Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. (February 15, 1914 – disappeared October 16, 1972; declared dead December 29, 1972) was an American Democratic Party politician and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the House majority leader and a member of the Warren Commission.
In 1972, while still majority leader, Boggs was on a fundraising drive in Alaska when the twin engine airplane he was travelling in (along with Alaska congressman Nick Begich and two others) disappeared en route from Anchorage to Juneau, Alaska.
Early life and education
Boggs was born in Long Beach in Harrison County on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the son of Claire Josephine (Hale) and William Robertson "Will" Boggs. Boggs was educated at Tulane University where he received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1934 and a law degree in 1937. He first practiced law in New Orleans but soon became a leader in the movement to break the power of the political machine of U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long Jr., who was assassinated in 1935. Long had previously broken the power of New Orleans politicians in 1929.
Career
U.S. House
A Democrat running as an anti-Long candidate in the 2nd congressional district, Boggs defeated incumbent Paul H. Maloney in the 1940 Democratic primary and won the general election unopposed. When he was sworn in he was, at 27, the youngest member of Congress.
His initial election was not without controversy; five of his political allies who served as Orleans Parish election commissioners were convicted of changing 97 votes for Boggs's Democratic primary opponents into votes for Boggs. The case, United States v. Classic, reached the Supreme Court, where it established the federal government's authority to regulate local primary elections, setting a key precedent for later civil rights decisions.
After an unsuccessful bid for renomination in 1942 against his predecessor Paul Maloney, Boggs joined the United States Navy as an ensign. He served the remainder of World War II.
Gubernatorial bid
After the war, Boggs began his political comeback. He was again elected to Congress in 1946 (on Maloney's retirement) and was then re-elected thirteen times, once just after he disappeared, but before he was presumed dead. In 1951, Boggs launched an ill-fated campaign for governor of Louisiana. Leading in the polls early in the campaign, he was soon put on the defensive when another candidate, Lucille May Grace, at the urging of long-time southeastern Louisiana political boss Leander Perez, questioned Boggs's membership in the American Student Union in the 1930s. By 1951, the ASU was thought to be a Communist front. Boggs avoided the question and attacked both Grace and Perez for conducting a smear campaign against him. In his book, The Big Lie, author Garry Boulard suggests strongly that Boggs was a member of the ASU but tried to cover up that fact in the different political climate of the early 1950s.
The Boggs Act of 1952, sponsored by Hale Boggs, set harsh mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses. A first-offense conviction for marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2 to 10 years with a fine of up to $20,000.
Later House elections
During his tenure in Congress, Boggs was an influential member. After Brown v. Board of Education, he signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto condemning desegregation. Boggs voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960 and 1964, but voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. He was instrumental in passage of the interstate highway program in 1956.