Defending the Old Order, 1935–1948

Abstract

In 1935, when Georgia adopted its first formal anticommunist measure, the governor of the state was Eugene Talmadge, the fiercely anti-labour champion of the ‘wool hat boys’ and critic of Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal he denounced as communistic. In 1949, when the state adopted an anticommunist loyalty oath, the governor was Eugene’s son Herman Talmadge, rather more progressive than his father in social and economic policy but soon to express himself a warm admirer of Senator Joe McCarthy. The Talmadge faction did not reign unchallenged through these years, but.it was the most resilient faction and the one most identified with the old order. The Talmadges were ‘good ole boys’ who vigorously upheld white supremacy, fought to retain the county-unit system, and drew their support from rural Georgia and from some working-class whites in the cities. Public opinion polls suggested that most Georgians actually favoured liberal and New Deal philosophies in these years, but many such liberal-minded respondents (African Americans and poor whites) could not vote, and in other ways too the Talmadges were able to insulate themselves from public opinion.