Douglas, Emily Taft (1899–1994)

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Douglas, Emily Taft (1899–1994)

United States Congresswoman from 1944 to 1946. Born Emily Taft in Chicago, Illinois, on April 19, 1899; died in Briarcliff Manor, New York, on January 28, 1994; one of three daughters of Lorado Taft (a sculptor, art teacher, writer, and lecturer) andAda (Bartlett) Taft; University of Chicago, B.A., 1920; attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art; graduate study in government and political science, University of Chicago; married Paul Howard Douglas (professor of economics and U.S. Senator from Illinois, 1949–66), in 1931; children: one daughter, Jean Douglas .

Emily Taft Douglas was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1899, and grew up wanting to be an actress. Instead, she would join Jessie Sumner in 1945 as one of two Congresswomen elected from Illinois, and she would subsequently distinguish herself as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, At the insistence of her parents, Emily finished college at the University of Chicago before pursuing her acting dream in New York. After a two-year stint in the mystery The Cat and the Canary, Emily returned to the University of Chicago for graduate work in government and political science. At age 32, she married economics professor Paul Howard Douglas (who would later serve in the U.S. Senate).

On a three-month trip through Europe in 1935, Douglas and her husband witnessed the rise of fascism in Europe. Visiting Rome on the day Mussolini announced he had sent his troops into Ethiopia, she described the feeling of fear and foreboding that overcame them: "Suddenly, all the things we had seen and suspected that summer fell into place. It came crystal clear to us then and there that if Hitler and Mussolini and the forces they represented were not stopped, the whole world would be engulfed." Returning home, the Douglases determined to warn Americans of the impending danger. Emily Taft Douglas organized and chaired the department of government and foreign policy of the Illinois League of Women Voters and her husband served as alderman to the Chicago City Council. Hoping to "strengthen democracy at the grass roots," she became active in local Democratic politics. In 1942, when Paul, at age 50, enlisted as a marine private, Douglas became executive secretary of the International Relations Center in Chicago, a clearinghouse for information.

In February 1944, she was chosen as the Democratic nominee for the States Representative at Large seat in the House of Representatives. In the general election, she faced veteran incumbent Stephen Day, one of the staunchest isolationists in the House. Overcoming her self-described "quiet housewifely" persona, she campaigned on a platform of support for Roosevelt's foreign policies, and, despite the over-whelming opposition of the Chicago Tribune, she defeated Day by over 191,000 votes. During her term, Douglas served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and was recognized as a highly qualified specialist in the field. In order to keep her Illinois constituents apprised of her work, she established a semi-monthly newsletter, Window

on Washington, which received high praise. (In one of the first issues, Douglas announced that she would hold open competitive examinations for her appointments to West Point and Annapolis.)

In August 1945, Douglas joined several committee colleagues on a visit to Europe to inspect the work of the United Nation's Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Before the close of the year, she had co-sponsored legislation to empower the UN to control arms and outlaw the atomic bomb. She also championed federal support for libraries, especially those in rural and low-income areas. Douglas later co-sponsored a bill for bookmobile service that became the basis for the Hill-Douglas Act, which was passed by Congress under co-sponsorship of her husband.

Douglas was among 54 House Democrats ousted in the midterm election of 1946, losing to William G. Stratton. Following her husband's election to the Senate in 1948, she served as a representative to UNESCO and as a moderator for the American Unitarian Association. In later years, she devoted a great deal of time to the civil-rights movement. Douglas also wrote several books, including Appleseed Farm (1948), a children's story; Remember the Ladies (1966), biographies of women who were influential in the development of the United States; and Margaret Sanger (1970), a biography. Emily Taft Douglas died on January 28, 1994.