Sam Rayburn, The Longest Serving Speaker

In 1940, Democrat Sam Rayburn was elected Speaker of the House. Rayburn would go on to serve as Speaker for a total of 17 years, longer than any other individual. By the time Rayburn died in 1961, he had been Speaker under four different Presidents (Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy).

Rayburn was considered an effective Speaker, although he was much different from Joe Cannon. Cannon had had a strong array of powers, and therefore rarely had to consult with anyone before taking action. Rayburn, with fewer formal powers, could not command people to do his bidding. Instead, he had to persuade them to do so. And by all accounts, he was generally successful.

Perhaps Rayburn's most significant legacy was his contribution to the struggle for civil rights. During most of Rayburn's time in office, civil rights legislation was consistently defeated in Congress, due in large part to the changes in legislative procedure that had occurred after the revolt against Joe Cannon.

During Rayburn's tenure, the House operated under a seniority system that allowed many conservative Southern Democrats to serve as chairs of important committees and use that position to thwart meaningful attempts at civil rights legislation. The most notable opponent of civil rights in the House was the chair of the Rules Committee, Howard Smith of Virginia, who repeatedly exercised his power to derail legislation that would have improved the plight of African Americans.

Although Sam Rayburn was initially reluctant to press hard for civil rights, over time he faced increasing pressure from the liberal wing of the Democratic party. However, Rayburn repeatedly found his efforts thwarted by Howard Smith and Smith's allies on the committee.

Rayburn decided to try and rein in the Rules Committee itself. In 1961, Rayburn achieved a massive victory. On an extremely close vote (217-212), the House voted in favor of a Rayburn-backed rule change that enlarged the membership of the Rules Committee, allowing Rayburn to appoint three new members. This broke Smith's hold and allowed for the passage of civil rights legislation. Although the first major civil rights bill did not emerge from Congress until three years later, Rayburn's defeat of the conservatives was what made it possible. It also changed the balance of power in the House, giving the Speaker back some measure of control that had been lost during the revolt against Speaker Cannon.