John McDuffie

This article is about the U.S. Representative from Alabama (1919–1935). For the U.S. Representative from Alabama (1890–1891), see John Van McDuffie.

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John McDuffie co-authored the Tydings–McDuffie Act, giving the Philippines a self-government for ten years, and after it, its independence.

John McDuffie (September 25, 1883 – November 1, 1950) was born in River Ridge, Alabama in Monroe County on September 25, 1883. He was educated by private tutors. He attended college at Southern University (now Birmingham–Southern College) in Greensboro and later attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn, Alabama, where he in graduated in 1904. McDuffie went to Law School at The University of Alabama and graduated there in 1908. He was admitted to Bar the same year.

A Democrat, he was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1907 and served until 1911. He later became a prosecutor for the First Judicial Circuit Court of Alabama and served there until 1919.

He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1918, and served from March 4, 1919, until his resignation on March 2, 1935. During his tenure in the House he served as Minority Whip for 71st Congress, and later as Majority Whip for 72nd Congress. He also served as chairman of the Committee on Insular Affairs in 73rd and 74th Congress. He co-authored the Philippine Independence Act which provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence from the United States after a period of ten years.

In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed McDuffie to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama where he served until his death in Mobile, Alabama on November 1, 1950. He is interred in Pine Crest Cemetery.

External links

• John McDuffie at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

• John McDuffie at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Oscar Lee Gray	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 1st congressional district 1919–1935	Succeeded by Frank W. Boykin
Party political offices
Preceded by William Allan Oldfield (D-AR)	House Minority Whip 1929–1933	Succeeded by Carl G. Bachmann (R-WV)
Preceded by Albert Henry Vestal (R-IN)	House Majority Whip 1931–1933	Succeeded by Arthur H. Greenwood (D-IN)
Preceded by William Allan Oldfield (AR)	House Democratic Whip 1929–1933	Succeeded by Arthur H. Greenwood (IN)
Legal offices
Preceded by Robert Tait Ervin	Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama 1935–1950	Succeeded by Daniel Holcombe Thomas