Lawrence Brooks Hays (August 9, 1898 – October 11, 1981) was an American lawyer and politician who served eight terms as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Arkansas from 1943 to 1959. He was also a president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Biography Brooks Hays was born in London, Pope County, Arkansas, on August 9, 1898. He attended public schools in Russellville, Arkansas. Hays served in the United States Army in 1918. After leaving the service he earned a degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1919. He attended law school at George Washington University, becoming a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, earning his law degree in 1922, after which he was admitted to the bar. Hays returned to Russellville and opened a private law practice. Political career Hays served as assistant attorney general of Arkansas from 1925 to 1927. Hays ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1928 and 1930, but was unsuccessful both times. He served as a Democratic National committeeman for Arkansas from 1932 to 1939. With the arrival of the New Deal, Hays was appointed as a labor compliance officer for the National Recovery Administration in Arkansas in 1934. He served as assistant to the administrator of resettlement in 1935 and held administrative and legal positions in the Farm Security Administration from 1936 to 1942. Hays ran for the United States House of Representatives and was elected to the Seventy-eighth. Hays was reelected seven times and served from January 3, 1943 – January 3, 1959. In 1953, Hays sponsored House Resolution 60, to create within the Capitol building, "a place of retreat as an encouragement to prayer." This followed a trend of religious legislation which had manifested the previous year in the establishment of the National Day of Prayer, and would continue in following years with the insertion of the words "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance (1954), and the addition of "In God We Trust" to the national currency (1955). 1953 also saw the inception of the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, later renamed the National Prayer Breakfast, an event sponsored by International Christian Leadership, also known as The Family (Christian political organization). Hays, whom The Washington Post Drew Pearson described in a June 20, 1954 column as "one of the foremost experts in psychological warfare against communism," used his evangelical connections to help build