Hubert Humphrey (1911-1978), 38th vice president of the United States (1965-1969).

Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr., was born on May 27, 1911, in Wallace, South Dakota. He studied pharmacy and helped run the family drugstore before taking degrees at the universities of Minnesota and Louisiana. Twice elected mayor of Minneapolis (1945 and 1947), he established the nation's first municipal fair employment practices commission and expanded the city's welfare and housing programs. In 1944 he brought about the merger of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor party with the Democratic party, and in 1947 he helped found the Americans for Democratic Action; working with this group, he persuaded the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party to expel its Communist faction.

In 1948 Humphrey was elected U.S. senator. Reelected in 1954 and 1960, he was among the first to urge strong civil rights legislation, and he consistently supported and initiated social-welfare legislation, tax benefits for low-income groups, and aid to small businesses. Among his proposals were the Peace Corps and federal old-age medical insurance (Medicare). In 1961 he became Senate majority whip. Using his expertise as a parliamentary strategist, he was instrumental in the passage of such legislation as the 1963 ratification of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In 1964, running with President Lyndon B. Johnson, Humphrey was elected vice president of the U.S. Using his position to promote the administration's programs in Congress, he also coordinated federal civil rights activities and chaired the Council on Economic Opportunity. In 1966, following a trip to Southeast Asia, he changed his position from mild opposition to the Vietnam War to support for the administration's war involvement. That switch most likely cost him the presidency in 1968, when he was narrowly defeated by Richard M. Nixon. Humphrey was reelected to the Senate in 1970 and unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. He died on January 13, 1978, in Waverly, Minnesota.