Senator J. William Fulbright

A brief biography of the founder of the Fulbright programme.

The Early Years

Senator J. William Fulbright was born in Sumner, Missouri, in 1905. He was awarded a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Arkansas in 1925 and then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he received his MA.

When he returned to the US, Fulbright studied law at George Washington University before working in the Justice Department and at the George Washington University Law School. In 1936 he returned to Arkansas to lecture in law. From 1939 to 1941 he was the President of the University of Arkansas (at that time the youngest university president in the country).

Political Career, the United Nations and Fulbright

Fulbright was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1942 and entered Congress in January 1943, where he became a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He quickly came to national attention when the House adopted the Fulbright Resolution which supported US participation in what became the United Nations.

Fulbright served as a Senator for 29 years to 1974, becoming one of the most influential and best-known members of the Senate. His legislation to establish the Fulbright Programme of international exchange, initially funded by war reparations and foreign loan repayments, was passed in 1946.

In 1949 he became a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, becoming its longest serving chairman from 1959 to 1974. After leaving the Senate he was a legal counsel in Washington and continued to actively support the international exchange programme that bears his name.

Senator Fulbright received numerous awards from governments, universities and educational organisations around the world, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Clinton in 1993.

He died on 9 February 1995 at his home in Washington, DC.

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