MCCORMACK, John William
1891–1980
Office
Representative, Speaker Of The House
State/Territory
Massachusetts
Party
Democrat
Congress(es)
70th (1927–1929), 71st (1929–1931), 72nd (1931–1933), 73rd (1933–1935), 74th (1935–1937), 75th (1937–1939), 76th (1939–1941), 77th (1941–1943), 78th (1943–1945), 79th (1945–1947), 80th (1947–1949), 81st (1949–1951), 82nd (1951–1953), 83rd (1953–1955), 84th (1955–1957), 85th (1957–1959), 86th (1959–1961), 87th (1961–1963), 88th (1963–1965), 89th (1965–1967), 90th (1967–1969), 91st (1969–1971)
Leadership Positions
Democratic Caucus Chair - 76th, Democratic Whip - 80th, 83rd, Majority Leader - 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 81st, 82nd, 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th, Speaker of the House - 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st
- A veteran of World War I, John W. McCormack of Massachusetts was the longest serving Majority Leader in House history—holding the role from 1940 to 1947, from 1949 to 1953, and from 1955 until he became Speaker in 1962 following the death of Sam Rayburn of Texas. Including his time as Democratic Whip, McCormack served in Democratic leadership longer than anyone in American history.
- Outgoing and collegial, McCormack made it a point to have dinner with his wife, Harriet, every night.
- McCormack worked closely with President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass Johnson’s Great Society legislative package. He retired in 1971 amid a change in the institution’s folkways and amid new expectations for the job of the Speaker.
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MCCORMACK, John William, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Boston, Suffolk County, Mass., December 21, 1891; attended the public schools; studied law in a private law office; was admitted to the bar in 1913 and began practice in Boston, Mass.; member of the Massachusetts state constitutional convention, 1917-1918; during the First World War served in the United States Army, 1917-1918; member of the Massachusetts state house of representatives, 1920-1922; member of the Massachusetts state senate, 1923-1926, serving as Democratic floor leader, 1925-1926; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1932, 1940, 1944, and 1948; elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James A. Gallivan and on the same day was elected to the Seventy-first Congress; reelected to the Seventy-second and to the nineteen succeeding Congresses (November 6, 1928-January 3, 1971); chair, Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration (Eighty-fifth Congress); majority leader (Seventy-sixth through Seventy-ninth, Eighty-first, Eighty-second and Eighty-fourth through Eighty-seventh Congresses), minority whip (Eightieth and Eighty-third Congresses), Speaker of the House (Eighty-seventh through Ninety-first Congresses); was not a candidate for renomination in 1970 to the Ninety-second Congress; resided in Boston, Mass., until his death in Dedham, Mass., November 22, 1980; interment in Saint Joseph Cemetery, West Roxbury, Mass.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
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Boston University
Boston, MA
Papers:
1936-1971. 66 feet.
Correspondence, congressional files, personal papers, publicity, photographs, memorabilia, and tape recordings. Unpublished finding aid in repository.
John F. Kennedy Library
Boston, MA
Oral History:
41 pages.
Oral History:
55 pages.
Interview conducted by Lyndon B. Johnson Library.
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Oral History:
Transcript in the Oral History Collection of the Association of Former Members of Congress.
Restricted. Sound recording in the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
Lyndon B. Johnson Library
Austin, TX
Oral History:
September 23, 1968. 55 pages.
Description in library.
New-York Historical Society
New York, NY
Papers:
December 20, 1963; January 23, 1968. 2 letters.
Finding aid in repository.
Western Kentucky University Library
Bowling Green, KY
Papers:
20 letters (1962-1970) in the Frank Leslie Chelf papers, 1897-1971. ca. 8 cubic feet.
Finding aid in repository.
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Gordon, Lester I. "John McCormack and the Roosevelt Era." Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1976.
Nelson, Garrison. "Irish Identity Politics: The Reinvention of Speaker John W. McCormack of Boston." New England Journal of Public Policy 15 (Fall/Winter 1999/2000): 7-34.
___. John William McCormack: A Political Biography. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.
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Treatment as a Page and Speaker John McCormack of Massachusetts
Account of meeting Speaker John McCormack of Massachusetts on the Speaker’s Rostrum.
Frank Mitchell, Page, U.S. House of Representatives
Transcript (PDF)
