{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox officeholder | name=Basil Whitener | image=BasilLeeWhitener.jpg | state = North Carolina | term_start=January 3, 1957 | term_end=January 3, 1969 | predecessor=Woodrow W. Jones | successor=Jim Broyhill | constituency={{ubl|11th district (1957–1963)|10th district (1963–1969)}} | state_house2 = North Carolina | constituency2 = {{nowrap|from Gaston County}} | term_start2 = November 5, 1940 | term_end2 = November 3, 1942 | alongside2 = Carl Rudisill | predecessor2 = R. Gregg Cherry | successor2 = Stephen B. Dolley | party=Democratic | birth_name = Basil Lee Whitener | birth_date={{birth date|1915|05|14}} | birth_place=York County, South Carolina, U.S. | death_date={{death date and age|1989|03|20|1915|05|14}} | death_place=Gastonia, North Carolina, U.S. | spouse= | children= | occupation= {{hlist|Lawyer|politician}} | alma_mater= Rutherford College <br>University of South Carolina <br>Duke University Law School | branch = United States Navy | service_years = 1942–1945 | rank = Lieutenant | battles = {{tree list}} *World War II {{tree list/end}} }} '''Basil Lee Whitener''' (May 14, 1915 – March 20, 1989) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from North Carolina between 1957 and 1969.
Whitener was born in York County, South Carolina on May 14, 1915, and was educated in the public schools of Gaston County, North Carolina. He graduated from Lowell High School in 1931 and from Rutherford College in 1933, attending the University of South Carolina from 1933 to 1935 and graduating from Duke University Law School in 1937. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1937 and commenced practice of law in Gastonia, North Carolina.
In 1940, Whitener was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives and was renominated in 1942 but resigned to enter the United States Navy. He served as a gunnery officer until November 1945, leaving with a rank of lieutenant. Whitener was appointed solicitor, fourteenth solicitorial district, in January 1946 and elected in November 1946, reelected in 1950 and 1954, and served until December 31, 1956. In 1948, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Whitener was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-fifth and to the five succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1957 – January 3, 1969); he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1968 to the Ninety-first Congress and an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1970 to the Ninety-second Congress. He resumed the practice of law.
In 1966, Whitener unsuccessfully introduced an amendment to a bill to make Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 inoperative.<ref>{{cite book |year=2008 |last=Perlstein |first=Rick |author-link=Rick Perlstein |title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America |at=Chapter 6, p. 134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dM_enWzoghoC&pg=PA134 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230901140059/https://books.google.com/books?id=dM_enWzoghoC&pg=PA134%23v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=2023-09-01 |publisher=Scribner |isbn=9781451606263 |quote=On August 9, the twelfth day of debate in the full House on the civil rights bill, a North Carolina congressman by the apt name of Basil Whitener introduced an amendment to moot Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act outright (Whitener had earlier whined of an amendment offering relief for Negroes injured or intimidated while voting, "Why cannot a person who is injured or intimidated be a white person for once?"). }}</ref>
Whitener was a resident of Gastonia, North Carolina until his death there on March 20, 1989.
==References== <references/>
==External links== {{Portal|Biography}} {{CongBio|W000410}} *{{Find a Grave|8059913|Basil Lee Whitener}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=North Carolina | district=11 | before=Woodrow W. Jones | after=Roy A. Taylor | years=January 3, 1957 – January 3, 1969}} {{US House succession box | state=North Carolina | district=10 | before=Charles R. Jonas | after=Jim Broyhill | years=January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1969}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitener, Basil}} Category:1915 births Category:1989 deaths Category:University of South Carolina alumni Category:People from York County, South Carolina Category:People from Gastonia, North Carolina Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from North Carolina Category:20th-century United States representatives Category:20th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly