Frank Licht Gubernatorial Papers (Mss. Gr. 127)

Biographical note

Frank Licht was elected Governor of Rhode Island in 1968 after defeating consecutive-three-term Governor John H. Chafee. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island on March 3, 1916, son of Jacob and Rose (Kassed) Licht. He attended public elementary schools in Providence and graduated from Classical High School in 1934 and Brown University, Phi Kappa Beta, in 1938 after which he attained a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1941. Upon being admitted to the Rhode Island Bar in 1942 Licht was employed as a law clerk for Judge John C. Mahoney of the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston for a year before becoming a partner in the Providence Law firm of Letts & Quinn from 1943 to 1956. During this time Licht also served as a State Senator from 1949 to 1956. In 1956 Licht became a justice on the Rhode Island Superior Court, a position he held for twelve years before stepping down to run for Governor.

Licht was extremely active in community and council work during his career. He was a founding member of the Providence Human Rights Commission, Chairman of the Chapin Hospital Commission and the Rhode Island Council of Community Services. He also served as Co-Chairman for the New England Regional Commission and the National Conference of Christian and Jews. He was a board member of Progress for Providence as well as a trustee and director of Butler Hospital and a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Trial Court Judges in Hawaii in 1967. Licht was also a frequent lecturer at Bryant College and a member of the Delta Sigma Rho national debating fraternity.

During his two terms as Governor of Rhode Island Licht was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the National Governors' Conference on September 15, 1971. That same year Licht was asked to represent the National Governors' Conference in the efforts of the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers, a conglomerate of legal officials from 1500 municipalities, to design a legal code for public safety. Licht was also a member of the Executive Committee when he co-authored the Trial Judges' Code, which was published in Massachusetts in the June issue of Law Quarterly in 1965.

In June of 1967 Licht was elected President of the General Jewish Committee of Providence, which he expanded into a statewide organization. He was also the Vice-President of Temple Emanu-El in Providence and Chairman of the Rhode Island Campaign of Bonds for Israel. In recognition of his dedication to the Jewish community Licht was awarded the Herbert H. Lehman Ethics Award of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1969, and the Herbert H. Lehman Citation of the National Information Bureau for Jewish Life in 1970.

As Governor, Licht was awarded several honorary Doctor of Laws Degrees. These came from St. Francis College in Biddeford, Maine on May 31, 1969, Yeshiva University in New York on June 18, 1970, the University of Rhode Island in Kingston on June 13, 1971, and Rhode Island College in Providence on June 12, 1971. He also received a honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from the Cincinnati School of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion on June 5, 1971. Licht was also an Honorary Fellow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as a member of the Corporation of Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Licht won the 1968 Rhode Island gubernatorial race by a narrow margin. His success was in a large part due to his campaign pledge of not reinstating a state income tax as Governor Chafee had planned to do. Rhode Island voters preferred not to pay the tax even as the state's revenue dwindled and its debt rose to record highs. Yet by 1971 Licht was forced to introduce the state income tax as a temporary tax in February and a permanent tax by July of the same year.

A large part of Rhode Island's economic problems also stemmed from the fact that it was regarded as an unattractive state for business opportunity. In an attempt to counter this perception, Licht created the Rhode Island Industrial Building Authority which guaranteed mortgages for new manufacturing plants. Licht approved more business projects than any other Governor in Rhode Island's history and he established an industrial-research park in Narragansett. In addition, the state's corporation laws were loosened to attract more big business and as part of an effort to address labor concerns Licht fortified womens' compensation laws, increased employment security benefits, and established the nation's first Statewide Job Skills Bank.

Licht's stance on the Vietnam war was clear. He was strongly opposed to the bombing of North Vietnam and favored resolving the conflict through the initiation of negotiations. He asserted that the Vietnam War could not be won militarily in the manner it was being conducted. Licht also pledged financial assistance for urban renewal projects through the Minimum Housing Code, Leased Housing Program, and the Rent Receivership Program, all of which aimed to provide better housing for the poor and elderly. These projects coincided efforts to expand health services, social security benefits, family credit counseling, day care centers, and guaranteed employment insurance while increasing unemployment compensation benefits from fifty to sixty percent of the average weekly wage of the covered individuals.

Other issues in the 1968 Rhode Island campaign for Governor included lowering the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen, and the rising crime rate in Providence. Licht's approach to the latter issue was to establish rehabilitation programs for criminals while expanding state and municipal police forces in conjunction with the courts. He established seven Youth Services Bureaus that aimed to keep youths out of trouble through interaction with local law enforcement officials who participated in the programs as part of their training. In addition, the courts' effectiveness was optimized through liberalization of wire-tapping procedures and witness immunity pacts, both of which helped convict numerous organized crime figures during this period. The court also underwent reorganization and modernization schemes while repeat offenders were targeted for rehabilitative programs at the Adult Correctional Institution (ACI) and the state juvenile training school in Cranston.

One of the major issues the Licht Administration confronted was the alarming increase of drug abuse and addiction that was spreading throughout not only the urban demographies but also the rural areas of the state. In response, the administration passed the Civil Commitment Law which allowed the courts to commit a drug addict to a specialized rehabilitative program in lieu of imposing criminal charges on him or her. Moreover, there was created a fifteen member Drug Abuse Control Council that advised the Governor and the General Assembly on the entire field of drug addiction and rehabilitation of addicts. Licht also created a Narcotics Squad division within the State Police Force to infiltrate and apprehend volatile drug rings and dealers on the street. Licht also encouraged the courts to prosecute drug dealers to the full extent of the law.

Licht also sought to encourage citizen participation in government affairs through the Presidential Primary Bill which allowed Rhode Islanders to select delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions by direct vote. A more aggressive attempt to establish a participatory democracy in Rhode Island was embodied in Licht's Little State House Program which aimed to strengthen relations between citizens and the government and to provide a means by which anyone could voice their concerns directly to the Governor's office. More information on this subject can be found in series XVII which contains records pertaining to the Little State House Program. Licht also succeeded in lowering the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen as part of the effort to increase voter turn-out during elections.

Environmental management was another priority for the Licht administration. Studies purporting the ecological deterioration of Narragansett Bay and unsafe levels of sulfur oxides in the atmosphere gained public attention during the early nineteen-seventies. In response, the administration put together an aggressive package designed to expand State laws against air and water pollution while granting tax relief to businesses who incorporated modern pollution-control systems into their operations. Other policies included revitalizing the New England Water Pollution Control Commission, regulating the use of pesticides, permitting the disclosure of the names of persons who violated air and water pollution laws, and the creation of an eleven member Governor's Council on Environmental Quality that advised and recommended ecological improvements.

Governor Licht decided not to run for reelection in 1972. His introduction of a temporary state income tax in February of 1971 and its reintroduction as a permanent tax in July of that year produced a ground swell of opposition among his political rivals and the general public that seriously diminished the administration's confidence of running a successful campaign.

Governor Licht died on May 30, 1987.