By Ray Hill Governor Gordon Browning had unleashed a fierce assault on the Memphis political machine, as well as its leader, E. H. Crump. Browning proposed to institute a county unit bill to render the huge voting majorities produced in Shelby County meaningless in...
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part IV
By Ray Hill Edward Hull Crump, in partnership with U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar, began his domination of Tennessee politics in 1932. Crump was then a member of Congress, although he served for only four years. The Memphis Boss announced he would not be a candidate...
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part III
By Ray Hill Henry Horton had won reelection as governor in 1930, but within days the landscape of Tennessee politics was forever altered. Both Horton and his closest political adviser , Luke Lea, were made politically impotent when Caldwell and Company, one of the...
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part II
By Ray Hill Following his ouster as Mayor of Memphis, E. H. Crump ran for and was elected Shelby County Trustee. His removal from the mayor’s office was a humiliation Crump never forgot and he certainly never forgave anyone he considered to have played a part in his...
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part I
Published March 26, 2012 By Ray Hill The modern history of Memphis is inextricably tied to that of Edward Hull Crump. “Mister” Crump was indisputably a political boss in a region of the country where political bosses did not normally flourish. Political bosses were...
Governor Buford Ellington
By Ray Hill Buford Ellington is perhaps best remembered today for being one of Tennessee’s “leap-frog” governors, alternating terms with Frank Clement. For almost twenty years, Clement and Ellington ruled Tennessee from the governor’s office. Ellington was not a...
The Stolen Election of 1894: Governor Peter Turney vs. H. Clay Evans
By Ray Hill Election fraud is nothing new to politics, nor to Tennessee politics, for that matter. In some states, it was a staple of the election cycle. Charges of election fraud in Tennessee elections have been almost common place throughout history. William G....
Governor Thomas C. Rye
By Ray Hill Just after the turn of the century, Tennessee’s Democratic Party became almost hopelessly fractured. The candidacies of two men helped to heal the deep divisions inside the Democratic Party in Tennessee: that of Kenneth D. McKellar for the United States...
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
By Ray Hill While it might be difficult for readers to believe, once upon a time, Massachusetts was largely a Republican state. The first political dynasty was not the Kennedys, but rather the Lodges. There is the old bit of doggerel, “And this is good old Boston, the...
Governor Albert H. Roberts
By Ray Hill There is likely no more fickle mistress than that of politics. Political success for any person is always a combination of many things, not the least of which are timing and good fortune. Momentary popularity can be washed away in a tide of ill fortune,...
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Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part VII
By Ray Hill Despite...
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The U.S. Senate In The Age of McKellar: 1917 – 1953
By Ray Hill Kenneth...
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The Senator’s Secretary: D. W. McKellar
By Ray Hill...
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A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar Chapter 1
By Ray Hill It will...
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A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar Chapter 2
By Ray Hill Kenneth McKellar...
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A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar, Chapter 3
By Ray Hill Even as a...