lanham's activities with the House Committees on Public Works, Foreign Affairs, Expenditures in the Executive Departments, and its Special Subcommittee investigating the Veterans Administration. There is also a small amount of personal material.
The papers are divided into nine series: I. General, II. Legislative, III. Personal, IV. Political, V. Post Office, VI. Speech/Press, VII. Case Mail (closed), VIII. Photographs, and IX. Scrapbooks. The types of materials in this collection include correspondence, newspaper clippings, speeches, telegrams, printed materials, reports, bills, and photographs. Arrangement is alphabetical.
Newspaper clippings and telegrams have been copied onto bond paper for protection of content. Photographs have been inventoried and placed in the photo file for preservation.
Before material from collections at the Richard B. Russell Library may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permissions. Persons wishing to quote from materials in the Russell Library collection should consult the Director. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.
The inventory of this collection uses terms that could be considered racist, ablelist, or otherwise offensive. These descriptors reflect the intent of the records' creators, not intervention on the part of the archivists or the Russell Library. This language has been retained in order to illustrate the historical context in which the records were created.
