Claude Pepper

A long-serving member of Congress, Claude Pepper (1900 - 1989) won fame as a champion of the elderly and the disadvantaged, and a strenuous defender of Social Security. Born in poverty to a family of sharecroppers in rural Alabama, he worked his way through college hauling coal and ashes. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War I, he attended Harvard Law School and moved to Florida, where he began his career in law and politics. From 1936 to 1950 he represented Florida in the U.S. Senate, where he was a close ally of President Franklin Roosevelt, and a vocal proponent of causes such as national health insurance. Defeated for re-election in 1950, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962 and represented the Miami area in Congress until his death, 27 years later. This address to the Academy of Achievement, recorded in Coronado, California in 1983, took place shortly after he achieved a hard-won compromise with the administration of President Ronald Reagan over changes to the Social Security program. Congressman Pepper reminds the Academy's student delegates that great achievements require the ability to endure bitter disappointment. He shares his passion for America, and his conviction that it can be a greater and better nation in the future.