Estes Kefauver - Definition and Overview

Estes Kefauver (July 26, 1903 - August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee.

Kefauver was born in Madisonville, Tennessee and attended the University of Tennessee and Yale University. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949. He served in the United States Senate from 1949 to his death in 1963. He led a U.S. Senate committee investigating organized crime in 1950 that brought him national attention.

In the presidential election of 1952 he defeated President Harry S. Truman in the New Hampshire Primary, but was eventually defeated for the Presidential nomination by Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. He was the Democratic Party Vice Presidential nominee in the presidential election of 1956.

Although a Southerner, Kefauver was hated by many of his fellow white Southerners for his liberal position on civil rights and his independence (the Southern Senators usually voted in a bloc).