Nov. 22, 1917
On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, 1917, Alabama Congressman George Huddleston married Bertha L. Baxley and the couple would have five children. (Son George Huddleston Jr. also would serve in Congress, from 1955-64.) The elder Huddleston was elected to Congress in 1915 to represent the state’s Ninth District and served until 1937. Huddleston was a champion of racial equality, organized labor and free speech and initially opposed the U.S. entry into World War I before voting in favor of the declaration of war on April 6, 1917. Birmingham-Southern College established the Bertha and George Huddleston Sr. Scholarship in his honor. Huddleston died Feb. 29, 1960.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.