Robert Sikes
| Bob Sikes | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 1st district |
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In office January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1979 |
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| Preceded by | Millard F. Caldwell |
| Succeeded by | Earl Dewitt Hutto |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 3rd district |
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In office January 3, 1941 – October 19, 1944 |
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| Preceded by | Millard F. Caldwell |
| Succeeded by | Vacant |
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In office January 3, 1945 – January 3, 1963 |
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| Preceded by | Vacant |
| Succeeded by | Claude Pepper |
| Member of the Florida House of Representatives | |
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In office 1937–1941 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Robert Lee Fulton Sikes June 3, 1906 Isabella Station, Worth County, Georgia |
| Died | September 28, 1994 (aged 88) Crestview, Okaloosa County, Florida |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
Mildred Inez Tyner (m. 1949; div. 1983) Joan Thomas Dunning (m. 1983–94) |
| Children | 2, Robert K. Sikes and Bobbye Sikes Wicke |
| Parents | Benjaimin Franklin Sikes and Clara Ophelia Ford Sikes |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 United States
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| Service/branch | Template:Country data United States Army Air Force |
| Years of service | 1944 |
| Rank |
 Major
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| Battles/wars | World War II |
Robert Lee Fulton Sikes (June 3, 1906 – September 28, 1994) was a politician of the Democratic Party who represented the Florida Panhandle in the United States House of Representatives from 1941 to 1979, with a brief break in 1944 and 1945 for service during World War II.
He served during a long period in which Florida was effectively a one-party state dominated by Democrats, as the Republican Party had been weakened by the disfranchisement of African Americans by racist policies and Jim Crow laws. The Republican Party began a resurgence in the '70's as conservative whites re-aligned.
In 1975 Sikes was accused by Common Cause of financial misconduct and was investigated and censured by the House in 1976. He did not seek re-election in 1978.
Born in Isabella, near Sylvester, Georgia, Sikes attended the public schools, which were segregated. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in 1927 from the University of Georgia at Athens, where he was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. He went to Florida for graduate school, receiving a Master of Science in 1929 from the University of Florida at Gainesville.
Sikes entered the publishing business, in Crestview in the Florida Panhandle, working in that field from 1933 to 1946.
He soon became active in politics, joining the Democratic Party, which was effectively the only party for whites in the state in the early part of his career. At the turn of the century, the Democratic-dominated legislature had passed a new constitution and laws that disenfranchised most African Americans, crippling the Republican Party, of which they had been the majority. Sikes was elected in 1936 to the Florida House of Representatives, during the Great Depression and a landslide year for the Democrats, aligned with the popular President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sikes was re-elected, serving until 1940.
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