76-538: The Cocking affair was an attempt in 1941 by Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge to exert direct control over the state's educational system, particularly through the firing of Professor Walter Cocking because of his support for racial integration , and the subsequent removal of members of the Georgia Board of Regents who disagreed with the decision. It has been made into an opera entitled A Scholar Under Siege . Governor Talmadge's first political interference
152-545: A Statue of Liberty replica that is one-twelfth the size of the original. It has a replica of the Liberty Bell and a marble memorial to Telfair County residents who died in military service. On the outskirts of McRae is the Talmadge Home. This historic home was occupied by two former Georgia governors, Eugene Talmadge and Herman Eugene Talmadge . McRae was also the birthplace of Marion B. Folsom (1893–1976),
228-557: A Los Angeles newspaper that while he didn't have time to read many books, he read Adolf Hitler 's book Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") seven times. The Nazi publication Die Bewegung reprinted the interview with Talmadge and praised him, stating that "Governor Eugene Talmadge, of Georgia, is obviously a very intelligent man." In 1938, Talmadge challenged incumbent U.S. senator Walter F. George . Though George had sided with 34 of Roosevelt's 44 New Deal proposals, he refused to support some of
304-613: A Southern conservative, vehemently attacking the nationalization of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal . He objected to policies favorable to black people, the farm programs, and relief-work programs such as the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps . Talmadge believed the New Deal relief programs were encouraging people to be lazy, telling a reporter: "The way to handle
380-483: A Talmadge supporter threw a canister of tear gas at the students, an incident that attracted much negative comment and led to demands that Talmadge discipline his "hoodlums" who always patrolled his rallies. Talmadge was so unpopular with students that his campaign workers in the university town of Athens urged him not to hold a campaign rally there, predicting that more people would come out to boo him than cheer him. Realizing that Arnall had cast himself as stronger on
456-547: A convention in Macon, Georgia , in January 1936 that brought together fragments of the old Huey P. Long coalition. The Macon convention turned out to be a media disaster that ended Talmadge's presidential hopes. The populist platform that Talmadge drafted at his Macon convention, with its call for more silver to be mined to support the silver standard , more protectionism, more states rights, more isolationism, and less immigration
532-467: A dean at the University of Georgia, had advocated bringing black and white students together in the classroom, Talmadge launched an attack on the university, charging elitism, and called for the regents to remove Cocking and purge the university of communists, "foreigners" (non-Georgians), and subscribers to racial equality. The university board of regents at first refused Talmadge's demands, but after
608-654: A farm. From 1918 to 1920, he started his political career as the solicitor for McRae, Georgia . He was the county attorney for Telfair County between 1920 and 1923. He joined the Democratic Party and twice ran for the Georgia state legislature , losing in 1920 and 1922. He was elected as the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture in 1926, defeating J. J. Brown. Talmadge was re-elected commissioner in 1928 and 1930. As commissioner, Talmadge used
684-524: A fourth term in November 1946, he died before his inauguration, scheduled for January 1947. Only Talmadge and Joe Brown , in the mid-19th century, have been elected four times as governor of Georgia . A member of the Democratic Party , he was known for promoting racial segregation and white supremacy , and for advocating for racism in the University System of Georgia . Eugene Talmadge
760-479: A little dictator in him?" Talmadge's biographer, William Anderson, wrote that Talmadge's admiration for Nazi Germany, his tendency to surround himself with paramilitary followers, and his frequent calls for martial law gave "an eerie backing" for his words. At the same time, the Cocking Affair had badly damaged Talmadge's reputation. Arnall was a supporter of segregation, whose views on race were essentially
836-728: A longtime executive of the Eastman Kodak Company who served as the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Eisenhower administration . Famous railfan photographer William B. Folsom is buried in McRae. 1940-2008. The Telfair County School District holds pre-school to grade twelve, and consists of one elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. The district has 112 full-time teachers and over 1,648 students. As of
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#1732798825377912-523: A low-security prison for adult males, has been owned and operated by CCA , the largest prison company in the United States in 2015, since it opened in 2003. McRae is located in northern Telfair County at 32°3′52″N 82°53′54″W / 32.06444°N 82.89833°W / 32.06444; -82.89833 (32.064508, -82.898251). Helena is to the northwest. Several U.S. highways pass through McRae. U.S. Routes 23 and 341 pass through
988-506: A majority of 246 county unit votes, while Talmadge won just 102,464 popular votes and 148 unit votes. Talmadge's victory over Roosevelt's candidate Camp, who secured just 78,223 popular votes and 16 unit votes, surprised his critics. Talmadge was elected again as governor in 1940 and returned to the governor's office in 1941, emerging as the leader of racist and segregationist elements in Georgia. Responding to reports that Walter Cocking ,
1064-590: A majority of the county unit votes and therefore the primary. Winning the nomination of the Democratic Party was tantamount to automatic victory in the general election. He was sworn in on January 10, 1933. Because all counties were given equal weight, the County Unit System gave outsized power to the rural counties, which were Talmadge's base. He boasted, "I can carry any county that ain't got street cars." He made twelve campaign promises,
1140-462: A note requesting a private meeting with the president. His staff responded by a note apologizing for Roosevelt not having the time to see the governor, and vaguely promising him a private meeting at the White House sometime in 1935. By early 1935, Talmadge was working on an alliance with US Senator Huey Long (D-Louisiana), who was planning on running against Roosevelt in 1936. When asked what
1216-541: A relief program was like how Mussolini was handling it in Italy, namely to line these people up and take the troops and make them work". Talmadge tried to build a region-wide coalition, making a national speaking tour in preparation for a challenge to FDR in 1936. Talmadge's main allies were the Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith , who had been the principal organizer of Long's Share Our Wealth Clubs; John Henry Kirby ,
1292-420: A result of the firings, all Georgia universities lost their accreditation. This incident also contributed to Talmadge's loss in the subsequent election to Ellis Arnall . Eugene Talmadge Eugene Talmadge (September 23, 1884 – December 21, 1946) was an attorney and American politician who served three terms as the 67th governor of Georgia , from 1933 to 1937, and then again from 1941 to 1943. Elected to
1368-474: A scale make possible a reasonable American standard of living". For all his populism and his self-image as the defender of the small white farmers of Georgia, Talmadge tended to side with the interests of the wealthier land-owning families of the state. He was strongly opposed to Roosevelt's efforts to raise wages in the South, believing that this would undercut the South's only economic advantage, namely of having
1444-503: A supporter of segregation, albeit not in quite the same crude terms as Talmadge had, meant that for many white Georgians there was no difference between the candidates on "the Negro question", and therefore neutralized Talmadge's advantage as a defender of white supremacy. Furthermore, men were more likely to vote for Talmadge than women, and in 1942, many Georgian men were serving in the military, thus leading to women being over-represented in
1520-595: A wealthy Texas businessman who had been a leading Long supporter; and novelist Thomas Dixon Jr. , a white supremacist whose books glorifying the Ku Klux Klan were very popular at the time. Talmadge's bid was being financed with some $ 41,000 contributed by Alfred Sloan , CEO of General Motors , together with money from the Raskob and du Pont families. His Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution organized
1596-458: Is going to help ya". This message was intended to appeal to the white farmers who traditionally supported Talmadge, but may have inadvertently hurt him as even many of Talmadge's rural supporters knew that a better education represented their children's best hope of escaping poverty, and did not appreciate the implied message that the best thing that could happen to their children would be to follow their parents in lives of drudgery and poverty. As
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#17327988253771672-520: The McRae Correctional Institution , a privately owned and operated prison under contract to the federal government. The prison is a low-security facility holding adult males; it is owned and operated by CoreCivic . McRae was founded in 1870 as station number eleven on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad . In 1871, the seat of Telfair County was transferred to McRae from Jacksonville . McRae was incorporated on March 3, 1874, and
1748-473: The census of 2000, there were 2,682 people, 1,057 households, and 714 families residing in the city. The population density was 796.7 inhabitants per square mile (307.6/km ). There were 1,310 housing units at an average density of 389.1 per square mile (150.2/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 55.48% White , 42.69% African American , 0.30% Asian , 1.12% from other races , and 0.41% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.57% of
1824-545: The primary , but Russell defeated Talmadge by a landslide and Talmadge's presidential hopes collapsed. Talmadge's handpicked candidate for governor, Charles Redwine, lost the 1936 Georgia gubernatorial election to pro-New Deal Democrat Eurith D. Rivers by an overwhelming margin. In 1936, according to a United Press (UP) article printed in the Atlanta Constitution on August 21, 1936, titled "Gene Selects Hitler as Favorite 'Author'", Talmadge reportedly told
1900-425: The "Equal Primary". Talmadge's family and advisers sought to persuade him not to run, warning that due to his failing health that a grueling campaign might kill him, but he refused to step aside in favor of his son Herman who had been groomed as his heir, saying "Naw, I'm the only goddamn son of a bitch who can win". Talmadge's campaign was noted for its violent racist rhetoric as he boasted about assaulting and flogging
1976-533: The "arsenal of democracy". He said that money spent in aiding Britain, China and the Soviet Union would have been better spent on helping the poor farmers of Georgia. The fact that Talmadge had an admiration for Hitler and voiced such strong support for Japan's war against China that the Japanese government invited him to visit Japan on all-expenses paid vacation (an offer he declined) led to allegations that he
2052-495: The Democratic primary. In the primary, Arnall won 174,575 votes to Talmadge's 128,394. Even the "county unit system", which worked to Talmadge's advantage in the past, failed to save him in 1942. Arnall won 242 unit votes to Talmadge's 149. Just after Talmadge left office in January 1943, it emerged that since 1940 he had been receiving food grown on the state prison farms for free, an allegation that he admitted to, saying he
2128-573: The Democratic-dominated legislature passed a constitutional amendment that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans in Georgia. This institutionalized the Democratic Party's dominance in the state, in a pattern that had been repeated across most of the former Confederate states since 1890, when Mississippi was the first to pass such legislation. He started his legal career in Montgomery County where he also owned
2204-706: The Georgia National Guard and deported to New York City. Although often tied to both controversy and corruption, Talmadge was re-elected in 1934, carrying every county but three in the state's Democratic primary. When the Public Service Commission, a body elected by the voters, refused to lower utility rates, he appointed a new board to get it done. When the Highway Board resisted his efforts to control it, Talmadge declared martial law and appointed more cooperative members to
2280-479: The Ku Klux Klan), an organization that Talmadge had at least been friendly with. His 1946 death right before his inauguration precipitated the 1947 " three governors controversy " among Arnall, Melvin E. Thompson , and Talmadge's son Herman . While the general assembly elected his son, Herman Talmadge to take his father's place, the newly elected lieutenant governor Melvin E. Thompson claimed his right to
2356-495: The United States's entry into World War II because he wanted to create the social changes that would end white supremacy, causing him to engage in long tirades against Roosevelt, the New Deal, World War II and black Americans. Talmadge's newspaper, The Statesman printed editorials written by himself claiming that Roosevelt was compromising American sovereignty, making the allegation that the British prime minister Winston Churchill
Cocking affair - Misplaced Pages Continue
2432-470: The allegations that it was Talmadge who led the lynch mob at Moore's Ford, the historian Robert Pratt stated: "I'm not surprised ... historians over the years have concluded the violently racist tone of his 1946 campaign may have been indirectly responsible for the violence that came at Moore's Ford. It's fair to say he's one of the most virulently racist governors the state has ever had." In 1946, Talmadge won Walton County by only 200 votes. Talmadge lost
2508-405: The average family size was 2.94. In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.0% under the age of 18, 8.2% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 20.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.0 males. The median income for a household in the city
2584-523: The black sharecroppers who worked for his family as a young man and he claimed to have chased a black man down the street with an ax because he sat next to a white woman. His 1946 campaign is described by historians as explicitly white supremacist . In June 2007, previously sealed FBI files revealed that Talmadge was investigated by the FBI over suspicions he sanctioned the Moore's Ford lynching . Though Talmadge
2660-444: The board. When the state treasurer and comptroller general refused to cooperate, the governor ordered state police to remove them physically from their offices in the state capitol. Critics denounced him as a dictator, a demagogue, and a threat to the tranquility of the state. His supporters considered him to be a friend of the "common man" and one of the state's most outstanding governors. In October 1934, Talmadge ousted John Cohen ,
2736-583: The brother of a white man stabbed by a black man named Roger Malcolm, outside of the courthouse in Monroe, Georgia, promising he would "take care of the Negro" in exchange for the Hester family using their influence to help win Walton County. On July 25, 1946, the car carrying Malcolm, who had been bailed out of jail, was stopped by a group of about 30 white men at Moore's Ford. Malcolm, his wife Dorothy, and
2812-400: The city as Oak Street, leading northwest 20 miles (32 km) to Eastman and southeast 24 miles (39 km) to Hazlehurst , while U.S. Routes 280 , 319 , and 441 pass through as Third Avenue, crossing US 23/341 in the center of town. US 280 leads northeast 33 miles (53 km) to Vidalia and west 55 miles (89 km) to Cordele , while US 319/441 leads south 19 miles (31 km) to
2888-525: The construction of a new gym at Georgia Tech ) as the state could not take on Public Works Administration (PWA) loans. The whole plan embodied in the bill, to make the university system a football of politics, is in my opinion disastrous to the efforts being made to build up a great university system. A compromise deal was reached; if the bill passed with the support of the regents, the state would provide funding to cover projects that would have been supported by PWA loans; however, Talmadge's effort to control
2964-420: The education issue, Talmadge changed tactics and announced simply that the loss of accreditation to Georgia's universities did not matter, saying at one rally in a rural area: "They talk about education. It ain't never taught a man how to plant cotton. It ain't made a garden bloom. It ain't never taught the experience necessary to raise cows and chickens. You gotta git out and do them things, and no school education
3040-411: The futures of all the students attending the universities. At a time when most Georgians were living in poverty and few attended higher education, the possibility that those young people who were lucky enough to attend university or might be would lose their chances to escape lives of poverty was widely regarded as unacceptable. Those Georgians whose children were attending the university were outraged that
3116-603: The futures of their children had been at risk, and those whose children were not attending university had hopes that someday they might. The students at Georgia's universities and colleges campaigned vigorously against Talmadge, putting on skits that mocked the governor as a power-crazed buffoon just before football games. They were disproportionately over-represented as volunteers in the Arnall campaign. When Talmadge held campaign rallies, students showed up to chant "To Hell with Talmadge!" At one Talmadge campaign rally on July 2, 1942,
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3192-497: The governor restructured the board, the university dismissed numerous staff. This intervention into academic affairs caused the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to remove accreditation from the Georgia state universities. It also contributed to Talmadge's defeat by Ellis Arnall in 1942. In 1940–1941, Talmadge took a strongly isolationist line and was opposed to Roosevelt's policy of having America be
3268-416: The governor's office, and also the outgoing governor Ellis Arnall refused to leave office. Following the court's decision, Herman Talmadge ceded the office of governor to Thompson, ending the controversy. This controversy damaged Georgia's national reputation. Notes Further reading McRae, Georgia McRae was a city in and the county seat of Telfair County , Georgia , United States. It
3344-625: The hog price manipulation scheme. When Governor Richard B. Russell Jr. referred the suit to the state attorney general, however, the request to sue Talmadge was rejected. In 1932, Governor Richard B. Russell, Jr. ran as a candidate for the United States Senate. Talmadge ran for governor, appealing to white rural Georgia by idealizing the small farmer, and preaching what he said were the true values of rural America, such as rugged individualism, frugality, governmental economy, segregation, limited government, and low taxes. Talmadge won
3420-483: The lowest wages in the United States. Roosevelt by contrast believed that raising wages would increase consumption and hence spur the economy out of the Great Depression. When Georgia textile workers went on strike on September 1, 1934, Talmadge declared martial law during the third week of the strike. He directed four thousand National Guard troops to arrest all picketers throughout the state. He ordered
3496-511: The more so as the social changes caused by the war were threatening Talmadge's vision of what an ideal America should be. In particular, the first tentative gains made by the Civil rights movement in the war years enraged Talmadge, who predicated that even the modest gains being made by black Americans during the war would eventually lead to the end of white supremacy in the South. Talmadge convinced himself that Roosevelt had deliberately engineered
3572-528: The most controversial of which was to lower the price of an automobile license to $ 3, putting them within reach of the poorest farmers. The state legislature intensely debated the $ 3 license fee issue, but did not pass it. After it adjourned, Talmadge fixed the $ 3 fee by proclamation. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt developed the New Deal with programs to hire unemployed men to work on various public works projects. These were often for needed infrastructure identified by
3648-438: The newspaper of his department to give advice to farmers and promote his political views, extolling the virtues of a laissez-faire economic policy and individual action to improve the well-being of farmers. He maintained widespread support among Georgia's rural white communities. The State Senate concluded that Talmadge violated a state law requiring that fertilizer fees collected by the agriculture department be deposited in
3724-517: The other black couple riding in the car, George and Mae Murray Dorsey, were marched out of the car, lined up and shot. The FBI agent investigating the lynching called the allegation that Talmadge led the lynch mob "unbelievable", but he forwarded the allegation to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover "as it may be of some possible future interest." Talmadge's grandson, Herman Talmadge Jr, told the press: "I don't think my grandfather's involved in any lynching. If y'all are that far off, I feel sorry for you." About
3800-473: The popular vote in the Democratic primary to James V. Carmichael but won a majority of the "county unit votes". He died in December 1946, before he could be sworn in for his fourth term. The cause of death was hepatitis complicated with the effects of liver cirrhosis caused by his heavy drinking. Talmadge's coffin, while lying in state at the Georgia capital, was decorated with a wreath reading KKKK (Knights of
3876-410: The population. There were 1,057 households, out of which 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 19.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.4% were non-families. 30.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and
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#17327988253773952-453: The president. In 1933, one sharecropper wrote to Talmadge: "I wound't [wouldn't] plow nobody's mule from sunrise to sunset for 50 cents a day when I could get $ 1.30 for pretending to work on a DITCH". A disgusted Talmadge forwarded the letter to Roosevelt, together with his own letter that stated: "I take it that you approve of paying farm labor 40 to 50 cents per day". Roosevelt wrote back: "Somehow I cannot get into my head that wages on such
4028-425: The prisoners to be held behind the barbed wire of a former World War I prisoner of war camp for trial by a military tribunal . While the state interned about one hundred or so picketers, the show of force effectively ended picketing throughout most of the state. When Talmadge discovered that one of the employers had hired the notorious strikebreaker Pearl Bergoff , he had Bergoff and his two hundred men detained by
4104-567: The pro-New Deal chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, and replaced him with Hugh Howell , a Talmadge partisan. Roosevelt met with Talmadge to ask him to save Cohen's job, a request that was refused, leading the president to suspect that this was the first step by Talmadge toward a possible presidential run in 1936. By late 1934, Talmadge's relationship with Roosevelt was fraying. In December 1934, when Roosevelt decided to spend Christmas at Warm Springs, Georgia , Talmadge sent
4180-476: The proposals in Roosevelt's second term. The president believed George had been "put out to pasture". Roosevelt tried to purge George and campaigned for his own candidate, Lawrence Camp . George, however, refused to criticize Roosevelt during the campaign and blamed the purge on Roosevelt's advisers. Despite the divide among the New Deal vote, George easily won the renomination, securing 141,922 popular votes and
4256-554: The regents and the university system was relatively clear at the time. Talmadge fired Walter Cocking , who was dean of the College of Education at the University of Georgia . Talmadge accused Cocking of championing integration , in this case the admission of African-American students to historically all-white educational institutions. Talmadge declared that he would fire anyone who stood for "communism or racial equality". As
4332-452: The same as Talmadge's, but he presented himself as a supporter of better education for Georgians. Arnall noted that nobody could beat Talmadge in what he cynically called the "nigger-hating contest", and argued that the issue in the "Cocking Affair" was not white supremacy, as Talmadge claimed, but education. Arnall charged that Georgia's universities losing their accreditation, which Talmadge presented as an achievement on his part, put at risk
4408-479: The siren call of change that Gene found himself with one hoary root left, one last undeniable link to yesterday-the black. He alone anchored the old consciousness, the tenacious culture, the old consciousness. Gene Talmadge knew if this one tie was uprooted, his world would be gone forever." When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1944 Smith v. Allwright decision that white-only primaries were illegal and ordered Southern states to hold color-blind primaries, Talmadge
4484-504: The small town of Jacksonville and north 35 miles (56 km) to Dublin . According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 4.4 square miles (11.4 km ), of which 4.3 square miles (11.2 km ) is land and 0.077 square miles (0.2 km ), or 1.77%, is water. The Little Ocmulgee River flows just northeast of the city limits. Located in downtown McRae is Liberty Square, home of
4560-509: The state treasury. He was criticized for paying himself and family members more than $ 40,000 in salaries and expenses, and using department funds to make trips to the Kentucky Derby . Accused of "stealing" $ 20,000 in order to raise the price of hogs, Talmadge told one group of farmers, "Sure, I stole it! But I stole it for you." The State House declined requests to impeach Talmadge but agreed to sue him to recover state funds spent on
4636-406: The states. In the South, these jobs offered higher wages than men could obtain in the private sector, and black men were paid the same rate as white men. Many of the wealthy white land-owning families in Georgia soon complained to Talmadge that their sharecroppers preferred to work on the better-paying New Deal public works projects rather than as sharecroppers, and asked the governor to intercede with
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#17327988253774712-454: The wealth of the richest Americans and redistribute it to the poor, whereas Talmadge was essentially an old-fashioned Southern conservative. Long criticized Roosevelt for not going far enough with the New Deal, while Talmadge had felt he had gone too far. Finally, both men wanted to run for president and wanted the other to serve as vice president, which proved to be the issue that ended their alliance and made them enemies. Talmadge governed as
4788-435: The world beyond would destroy everything that he held sacred. At the same time, Talmadge, always a heavy drinker, started to drink on a scale that began to seriously damage his health. Anderson described Talmadge as "a ghost's voice hellbent on halting the future. But it was a frightened voice, scared that the wave of history had at last washed over the impenetrable culture of his fathers. So easily had his people succumbed to
4864-436: Was always the case, Talmadge presented himself as an aggressive defender of white supremacy, arguing that keeping the black people disfranchised and segregated was far more important than education, a message that appealed to his core supporters, but to nobody else. At one campaign rally, Talmadge stated: "We in the South love the Negro in his place-but his place is at the back door". The fact that Arnall had also declared himself
4940-427: Was an Axis-sympathizer. Some commentators felt that Talmadge was merely naive, a man who knew nothing about the affairs of Europe and Asia, while others charged that his authoritarian style of leadership made him naturally sympathetic towards fascist regimes. About the charge that he acted like a dictator, Talmadge replied: "I'm what you call a minor dictator. But did you ever see anybody that was much good who didn't have
5016-493: Was arrested and put in the McRae jail after defending two girls from assault. On May 25 a large mob led by a Baptist minister conspired with a McRae deputy to seize Berry Washington from jail and lynch him over in Milan . McRae and Telfair County approved construction of a private prison in the early 21st century to hold federal prisoners, in the belief that it would provide jobs to local residents. McRae Correctional Facility,
5092-416: Was being allowed to "meddle" in the affairs of Congress with Roosevelt's support. In the 1944 election, The Statesman ran a headline reading "Election of Roosevelt Means Promoting Negroes in Georgia". Anderson wrote during the war Talmadge became a "total cultural isolationist", a man who saw the world outside of the United States as a dangerous, menacing place and believed increasing American involvement with
5168-570: Was born on September 23, 1884, in Forsyth, Georgia , the second of two children to Thomas and Carrie (Roberts) Talmadge. He attended the University of Georgia and graduated from the university's law school in 1907. While at UGA, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and Sigma Nu fraternity. In 1909, he married Mattie Thurmond Peterson and the couple had three children, including Herman Talmadge . In 1908,
5244-432: Was designated as the seat in 1871, after being established the previous year as a station on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad . Upon the city's merger with adjacent Helena in 2015, the new county seat is the combined city of McRae-Helena . As of the 2010 census , McRae had a population of 5,740, up from 2,682 at the 2000 census, due largely to expansion of the city limits to incorporate the area and prison population of
5320-422: Was discussed at his meetings with Long, Talmadge replied: "We both cussed Roosevelt". But, Long had a low opinion of Talmadge's intelligence, saying: "That Talmadge ain't got the brains to match his ambition". Beyond a shared antipathy to Roosevelt, the two had almost nothing in common politically. Long, a left-wing populist, had the slogan of "share the wealth", promising if elected president he would confiscate all
5396-534: Was enraged; his attempted political comeback was based entirely on a virulently racist platform of upholding white supremacy. During Arnall's term, the state legislature lengthened his term to four years and prohibited him from seeking re-election in 1946. Talmadge ran for governor and used the Smith v. Allwright decision, ruling that the closed white primary was unconstitutional, as his main red flag issue. Talmadge promised that if he were to be elected, he would restore
5472-512: Was in 1935, when he supported a 1935 bill that would have given the governor additional control over funds appropriated to the Georgia Board of Regents, transferred the titles to all Board of Regents property to the state, and absorbed any trust funds or investments held by the university system. In addition to the obvious disadvantages for the university system, this would have made it difficult or impossible to fund building projects (such as
5548-533: Was named for a pioneering Scottish family. The community was named after Daniel M. McRae, the original owner of the town site. During the antebellum years and after the Civil War, the county had an economy largely based on cotton plantations, and McRae was a trading center. McRae was incorporated as a city in 1902. During the racial violence of the Red Summer of 1919 one Berry Washington, an elderly black man,
5624-545: Was saving the state of Georgia money by not paying for his food. Shortly afterwards, it emerged that he attended a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan , which he again admitted to, saying that "everyone had a good time" at the Klan banquet. In his retirement, Talmadge grew increasingly bitter and became consumed with a violent hatred for Roosevelt. The isolationist Talmadge also deplored the United States fighting in World War II, all
5700-530: Was unpopular in the more populous urban areas, his relative popularity in rural areas gave him a fighting chance of still winning the Democratic nomination under the "county unit votes" system in which (essentially) the candidate who won the most counties, not the most popular votes, would receive the nomination. Even then, Talmadge's opponent, James V. Carmichael , still polled well in rural counties, though not as well as in urban counties. Several witnesses stated that they overheard Talmadge speaking to George Hester,
5776-423: Was widely mocked as more appropriate for the 19th century than the 20th. Talmadge pledged to defend the "sovereignty of our states and local self-government" at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. However, Roosevelt, who visited Warm Springs, Georgia, often because of his past polio, was more popular with the poor farmers. Unable to run for re-election in 1936, Talmadge chose to challenge Senator Russell in
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