Robert R. Reynolds | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator from North Carolina | |
| In office December 5, 1932 – January 3, 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Cameron A. Morrison |
| Succeeded by | Clyde R. Hoey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 18, 1884 Asheville, North Carolina, US |
| Died | February 13, 1963 (aged 78) Asheville, North Carolina |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | Frances Jackson
(m. 1910; died 1913)Mary Bland
(m. 1914; div. 1917)Denise D'Arcy
(m. 1921; div. 1929)Eva Brady
(m. 1931; died 1934)Evalyn W. McLean
(m. 1941; died 1946) |
| Children | 4 |
| Residence | Friendship estate |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina UNC Law School |
Robert Rice Reynolds (June 18, 1884 – February 13, 1963) was an American politician who served as a Democratic US senator from North Carolina from 1932 to 1945. Almost from the outset of his Senate career, "Our Bob," as he was known among his local supporters,[1] acquired distinction as a passionate isolationist and increasing notoriety as an apologist for Nazi aggression in Europe. Even after America's entry into World War II, according to a contemporary study of subversive elements in America, he "publicly endorsed the propaganda efforts of Gerald L. K. Smith," whose scurrilous publication The Cross and the Flag "violently assailed the United States war effort and America's allies."[2] One of the nation's most influential fascists, Smith likewise collaborated with Reynolds on The Defender, an antisemitic newspaper that was partly owned by Reynolds.[3]
Reynolds occasionally turned over his Senate office facilities to subversive propagandists and allowed them to use his franking to mail their literature postage-free.[4] He was also a supporter of the economic components of the New Deal.
- ^ See Arthur L. Shelton, "Buncombe Bob," The American Mercury, October 1932, pp. 140–147, for a portrait of his senatorial years.
- ^ Michael Sayers and Albert E. Kahn, Sabotage, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1942, p. 249.
- ^ Charles Higham, American Swastika, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, N.Y., 1985, p. 52. ISBN 0-385-17874-3
- ^ Sayers and Kahn, pp. 193, 227.