Hixie Sanders Anglea (1913-1996)

Portrait from the Tennessee General Assembly composite of 1951-52.

   Prominent Nashville, Tennessee resident Hixie Sanders Anglea was for many years a notable fixture in Tennessee's capital city, being a former Vice Mayor of that city, a two-term member of the State House of Representatives and a member of the Nashville City Council for over twenty years. One of five children born to Monroe Lee (1882-1952) and Nellie Hughes Anglea (1889-1962), Hixie Sanders Anglea was born in Lebanon, Tennessee on April 4, 1913.  He would graduate from the law department of Cumberland University in the class of 1935 and shortly thereafter launched a law practice in Nashville, partnering with Jordan Stokes III. Anglea married his first wife Sarah Katherine Todd McBroome on March 23, 1939. The couple would later have two daughters, Sandra Margaret (born 1941) and Sarah Todd (born 1943). Following his first wife's death in 1962 Anglea would remarry to Juanita Sue Broome Simmons (1924-1997), who survived him upon his death in 1996. 

   Prior to his entering Nashville political life, Anglea joined the International Order of Odd Fellows, of which he was a member for over fifty years. In 1941 he became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee and fourteen years later ascended to the post of Sovereign Grand Master of the World Independent Order of Odd Fellows, holding that post from 1955-56.

H. Sanders Anglea, from the 1933 Cumberland University "Phoenix".

   In November 1948 Anglea was elected to the Tennessee State House of Representatives, representing that state's 15th floterial district (comprising Davidson and Wilson county). Taking his seat at the start of the 1949-51 session, Anglea would serve on the following house committees: Corporations, Education and Common Schools, Immigration, Insurance and Loans, Judiciary, Pensions, Public Roads, Railroads, and Retrenchment. Anglea would also chair the Committee on Public Health and Sanitation during his first term. Reelected as a representative in 1950, Anglea's second term saw him sit on two new house committees, including Code Revision and Criminal Revision, and he continued service on the Judiciary Committee. 

   Before leaving the legislature Anglea had been elected as Vice Mayor of Nashville in 1951 and held that office until 1963. His time in public service wasn't just limited to Tennessee however, and in the early 1950s was selected by President Eisenhower to serve as Chairman of the Fraternal Organizations committee of the Presidential People-To-People program, developed in connection with the U.S. Information Agency. His service with this program continued until about 1958, and his time as chairman brought him into contact with another oddly named political figure, Genoa Sebastian Washington (a former Illinois state representative profiled here back in February), who served as the program's finance committee chairman. 

From Jet Magazine, August 28, 1958.

     After concluding his service with the People-to-People program Anglea would serve a brief stint as Public Defender for the city of Nashville in 1963 and in 1966 was elected as Metro councilman-at-large for the Nashville-Davidson County area, where he would remain until 1987. H. Sanders Anglea died in Nashville on November 26, 1996, aged 83. He was later interred at the Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, and his memory and public service to that city continued on in the scholarship fund bearing his name, established shortly after his death.

Portrait from the Richland West End Neighborhood newsletter, 2014.

Genoa Sebastian Washington (1897-1972)

Portrait from the Illinois Blue Book, 1967-68.

   Noted as being a "champion of civil rights laws and women's legislation", Genoa Sebastian Washington was a leading legal figure in Chicago, Illinois, serving as a vice president of the Cook County Bar Association. Active in politics as well as law, Washington twice served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention and was a three-term member of the Illinois State House of Representatives from 1966-1972, dying in office in the last-named year.

   The son of the Rev. Virgil William Washington and the former Lucy Virginia Bonner, Genoa S. Washington was born in Washington D.C. on September 26, 1897. Virgil Washington was a minister and General Secretary in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and due to his father's church work "attended the primary and secondary schools wherever the work of his father carried him". A veteran of World War I, Genoa Washington had enlisted as a private and would be honorably discharged as a "captain of infantry" at the war's conclusion.

   Following his military service, Washington attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, graduating from that school in the 1920s with his B.S. degree. He would continue study at Northwestern Law School and in 1929 was admitted to the Illinois Bar. He would practice law in Cook County for many years afterward and also served as a past vice president of the Cook County Bar Association. In addition to practicing law, Washington attained high office in the Chicago branch of the NAACP, of which he served as president. A longstanding Mason, Washington served as a past master of the Richard E. Moore Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and is also remarked as having served on "the Imperial Council of the Mystic Shrine." In 1952 he served as an alternate delegate from Illinois to the Republican National Convention that nominated Dwight Eisenhower for the Presidency.

    In 1954 Washington made his first attempt at elective office when he announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois' 1st district. After winning the Republican primary in April Washington became the Republican candidate for the seat, squaring off against Democratic incumbent William L. Dawson. On election day 1954, it was Dawson who won out, besting Washington by a wide margin, 71, 472 votes to 23, 470.

   Genoa Washington achieved national prominence in September 1957 when he was selected by President Eisenhower to serve as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations 12th General Assembly. Washington represented the United States on a special political committee of the UN General Assembly and early in his tenure at the UN conferred with both Israel and the "delegations of Arab countries" regarding the latter's advocation of a strong resolution against Israel and its stance on Palestinian refugees. Washington would also host a banquet for UN delegates at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in December 1957, where he stated:

"These friends from a far have had too little opportunity to know colored Americans due to the lack of suitable contact. I believe that the American cause would be enhanced if these opportunities are increased."

Genoa Washington (center), from Jet Magazine, January 1958.

  In 1960 Genoa Washington was again a candidate for Congress from Illinois's 1st district. In a nearly identical repeat of the 1954 race, Washington won the Republican primary held in April of that year and in November again faced incumbent representative William Dawson. On November 8th it was Dawson who cruised to an easy victory, beating Washington by a 54,000 vote margin! 

   Four years following his defeat Washington journeyed to San Francisco as part of the Illinois delegation to the 1964 Republican National Convention that nominated Barry Goldwater for President. Washington's political fortunes changed in 1966 when he launched a candidacy for a seat in the Illinois State Assembly. Hoping to represent Cook County's 23rd district, he would win election to the state house in November of that year. His freshman term in the legislature saw him sit on the committees on Revenue, Industry and Labor Relations, and Registration and Regulation.

   Elected to his second term in the state house in 1968, Washington served on the House Committee on Education and the Judiciary during the 1968-70 term. He would win a third term in the legislature in November 1970 and in the March 1972 Republican primary defeated three other Republican candidates to once again become that party's assembly nominee from Cook County's 23rd district. Washington's death at age 75 on October 14, 1972 (just a few weeks prior to the election) curtailed his being elected to a fourth term in the assembly. A lifelong bachelor, Washington's burial location is unknown at this time, but it's presumed to be in Chicago, where he had resided and worked for nearly all his life.

Genoa Washington in 1963 during his time as imperial potentate of the Prince Hall Shriners.