Representative Albert Sydney Herlong

Albert Sydney Herlong Jr. (February 14, 1909 – December 27, 1995) was an American lawyer and politician from Florida who served ten terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1969. A member of the Democratic Party for most of his public career, he represented Florida in Congress during a significant period in American history and contributed to the legislative process over two decades in the House of Representatives.

Herlong was born in the small community of Manistee, Alabama, on February 14, 1909. In 1912, he moved with his parents to Marion County, Florida. He was educated in the public schools of Sumter and Lake counties and graduated from Leesburg High School in Leesburg, Florida. He then attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity (Alpha Epsilon Chapter). He completed his studies and graduated in 1930.

In 1930, Herlong was admitted to The Florida Bar and began practicing law in Leesburg, Florida. Establishing himself as a local attorney, he quickly became involved in public service and civic affairs. His early legal career in Leesburg laid the foundation for his later roles in both local and national government, and he remained closely associated with Leesburg throughout his life.

Herlong entered public office as county judge of Lake County, Florida, a position to which he was elected and in which he served from 1937 to 1949. During this period he also served as city attorney of Leesburg from 1946 to 1948. He held a reserve commission as a captain in the United States Army and was called to active duty in the Judge Advocate General’s Department in August 1941, during World War II. He was discharged in 1942 due to physical disability but continued his service at the state level by completing two enlistments in the Florida State Guard. Beyond his legal and military roles, he served as president of the Florida State Baseball League in 1947 and 1948, reflecting his engagement in community and recreational affairs.

Herlong was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first Congress and to the nine succeeding Congresses, serving from January 3, 1949, to January 3, 1969. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Florida constituents during a time marked by the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and significant domestic policy debates. In Congress, he became noted for his strong anti-communist advocacy. In 1959, he introduced a bill to establish a federally funded Freedom Academy designed to counteract communist propaganda emanating from foreign countries. On January 10, 1963, at the request of a constituent, Patricia Nordman, he read into the Congressional Record a list of 45 goals of communism drawn from the book “The Naked Communist” by W. Cleon Skousen.

Herlong’s congressional record also reflected the sectional and ideological conflicts of the civil rights era. In 1956, he was a signatory to the Southern Manifesto, which opposed the desegregation of public schools mandated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. He voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as against the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished the poll tax in federal elections, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After ten consecutive terms, he chose not to be a candidate for reelection in 1968 to the Ninety-first Congress. That same year, he supported Richard Nixon’s campaign for president, signaling a shift in his political alignment.

After leaving Congress in 1969, Herlong resumed the practice of law. Later that year, President Richard Nixon appointed him to serve as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he served from 1969 until 1973. He continued to be active in public and political life, and in 1985 he formally changed his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican. During his congressional career, in 1967, his portrait was painted by the renowned American portraitist Everett Raymond Kinstler, a reflection of his prominence as a long-serving member of the House.

Albert Sydney Herlong Jr. spent his later years in Leesburg, Florida, the community where he had begun his legal and political career. He was married and had four daughters: Sydney, Dorothy, Mary Alice, and Margaret. He died at his home in Leesburg on December 27, 1995.