Into the Bright Sunshine

Abstract This introductory chapter presents the life story and work history of Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey built credentials that included twenty-three years in the U.S. Senate, four years as vice president to Lyndon Johnson, three candidacies for his party’s nomination for president, and one very narrow loss as its candidate. Some of Humphrey’s works include pressing the United States and the Soviet Union to negotiate disarmament amid the nuclear standoff of the Cold War. The chapter considers the decline of Humphrey’s health coinciding with the degradation of his public image. It looks into the time that Humphrey acknowledged the wave of civil rights legislation and triggered the partisan realignment that defines American politics right up to the present.