US Congressman, Lawyer. He was a United States Representative from the State of Mississippi. He was born one of five children as Thomas Gerstle Abernethy to Thomas Franklin Abernethy (1872-1967), and his wife Minnie Agnes Jenkins Abernethy (1871-1956), in Eupora, Mississippi, on May 16, 1903. He was educated locally and attended the common public schools before attending the prestigious University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi, and the Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, where he studied law before graduating in 1924. He was then admitted to the bar that same year and commenced his practice of law the following year in his native Eupora, Mississippi. He then became interested in politics and served a term as the Mayor of his native Eupora, Mississippi, from 1927 to 1929. Following his term as the Mayor of Eupora, Mississippi, he relocated to Okolona, Mississippi, where he continued his practice of law in 1929. He then served as District Attorney of the Third Judicial District of the State of Mississippi from 1936 to 1942, and as a Member of the Democratic National Conventions in 1956 and 1960. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative Aaron Lane Ford (1903-1983), on January 3, 1943. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Mississippi's 4th District (Seventy-Eighth Congress and the fourteen succeeding Congresses including the Seventy-Ninth Congress, the Seventy-Eighth Congress, the Eighty-First Congress, and the Eighty-Second Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1943, to January 3, 1953. He was elected in 1942, and re-elected in 1944, 1946, 1948, and again in 1950. Following his first term in the United States Congress he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative John Bell Williams (1918-1983), on January 3, 1953. After leaving the United States Congress he resumed his practice of law for a short time before deciding to run for another seat in the United States Congress this time succeeding the outgoing United States Representative John Elliott Rankin (1882-1960), on January 3, 1953. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Mississippi's 1st District (Eight-Third Congress, Eighty-Fourth Congress, Eighty-Fifth Congress, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Eighty-Seventh Congress, Eighty-Eighth Congress, Eighty-Ninth Congress, Ninetieth Congress, Ninety-First Congress, and the Ninety-Second Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 1953, to January 3, 1973. He was elected in 1952, and reelected in 1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, and again in 1970. He was not a Candidate for re-election to represent the Ninety-Third Congress in 1972. While serving in the United States Congress during his second term in office he had been a signatory to the Southern Manifesto in 1956 that opposed the desegregation of public schools which was ordered by the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. He was also known for having made the first public citation of the anti-semitic hoax, "A Racial Program For The Twentieth Century," on June 7, 1957, during a debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1957, when he read a quotation from it into the congressional record and claimed it as proof that the Civil Rights Movement was a foreign communist plot and also voting against the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. He was also involved in improving agricultural programs, helping to secure funding for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Project, and helping with the needed continued funding for the vastly important Natchez Trace Parkway. He was also outraged by the 1967 USS Liberty incident and was one of the few United States Representatives to call for an investigation. He was openly angry about the attack and called for accountability and spoke of a possible retaliation: "The Liberty ship incident - and indeed it was more than an incident - has been treated entirely too lightly by this Government. To say the least, too little has been said about it. This useless, unnecessary, and inexcusable attack took the lives of 34 American boys, wounded 175 others, and left many others in a state of horrified shock, to say nothing of what it did to a flag-flying vessel of the United States Navy. How could this be treated so lightly in this the greatest Capitol in all the world? I have heard Members of this House, and many, many others, say that if this had been done by others, the leaders of our Government would have moved in with sternness and appropriate action demands or even retaliatory action. These men at all times are entitled to the strong backing of every citizen of this land or every race and every creed. They are entitled to and should have the strong arm, as well as the strong voice of their Government and their people behind them. And who has spoken out on their behalf from this land since some of their numbers were so suddenly shot down and others so severely wounded on the Liberty ship? What complaint have we registered? What has Washington said? To tell you the truth, this great Capitol as well as this great Government - if it can still be called great - was and is as quiet as a tomb regarding this event?" During his career, he also proposed a number of constitutional amendments relating to school prayer and elections of the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States. Following his second and final term in the United States Congress he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative Jamie Lloyd Whitten (1910-1995), on January 3, 1973. His time in the United States Congress lasted for thirty years. After leaving the United States Congress he retired and returned to public life first moving to Okolona, Mississippi, and then to Jackson, Mississippi. During his retirement, he also worked tirelessly on retirement and senior citizen's issues shortly before his death. He was also a Member of several prominent clubs and organizations during his lifetime including the Freemasons, the Lambda Chi Alpha, the Exchange Club, and the Shriners. He passed away from heart failure at the University of Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 11, 1998, at the age of 95. Following his death, his funeral service was held at the Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and he was buried in Lakewood Memorial Park in Jackson, Mississippi. He was married to Alice Lamb Abernethy (1910-1989), on July 5, 1936, and the couple had two children together, including a daughter named Margaret Abernethy (1940-2016). His wife Alice passed away in Jackson, Mississippi, on November 7, 1989, at the age of 79, and they are buried together in Lakewood Memorial Park in Jackson, Mississippi. The Thomas Gerstle Abernethy Federal Building in Aberdeen, Mississippi, was named in his honor.