Joseph Taylor Robinson was born on August 26, 1872, in Lonoke County, Arkansas to James Madison Robinson and Matilda Jane Swaim. In his childhood, Robinson helped chop cotton and tended to his fathers apple orchard. During his teenage years and with fewer than forty-six months of formal education, Robinson made a reputation as a public speaker, winning contests in subjects such as politics and religion. At seventeen, he became licensed to teach first grade in county schools. After teaching for two years, Robinson enrolled at that University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He attended college for one year until his fathers death in 1892, when he returned to Lonoke County, Arkansas where he studied law with Thomas C. Trimble. The year 1894 marked the beginning of Robinsons political career when he defeated the Populist candidate for state representative and became the youngest member of the General Assembly at the age of twenty-two. In 1902, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a position he held for a decade. Robinson supported progressive legislation to reform government and big business and voted for the graduated income-tax and women suffrage amendments. In 1912, Robinson was elected Governor of Arkansas, but resigned on March 8, 1913 to take the recently deceased Jeff Daviss Senate seat. Robinson was reelected to four more Senate terms. In 1928, he was nominated for Vice President on the Democratic ticket with Al Smith of New York, but Herbert Hoover was elected President. After the 1932 election, with the Democrats in control of the federal government, Robinson became the Majority Leader of the Senate under Franklin Roosevelt. In 1933, he guided the Emergency Banking Act through the Senate and introduced and pushed for passage of the Civilian Conservation Corp, the Federal Emergency Relief Act, the Work Relief Act, the Home Owners Loan Act, and the Railroad Coordination Act. Robinson died of a heart attack on July 14, 1937, while working for Roosevelts court-packing proposal.