Bilbo, Theodore Gilmore

Bilbo, Theodore Gilmore

(1877–1947) U.S. senator; born in Juniper Grove, Miss. He served as the Democratic governor of Mississippi (1916–20, 1928–32). Popular among the state's poor rural whites, he was a supporter of economic populism and white supremacy. He served in the U.S. Senate (1935–47), where he was a staunch supporter of the New Deal as well as an outspoken racist; he became notorious for his filibustering against legislation aiding African-Americans, instead calling for their deportation to Africa.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.