YATES, SIDNEY RICHARD

YATES, SIDNEY RICHARD (1909–2000), U.S. lawyer and congressman. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Yates received a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1931 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1933. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1933, and practiced law in his own firm. He was assistant attorney to the Illinois Bank Receiver (1935–37) and assistant attorney general attached to the Illinois Commerce Commission (1937–40). He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II (1944–46). First elected to Congress in 1948, Yates was on the Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives for ten years. In 1962 he yielded his seat to run successfully for the Senate. The following year President John F. Kennedy appointed him U.S. representative to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations, with the rank of ambassador. There he served until 1964, when he returned to his former position in the House of Representatives, remaining there until 1999. A friend of Adlai Stevenson, he was always considered a liberal. He opposed the supersonic transport (SST) and the Sentinel antiballistic missile system (ABM), fought for ecology measures, urban housing improvements, and changes in the electoral system. Yates was a member of the American Veterans Committee, the Decalogue Society of Lawyers (editor of its bulletin in 1947), and the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations.