Re: IIRC the last person I recall ...
As it happens, there is a wikipedia entry with some useful context:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly
I came across that one during my search last night, but it doesn't reference the speeches I recall hearing. I was hoping to find stronger support for my point.
Annoyingly, search engines first return the most money-making, then the most popular, then the most -almost-right-by-ultra-twisted-logic results. "Most accurate results based on your search terms" never get a look in these days :(