John L. McMillan

Who was John L. McMillan?

John Lanneau McMillan was a United States Representative from South Carolina. Born on a farm near Mullins, he was educated at Mullins High School, the University of North Carolina, as well as the University of South Carolina Law School and National Law School in Washington, D.C. He was selected to represent the United States Congress at the Interparliamentary Union in London in 1960, and in Tokyo in 1961.

McMillan was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-sixth and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1939 to January 3, 1973; while in Congress he was chairman of the Committee on District of Columbia from 1945 to 1947, from 1949 to 1953, and from 1953 to 1973. When Walter Washington, the Mayor-Commissioner of the District of Columbia, sent his first budget to Congress in late 1967, McMillan responded by having a truckload of watermelons delivered to Washington's office. McMillan was defeated in the 1972 Democratic primary by a considerably more liberal Democrat, State Representative John Jenrette. He is still the longest-serving congressman in South Carolina's history, and only Strom Thurmond represented the state longer at the federal level.