St. Paul Recorder

FOUR INCUMBENT NEGRO CONGRESSMEN REELECTED; ONE NEW REPRESENTATIVE.

AUGUSTUS HAWKINS ELECTED FROM CALIF.

Los Angeles (ANP) - The election of Augustus F. Hawkins as a member of the United States Congress, a foregone conclusion since his nomination, was confirmed by voters here last week. Hawkins is a real estate man.

As a result he will take his seat along with William L. Dawson of Chicago, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., of New York City. Charles C Diggs. Detroit and Philadelphia's Robert N. C. Nix. all democrats who easily won reelection.

The only excitement provided in the campaigns of the Negro congressmen was in the case of Chicago's Bill Dawson, generally regarded as the nation's most powerful Negro politician and the dean of Negro federal legislators.

In a realignment of congressional districts. Dawson's was radically changed to include a large number of middle and upper class Negro homeowners who were expected to vote independently of the wishes of the Dawson machine.

However, neither this nor his physical breakdown near the end of the campaign which put him in the U.S. Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Md., appeared to help the cause of young Republican attorney Benjamin A. Duster who was snowed under by a three-to-one vote.

Powell took his reelection for granted and announced beforehand that he wouldn't make one speech nor turn the crank of his mimeograph machine once in an effort to defeat his two opponents, Republican Ramon H. Martinez and Liberal party candidate Mae P. Watts,

Diggs and Nix were also shoo-ins.

Though opposed by Republican Herman T. Smith, Hawkins' election too, was regarded as a mere formality. because of the heavy margin he ran up in normally heavily Democratic Los Angeles in the primaries. He and Smith, a 45-year-old Negro attorney, ran in the 21st congressional district.

Hawkins, 55. is known to his friends as "Gus".

Longtime Assemblyman

Born in Louisiana, he has been a member of the California Legislature from the 62nd Assembly District since 1934.

Hawkins came to Los Angeles at the age of 11. He attended local schools, including Jefferson High in the district he later represented at Sacramento. He was graduated from UCLA as an economics major and from the University of Southern California Institute of Government.

He was chairman of the Assembly Rules committee and the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization.