Henry M. Britt
Encyclopedia
Henry Middleton Britt, III (June 9, 1919 - February 17, 1995), was a Hot Springs
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs is the 10th most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Garland County, and the principal city of the Hot Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area encompassing all of Garland County...

 lawyer who was a pioneer in the revitalization of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 (GOP) in the heavily Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, primarily during the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

 and 1970s
1970s
File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

. He was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1960, having been decisively defeated by Orval Eugene Faubus. In 1966, he was elected judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, having served from 1967–1983. Britt was also a peripheral figure in the granting of repeated draft deferments in the late 1960s to future Governor of Arkansas and U.S. President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

.

Early years, family, education

Britt was born in the village of Olmsted
Olmsted, Illinois
Olmsted is a village in Pulaski County, Illinois, along the Ohio River. The population was 299 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Olmsted is located at ....

 in Pulaski County in southernmost Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 to H.M. Britt, Jr. (February 27, 1895—March 31, 1982), and the former Sarah Theodosia Roach (August 25, 1896—January 10, 1987). Britt procured both his bachelor of arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 and Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 in 1941 and 1947, respectively. He was admitted to the practice of law in Illinois in 1947. A year later, the Britts relocated to Hot Springs, a resort city in central Arkansas. At that time Britt was admitted to the Arkansas bar.

On October 29, 1942, Britt married the former Barbara Jean Holmes (March 17, 1922—February 13, 1987). The couple had three daughters: Nancy, Sarah, and Melissa.

Britt was a distant cousin of former Republican Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...

 Maurice L. Britt, who served from 1967 to 1971. The two were born twenty days apart, died in the same year, and had the same paternal great-grandfather.

Britt was an officer to the Judge Advocate General
Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Army
The Judge Advocate General's Corps of the United States Army is composed of Army officers who are also lawyers and who provide legal services to the Army at all levels of command. The Judge Advocate General's Legal Service includes judge advocates, warrant officers, paralegal noncommissioned...

 of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Gubernatorial campaign, 1960

Britt served five years as an Eisenhower-appointed assistant United States attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

 for the Western District of Arkansas, based in Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...

, the seat of Sebastian County. A critic of popular segregationist Democratic Governor Orval Eugene Faubus
Orval Faubus
Orval Eugene Faubus was the 36th Governor of Arkansas, serving from 1955 to 1967. He is best known for his 1957 stand against the desegregation of Little Rock public schools during the Little Rock Crisis, in which he defied a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court by ordering the...

, Britt filed as the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 1960. He proclaimed his belief in a proclaimed tenet of GOP philosophy: "faith in the individual and the idea that government should not do for the individual what he can do and should do for himself."

Britt secured the support of businessman Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...

, a former New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

er, in the campaign against Faubus, and the Searcy
Searcy, Arkansas
Searcy is the largest city and county seat of White County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,663. It is the principal city of the Searcy, AR Micropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of White County...

 attorney, Odell Pollard
Odell Pollard
Odell Pollard is a retired attorney in Searcy, the seat of White County in central Arkansas, who was a pioneer in the revitalization of the Republican Party in his state.-Early years:...

, who served as state GOP chairman from 1966-1970. Rockefeller sponsored the "Party for Two Parties" at his WinRock Farms near Morrilton
Morrilton, Arkansas
Morrilton is a city in Conway County, Arkansas, United States, northwest of Little Rock. The town was home to Harding College, now Harding University of Searcy, Arkansas, for about a decade in the 1920s and 1930s. The population was 6,550 at the 2000 census...

. He brought the Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 Republican entertainer Tex Ritter
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...

, the father of John Ritter
John Ritter
Jonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively...

, and the ventriloquist Edgar Bergen
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...

, the father of Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...

, to entertain 850 guests who paid $50 each. Funds collected went to Britt's campaign and to a "bipartisan political education fund".

Britt spent considerable time promoting the presidential candidacy of then Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

 Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 in Arkansas. Nixon responded while he was speaking in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

. He crossed the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 as a gesture to the Arkansans in West Memphis
West Memphis, Arkansas
West Memphis is the largest city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 27,666 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of 28,181 in 2005, and 31,329 in 2011 ranking it as the state's 11th largest city, behind Hot Springs...

 and was warmly greeted by state party leaders.

He urged conservatives not to support the National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party
National States' Rights Party was a far right, white supremacist party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States.-Foundation:...

 because such action would divide anti-Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 voters and therefore boost the Democrats. Faubus issued a "lukewarm" endorsement of Kennedy and dispatched one of his aides, Dan Stephens of Clinton
Clinton, Arkansas
Clinton is the county seat of Van Buren County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,283 at the 2000 census. The city was named for DeWitt Clinton, the New York governor who built the Erie Canal; he previously was also a U.S. Senator from New York. Clinton is located at...

, to manage the national presidential campaign in Arkansas. Other Arkansans for Kennedy were entrenched U.S. Senators John McClellan
John McClellan
John McClellan may refer to:*John McClellan , chemist and industrialist in Widnes, England*John Little McClellan, politician from Arkansas, USA...

 and James William Fulbright. State Supreme Court Justice James Douglas Johnson
James D. Johnson
James Douglas Johnson, known as Justice Jim Johnson , was a former associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, a two-time candidate for governor of Arkansas in 1956 and 1966, and in 1968 an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S...

, a conservative Democrat, criticized the Kennedy-Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

 platform but stopped short of actually endorsing Nixon, whom James Johnson considered too liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 for the South.

Britt polled 129,921 votes (30.8 percent) to Faubus' 292,064 (69.2 percent). He ran far behind Nixon in Arkansas, who received 185,489 votes (43 percent), to Kennedy's 216,529 ballots (50.2 percent), and the States Rights Party's 29,057 votes (6.8 percent). Whereas Nixon won majorities in twenty-three of the seventy-five counties, Britt did not carry a single county, not even in the frequently Republican northwestern quadrant of the state, where Faubus was still popular.

Garland County circuit judge

Six years after his failed campaign for governor, Britt was elected circuit judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

 in Garland County, which includes Hot Springs. He was the only Republican to have been elected as a circuit judge in Arkansas on November 8, 1966, the same day that Winthrop Rockefeller defeated Jim Johnson to become the state's first GOP governor since Reconstruction.

Judge Britt, with support from Governor Rockefeller, was credited with having ousted gambling from Hot Springs. Britt ordered the Garland County Sheriff's Office to investigate so-called "bust-out joints", or gambling operations established to draw a quick profit and then move elsewhere. Britt said that his crackdown ended the previous "Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 atmosphere" of Hot Springs, often called the "Spa City". Throughout the 1970s, Judge Britt kept a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

 on call to prevent gambling operations from reappearing. He also fought against the potential reemergence of a political machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...

 in Hot Springs.

Paul Bosson, a Garland County prosecuting attorney, in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...

at the time of Britt's death, described the judge as "pretty tough".... He ran what I would call a strict courtroom." Britt was reelected as circuit judge in 1970, 1974, and 1978. He was defeated for a fifth term by the Democrat Walter G. Wright (born ca. 1932) in 1982, the year that Bill Clinton returned to the governorship after a two-year hiatus. Britt's initial election was attributed to Rockefeller's strength in Garland County. Q. Byrum Hurst
Q. Byrum Hurst
Quincy Byrum Hurst, Sr. , was a Hot Springs attorney and a Democratic member of the Arkansas State Senate from 1950 to 1972. He vacated his Senate seat to run unsuccessfully against Governor Dale L. Bumpers, who won the second of his two gubernatorial terms in 1972...

 (September 21, 1918 - December 4, 2006), a former Democratic member of the Arkansas State Senate and a prominent attorney in Hot Springs who made his own failed gubernatorial bid in 1972, described Judge Britt this way: "Although we were not of the same political persuasion, Britt was OK."

In 1978, Judge Britt became embroiled in a dispute with the press when he banned Arkansas Gazette reporter Ginger Shiras from a hearing
Hearing (law)
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency.A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and often less formal...

 in his chambers on whether to admit a police officer's testimony in a murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 trial. When the Gazette appealed, the Arkansas Supreme Court
Arkansas Supreme Court
The Arkansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Since 1925, it has consisted of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices, and at times Special Justices are called upon in the absence of a regular justice...

 declared that Britt erred in excluding Shiras from the hearing.

Nomination for federal judgeship

In 1976, then U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt
John Paul Hammerschmidt
John Paul Hammerschmidt is an American politician from the U.S. state of Arkansas. A Republican, Hammerschmidt served for thirteen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from the northwestern Arkansas district before he retired in 1993...

 of Harrison
Harrison, Arkansas
Harrison is a city in Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is the county seat. According to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,108. Boone County was organized in 1869, during reconstruction after the civil war. Harrison was platted and made the county seat. It is...

 in Boone County
Boone County, Arkansas
Boone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 36,903. The county seat is Harrison. Boone County is Arkansas's 62nd county, formed on April 9, 1869. Boone County is part of the Harrison Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:Boone County...

, proposed to U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr.
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

 that Britt be named to the federal judgeship vacated by the retirement of Oren Harris
Oren Harris
Oren Harris was a U.S. Representative and United States District Court Judge from Arkansas.-Background:Born in Belton, Arkansas, Harris attended public schools in Prescott, Arkansas....

, a former U.S. representative from El Dorado
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado , a multi-cultural arts center: South Arkansas Arts Center , an award-winning renovated downtown, and numerous sporting, shopping, and dining opportunities. El Dorado is the population, cultural, and business center of the 7,300 mi² regional area...

, the seat of Union County in south Arkansas. The nomination, however, failed before the Democratic-controlled United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

.

Assisting Bill Clinton

Little was heard of Britt after he left the judgeship. In 1992, he told the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

that he had assisted in the effort to keep Bill Clinton out of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

. According to Britt, he was friends with the future president's uncle, Raymond Clinton of Hot Springs, who had "one goal in my judgement -- to delay, delay, delay" the chances of Clinton being drafted in the U.S. Army.

Britt's legacy

The Britts were lifelong Republicans, not converts from the Democratic Party, as have been most southern Republicans of the second half of the twentieth century. Eldest daughter Nancy Britt Marsh said that her father "was interested throughout his life in establishing a two-party system in the state. And I think he did. He continually stayed active in the party." Britt was general counsel to the Arkansas GOP from 1962–1964, the same years that he chaired the Garland County party apparatus.

Britt was active in a plethora of organizations: Masonic lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...

, Shriners
Shriners
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...

, Kiwanis International, Elks Lodge, Junior Chamber of Commerce, American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...

, Veterans of Foreign Wars
Veterans of Foreign Wars
The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is a congressionally chartered war veterans organization in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, VFW currently has 1.5 million members belonging to 7,644 posts, and is the largest American organization of combat...

, Phi Alpha Delta
Phi Alpha Delta
ΦAΔ , or P.A.D., is the largest co-ed professional law fraternity in the United States of America. Phi Alpha Delta has members who are university students, law school students, lawyers, judges, senators, and even presidents. It was founded in 1902 and today has over 300,000 initiated members...

, and Delta Phi
Delta Phi
Delta Phi is a fraternity founded in 1827 at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Founded as part of the Union Triad, along with the Kappa Alpha Society and Sigma Phi Society, Delta Phi was the third and last member of the Triad...

. He was a fellow of the National College of State Trial Judges. He was a Presbyterian.

Britt had a heart attack in 1976 but lived nearly two more decades until he succumbed to numerous health complications at the age of seventy-five. He lived eight years longer than his mother and his wife, who died within five weeks of each other.

The Britts are interred in Block C of Greenwood Cemetery in Hot Springs.
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