Herman Talmadge

Herman Eugene Talmadge (August 9, 1913 – March 21, 2002) was an American politician who served as governor of Georgia in 1947 and from 1948 to 1955 and as a U.S. senator from Georgia from 1957 to 1981. A Democrat, Talmadge served during a time of political transition, both in Georgia and nationally. He began his career as a staunch segregationist known for his opposition to civil rights, ordering schools to be closed rather than desegregated. But by the later stages of his career, following the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, which gave substance to the Fifteenth Amendment enacted nearly one hundred years before, Talmadge, like many other Southern politicians of that period, had modified his views. His life eventually encapsulated the emergence of his native Georgia from entrenched white supremacy into a political culture where white voters regularly elect black members of Congress.

When his father, Eugene Talmadge, won the 1946 Georgia gubernatorial election but died before taking office, Herman Talmadge asserted claims to be the 70th governor of Georgia, in what is known as the three governors controversy. Talmadge occupied the governor's office from January until March 1947, before yielding to a court decision in favor of Melvin E. Thompson, the elected lieutenant governor. In 1948, a special election was held to determine who would finish the term; Talmadge defeated Thompson by over 6%. He was reelected to a full term in 1950 by defeating Thompson again in a closer race. Talmadge then served as governor until the end of his term in 1955.

Talmadge, who became governor as a political novice at age 33, supported the passage of a statewide sales tax and the construction of new schools. He also supported infrastructure improvements and increased teachers' salaries. While he remains a controversial figure in Georgia history, especially due to his opposition to civil rights, some Georgians praise his infrastructure improvements brought about by the passage of the sales tax.

In the Senate, Talmadge was prominently a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and later the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (better known as the Senate Watergate Committee). As chairman of the Agriculture Committee, he oversaw the passing of several major pieces of legislation, including the expansion of the Child Nutrition Act and the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act of 1972, the first major legislation dealing with rural development since the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. The Senate later denounced Talmadge for financial irregularities revealed during his divorce from his second wife; this, along with Georgia's changing demographics, led to his defeat by Republican Mack Mattingly in his 1980 reelection campaign.