John Stewart had a front row seat to one of the most significant pieces of legislation in US History. But more than a mere spectator, as Executive Assistant to Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, he was directly involved in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Stewart joins the Library's Democracy and the Informed Citizen Symposium to tell the story of when democracy worked and how both sides of the aisle put country before party. He will speak at noon on Wednesday, October 10 at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street. The event is free and open to the public. Pre-ordered lunches can be reserved at
www.knoxlib.org/democracy.
This event is co-hosted by the East Tennessee Historical Society and made possible through the generous support of the Jane L. Pettway Foundation, Humanities Tennessee, Think Tennessee, League of Women Voters, Leadership Knoxville and UT's College of Arts and Sciences.
About John Stewart
Presently retired from Federal service, Stewart is engaged in a variety of public service activities in Knoxville and the state of Tennessee.
Stewart served as Vice President of TVA for Economic and Community Development and Assistant General Manager (Administration) at the Tennessee Valley Authority (1980-93). In this latter capacity he directed TVA’s Strategic Planning and Evaluation that measured performance in all TVA’s programs supported with funds appropriated by the U.S. Congress.
Prior to TVA, Stewart served as staff director of two subcommittees in the U.S. Senate and as Director of Communications, Democratic National Committee. He was Legislative Assistant and subsequently Executive Assistant to Senator and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey (1962-69). In this role he was directly involved in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Stewart is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a recipient of its National Public Service Award. In 2005, he was selected as “Practitioner of the Year” by the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration.
Stewart is the former state chair of Tennesseans for Fair Taxation. He also is the former chair and is a board member of the Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy, a national organization that advocates on behalf of pediatric cancer patients and their families before Congress and a number of executive agencies. He was selected as chair of the Childhood Cancers committee of the East Tennessee region of the Tennessee Cancer Coalition.
He has been associated with the Georgian Institute of Public Administration in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, where he served as founding co-director in 1995 and as visiting professor (1995-2001). He has served as consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1980 – 2001) in association with the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.
He previously served as executive director of the Consortium of Research Institutions in Knoxville. He has been selected as a Fulbright Professor and as a Fellow, Institute of Politics, Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Colgate University.
He recently published a book, Witness to the Promised Land, (Seven Locks Press) that analyzes the programmatic achievements of the mid-1960s in relation to contemporary activities by the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government. Previously he authored One Last Chance: The Democratic Party, 1974-76 (Praeger Publishers, 1974). He recently compiled and published When Democracy Worked: Reflections on the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.