Carl Dewey Perkins (October 15, 1912 – August 3, 1984), a Democrat, was an American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Kentucky serving from 1949 until his death from a heart attack in Lexington, Kentucky in 1984. Early years Carl Dewey Perkins was born in Hindman, Kentucky on October 15, 1912, to Dora Calhoun Perkins and James Perkins. Perkins attended high school at Hindman High School and Caney Junior College (now Alice Lloyd College). He worked as a teacher in a Knott County School for 90 students. He then went on to attend the Jefferson School of Law (now known as the University of Louisville School of Law) and graduated in 1935. He passed the bar and served a term as a commonwealth attorney for the thirty-first judicial district of Kentucky. In 1938 Perkins married Verna Johnson and they had one son, Carl C. Perkins. During World War II, Perkins enlisted in the United States Army and served a tour in Europe. In 1940, Perkins was elected as a member of the Kentucky General Assembly was then elected Knott County Attorney in 1941 and reelected in 1945. Perkins resigned January 1, 1948 so that he could counsel the Department of Highways for Frankfort, Kentucky. He was elected to serve as a Kentucky Representative in 1948 winning against the incumbent Wendell H. Meade. Congress In 1948 Perkins ran against the incumbent Congressman from Kentucky's 7th District, Wendell H. Meade. Perkins unseated Meade and was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-first and to the seventeen succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1949, until his death. Perkins was the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor (Ninetieth through Ninety-eighth Congresses, 1967–1984). While a part of the committee, his work helped produce the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and Head Start. The local Head Start in his home city of Hindman, Kentucky is named after Congressman Perkins. Unlike most Southern Democrats, Perkins was a pro-labor New Deal liberal. Perkins did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964 (where Perkins was the only yes vote from Kentucky), and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Death Carl D. Perkins died August 3, 1984, in Lexington, Kentucky after complaining of feeling ill