Francis B. Sayre Jr.

Francis B. Sayre Jr., nephew of John Sayre, was Dean of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., for 27 years. He was the first grandchild of President Woodrow Wilson. He was a vocal opponent of segregation, poverty, McCarthyism, and the Vietnam War. In March 1965 he joined Martin Luther King Jr. on the voting-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Sayre was unafraid to denounce Senator Joseph McCarthy, Republican from Wisconsin, during the hey-day of the latter’s influence in the 1950s. In 1954, Sayre called McCarthy a “pretended patriot”, adding “There is a devilish indecision about any society that will permit an impostor like McCarthy to caper out front while the main army stands idly by.”