George W. Norris
George W. Norris | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Harris & Ewing c. 1920s–1930s | |
| United States Senator from Nebraska | |
| In office March 4, 1913 – January 3, 1943 | |
| Preceded by | Norris Brown |
| Succeeded by | Kenneth S. Wherry |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska's 5th district | |
| In office March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1913 | |
| Preceded by | Ashton C. Shallenberger |
| Succeeded by | Silas Reynolds Barton |
| Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary | |
| In office August 1926 – March 3, 1933 | |
| Preceded by | Albert B. Cummins |
| Succeeded by | Henry F. Ashurst |
| Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry | |
| In office 1921–1926 | |
| Preceded by | Asle J. Gronna |
| Succeeded by | Charles McNary |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George William Norris July 11, 1861 |
| Died | September 2, 1944 (aged 83) McCook, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Party | Republican (until 1936) Independent (1936–1944) |
| Spouses | Pluma Lashley
(m. 1889; died 1901)Ellie Leonard (m. 1903) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Baldwin University Northern Indiana Law School |
| Profession | Lawyer |
George William Norris (July 11, 1861 – September 2, 1944) was a progressive American politician from Nebraska. He served in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from 1903 to 1913, and in the United States Senate from 1913 to 1943. He became an Independent in 1936. Norris was chairman of the Senate's Judiciary Committee and Agriculture and Forestry Committee.
George W. Norris was a leader of progressive and liberal causes in Congress. He is best known as the man behind the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933. Still in operation today, the Tennessee Valley Authority brought electricity to poor rural areas and constructed dams for flood control in the American Southeast. Norris was also the father of Nebraska's unicameral legislature—the only one-house legislature in the United States—and the author of the Twentieth Amendment. He was one of only six senators to vote against U.S. entry into World War I. Norris was known for his populist and pro-union ideology, his frequent defiance of the Republican Party, his non-interventionist foreign policy, and his intense crusades against what he characterized as "wrong and evil".
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called him "the very perfect, gentle knight of American progressive ideals", and this has been the theme of all his biographers. He is one of eight senators profiled in President John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage. A 1957 advisory panel of 160 scholars recommended Norris as the top choice for the five best senators in U.S. history.