James P. Richards

James Prioleau Richards (August 31, 1894 - February 21, 1979) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina.

Born in Liberty Hill, South Carolina, Richards attended the county schools and Clemson College, Clemson, South Carolina. During the First World War served overseas as a private, corporal, sergeant, and second lieutenant in the Trench Mortar Battery, Headquarters Company, One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment, Thirtieth Division from 1917 to 1919.He was graduated from the law department of the University of South Carolina at Columbia in 1921.He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Lancaster, South Carolina.He served as judge of the probate court of Lancaster County, South Carolina from 1923 to 1933.

Richards was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-third and to the eleven succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1933-January 3, 1957).He served as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Eighty-second and Eighty-fourth Congresses).He was not a candidate for reelection in 1956 to the Eighty-fifth Congress.He served as delegate to the Japanese Peace Conference and United States delegate to the United Nations in 1953.He served as special assistant to President Eisenhower, January 1957-January 1958, for the Middle East, with rank of ambassador.He resumed the practice of law. Resided in Lancaster, South Carolina, where he died February 21, 1979.He was interred in Liberty Hill Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Liberty Hill, S. C.

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