Postwar Economic, Political, and Social Change
He vowed to only give his seat up to Lieutenant Governor Melvin Thompson. After the legislature elected
Talmadge governor anyway, Arnall refused to leave office. Finally, Talmadge’s supporters took the
governor’s office by force and seized control of the Governor’s Mansion. Undeterred, Arnall formally
named the lieutenant governor his successor and Thompson set up an alternate governor’s office in
downtown Atlanta. The state supreme court finally stepped in to end the feud and clean up the political mess.
It ruled that Thompson was to serve as acting governor, but only until a special election could be held to
settle the matter. Much like his father, Herman Talmadge ran a race based on white supremacy and states’
rights that won the Democratic nomination. He served as governor from 1948 – 1955 and was incredibly
popular in the state of Georgia. He also managed to make significant advances in state education during his
time in office. Talmadge eventually won a seat in the United States Senate in 1956, where he served until
his surprising defeat in 1980.
THE 1956 GEORGIA STATE FLAG
DEATH OF THE WHITE PRIMARY AND THE COUNTY-UNIT SYSTEM
Two major institutions helped rural, white supremacists keep their grip on Georgia state politics despite the
growing African-American and progressive urban white populations: the white primary and the county-unit
system. The white primary system only allowed whites to vote in statewide primaries. A primary is an
election in which a political party chooses its candidate for the general election. Since the primary was
sponsored by a private organization (the Democratic Party of Georgia), Democrats argued that they could
run their elections any way they wanted. In reality, however, the white primary completely cut blacks out of
the political process because, in the South, whoever won a Democratic primary was almost assured of
winning the general election. Due to the county-unit system, statewide primaries were usually won by
candidates who backed racist policies in order to secure the rural votes they needed to win. (Review chapter
6, section 6.1 concerning the county-unit system.) As a result, elections were basically decided before
African-Americans ever got to vote. In 1944, however, the Supreme Court struck down a similar primary
system in Texas, ultimately leading to the end of Georgia’s white primary a couple of years later. Meanwhile,
the county-unit system survived until the Supreme Court finally struck it down as well in 1962. With the end
of these institutions, the political importance of black and urban white voters greatly increased.
112
¤ Copyright American Book Company. DO NOT DUPLICATE. 1-888-264-5877.
Ten years after the state’s most controversial governor’s race, the
Georgia Assembly approved the state’s most controversial flag. The
1956 flag greatly offended African-Americans and frustrated
progressive whites who hoped to see progress in race relations. The
flag caused problems because two-thirds of it looked like a
Confederate battle flag (flag used by southern, pro-slavery states
during the Civil War). Most understood the legislature’s decision to
be a protest against rulings by the supreme court aimed at striking
Georgia’s flag, 1956-2001
down segregation. The flag represented Georgia for 45 years before
it was finally replaced in 2001. Even then, many whites were
outraged, arguing that the flag simply honored their southern heritage. Critics pointed out, however, that
because groups like the Ku Klux Klan had long used the battle flag as a symbol of racial hatred, the state
had a responsibility to its minority citizens to remove it from the state flag.