Though overshadowed by his more famous son and namesake, during his time in office, Albert Gore Sr., was one of those politicians who went from unknown to national celebrity seemingly overnight.
Gain national fame after he publicly decried the Southern Manifesto (a document produced by members of the Democratic Party in 1956 opposing racial integration in public places), Gore quickly became known as the “Architect of the New South”.
Yet when it actually came to civil rights, Albert Gore Sr., simply known as Al Gore before the rise of his more famous son, had a checkered past both voting for it and against it.
Early Life
The man who would later go on to be known as Al Gore (and then Al Gore Sr. before the rise of his more famous son and namesake) was born as Albert Arnold Gore on December 26 1907 in the vicinity of Granville, Tennessee.
Born as the third of five children to Allen Arnold Gore and his wife Margie, Gore could trace his ancestry all the way back to the 17th century, when a prescient ancestor, John Gore (sometimes spelled Goare) left his homeland in search of a new life Virginia.
Settling in Middlesex County, Virginia and later the nearby Shenandoah County, the Gores later moved to Tennessee not long after the American Revolution.
Growing up with his five siblings, as well as an orphaned cousin, when Al was five, his family moved from Granville to Possum Hollow, Tennessee, to become farmers.
Succeeding in this endeavor, the Gores were able to live somewhat comfortably and a young Al excelled at school, particularly in music, where he gained the nickname “Music Gore” from his fellow classmates.
Graduating high school, Al enrolled at Middle Tennessee State Teachers College, supporting himself by working part-time as a teacher, later considering a career as a teacher before abandoning it.
Early Political Career
Though most lifelong politicians tend to start their political careers quite early on, Albert Gore Sr.’s started earlier than you’d think: he was 23.
Having been a teacher, Gore knew that when the position of superintendent of school in Smith County, Tennessee (a publicly-elected office) came up for grabs, he had to at least run for office.
Though his campaign was well organized and appealed to many voters, Gore ultimately lost the election to an older, more experienced man. With this loss under his belt, Gore returned home and worked on his family’s farm.
Yet it wouldn’t last.
At least to Gore, his political career was over, but when the man who defeated him died a year after the election, he named Gore to succeed him, with Gore faithfully serving the schools of Smith County with pride.
It was whilst he was acting as the superintendent of schools that Gore attended Nashville YMCA Night Law School, eventually graduating and passing the bar exam.
A chance encounter in 1936 saw Albert Gore Sr. meet Pauline LaFon at a restaurant. At the time, she was studying law at Vanderbilt University and was supporting herself by waiting tables at a restaurant Al frequented.
Getting to know one another, the two realized that they were both studying for the bar exam, and chose to study together. One thing led to another and the couple eventually began dating and later married in 1937.
The year prior, in 1936, Gore was appointed Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor, where he served for a year before officially joining the Democratic Party and resigning to run for Congress.
Congress
Running for Tennessee’s 4th District (a safe Democratic seat at the time), Al Gore Sr. replaced four-time Representative John R. Mitchell who was retiring to run for the Senate, though he was ultimately unsuccessful.
Facing token Republican opposition, Al Gore quickly became the representative for Tennessee’s 4th District in 1938, bein elected again in
House of Representatives
Senate
Unseated
Civil Rights And Opposition to The Southern Manifesto
Relationship With Armand Hammer
Whilst attending a Tennessee cattle auction in 1950, Al Gore Sr. had a chance encounter with Russian-Jewish oil magnate Armand Hammer, who served as an unofficial liaison between the US President and Soviet Premier, and who had known every president since Hoover.
Striking a conversation, the two later became close friends, not only on a political level, but also a personal level too, with both men genuinely enjoying picking the other’s brain about business or political matters.
After Gore’s defeat, he resumed his law career and became Occidental Petroleum’s lawyer. In September 1972, Gore became the chairman of the Kentucky-based Island Creek Coal Co., one of Occidental’s many subsidiaries.
This earned him a place on Occidental’s board of directors.
Earning a salary of $500,000 per year (roughly $3.3 million adjusted for inflation), Gore was also given shares in Occidental Petroleum, which were valued at $680,000 ($1.5 million adjusted for inflation) at the time of his death.
When he died, his shares in the company were owned by his son, Al Gore Jr., who quickly sold them due to his eco-friendly and anti-global warming political beliefs – not that it stopped him from being criticized by environmentalist groups years later…
The two even went into business together.
When Armand Hammer led a group of investors to acquire the Ankony Cattle cattle farm in 1975, Gore was one of the investors who participated, netting a “substantial profit” from the deal according to his biography.
Due to the two men’s close friendship, and Armand Hammer’s great wealth, Al Gore Sr.’s entire political career was dogged by accusations that he was on Hammer’s payroll.
Though efforts to prove or disprove this were inconclusive at the time, once Gore’s political career ended, evidence came to light that Gore was paid two salaries during his time in Congress: the first from the government and the second from Hammer.
And the friendship between Armand Hammer and Al Gore Sr. appeared to be multigenerational.
Having known Al Gore Jr. since he was a small child, it was Hammer who convinced him to get into politics, promising to use his money to make him president. That’s why he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party’s nomination in 1988.
Sadly, Hammer died in 1990 and thus never saw Gore become vice-president or nearly become president (had he been alive, chances are that Gore would’ve become the 43rd President, not George Bush).
Later Life And Death
At the same time Gore entered private practice, he also began teaching law at Vanderbilt University before leaving to head Island Creek Coal. Eventually retiring from the company, Gore found that retirement didn’t suit him.
Instead, he ran an antiques store called Gore Antique Mall in Carthage, Tennessee. According to him, it wasn’t to support himself – his investments more than supported him – it was just to keep him busy.
Continuing to work well into his eighties and nineties, Gore lived long enough to witness his son and Bill Clinton become the youngest duo to make it into the White House after defeating George H. W. Bush in a landslide in 1992.
Though well into his eighties, Al Gore Sr. became an active member of the Clinton-Gore campaign, drawing upon his years of campaign experience decades prior to help both his son and his running mate.
He even lived to see his son gain a second term in 1996, though at this point he was 88 years old and his health was beginning to fail and he passed away surrounded by his family on December 5 1998, three weeks shy of his 91st birthday.
His funeral was held two days later, on December 7, with attendees including his wife Pauline, his son, Vice President Al Gore Jr., his four grandchildren and the entire First Family – including the President and First Lady.
As his father’s only surviving child (his other child, Nancy, died of lung cancer in 1984), Al Gore Jr. eulogized his father, talking about his father being this “great teacher” who taught his son the ins-and-outs of politics before he even decided to enter politics!
Owing not only to who his son was, but also to his own political career, his funeral and eulogy were televised on C-SPAN and was watched by millions of people who came to pay their respects to the “Architect of the New South”.
His family then laid him to rest at the Smith County Memorial Gardens cemetery in Carthage, Tennessee.
