Henry Bascom Steagall (May 19, 1873 - November 22, 1943) was a United States Representative from Alabama. He was chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency and in 1933 co-sponsored the Glass–Steagall Act with Carter Glass, an act that introduced banking reforms and established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Alongside Senator Robert F. Wagner he co-sponsored the Wagner-Steagall National Housing Act of September 1937 which created the United States Housing Authority.
Born in Clopton, Alabama on May 19, 1873, Steagall attended the Southeast Alabama Agricultural School at Abbeville and graduated from the law department of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1893. He served as the county solicitor of Dale County from 1902 to 1908 and was a Democratic member of the Alabama House of Representatives from 1906 to 1907. Steagall was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Alabama's 3rd District in 1915 and served until 1943. He died while in office on November 22, 1943 in Washington, D.C..
Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was stee-gall (like the words tea and gall), with equal stress on each syllable. He added, "This pronunciation is generally used throughout the South, and rarely used in the North. Our friends up there persist in stressing the first syllable and rhyming the name with 'eagle'." He was known by African Americans in Alabama as "Marse Henry."
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