Eugene Talmadge’s raw white-supremacist populism dominated Georgia politics for decades.

Evidence

The disfranchisement of blacks and the county unit system ensured that Georgia’s politics would be dominated by the forces of rural racism for decades. More than anyone else, Eugene Talmadge embodied that world. A consummate campaigner, the “wild man from Sugar Creek” appeared in all but one statewide Democratic primary in the years between 1926 and 1946. Famous for his fiery stump speeches, Talmadge proved incredibly popular among poverty-stricken whites in the countryside. As he liked to brag, “The poor dirt farmer ain’t got but three friends on this earth: God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, and Gene Talmadge.” The key to his popularity was his stress on white supremacy. “I was raised among niggers and I understand them,” he told crowds from the stump. “I want to see them treated fairly and I want to see them have justice in the courts. But I want to deal with the nigger this way; he must come to my back door, take off his hat, and say, ‘Yes, sir.’ ” This raw racism won Talmadge the overwhelming support of rural whites, which, through the county unit system, won him elections. By 1940 Gene Talmadge had been elected governor three times and commissioner of agriculture three more. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 56

Categorization

• XREF: Prepares the baseline of explicit rural segregationist politics that later chapters will show being forced into retreat.