George Huddleston Jr.

George Huddleston Jr. (March 19, 1920 – September 14, 1971) was a Democratic Congressman from Alabama.

George Huddleston Jr.

Huddleston was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the son of George Huddleston, who represented the Birmingham area in Congress from 1915 to 1937. The younger Huddleston attended George Washington University for one year before transferring to Birmingham-Southern College, from which he graduated in 1941. After serving in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946, he earned his law degree from the University of Alabama in 1948. He served as deputy circuit solicitor for Alabama's 10th circuit from 1949 to 1952, then served as an assistant United States Attorney before entering private practice.

Huddleston was elected to his father's old congressional seat in 1954, and was reelected four times. Having signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto that opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, he voted against HR 6127, the Civil Rights Act of 1957.[1] In 1964, he was toppled by Republican John Buchanan, losing by a shocking 21-point margin as the Birmingham area, like most of the rest of the state, turned violently on the Democrats in the wake of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Huddleston remained in the capital as a senior officer with North American Rockwell until his death in 1971. He is buried in Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery.