73rd Congress (1933-1935)74th Congress (1935-1937) 75th Congress (1937-1939)
Years of Service: 1913-1937 Party: Democrat
Library of Congress
ROBINSON, Joseph Taylor, a
Representative and a Senator from Arkansas; born on a farm near Lonoke, Lonoke
County, Ark., August 26, 1872; attended the common schools, the University of
Arkansas at Fayetteville, and the law department of the University of Virginia
at Charlottesville; was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced practice in
Lonoke, Ark.; member, State general assembly 1895; presidential elector on the
Democratic ticket in 1900; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-eighth and to the
four succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1903, to January 14, 1913,
when he resigned, having been elected Governor; chairman, Committee on Public
Lands (Sixty-second Congress); Governor of Arkansas from January to March 1913,
when he resigned, having been elected Senator; elected to the United States
Senate in 1913 to fill the seat vacated by the death of Senator Jeff Davis;
reelected in 1918, 1924, 1930, and 1936 and served from March 4, 1913, until his
death; minority leader 1923-1933; majority leader 1933-1937; chairman, Committee
on Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth
Congresses), Committee on Claims (Sixty-fifth Congress); unsuccessful candidate
for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1928; died
in Washington, D.C., July 14, 1937; funeral services were held in the Chamber of
the United States Senate; interment in Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock,
Ark.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography;
Weller, Cecil E. Jr. Joe T. Robinson: Always a Loyal Democrat.
Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, 1998; Bacon, Donald C.
“Joseph Taylor Robinson: The Good Soldier.” In First Among Equals:
Outstanding Senate Leaders of the Twentieth Century, edited by Richard A.
Baker and Roger H. Davidson, pp. 63-97. Washington: Congressional Quarterly,
1991.
-- Biographical
Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.