Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi
What position did Theodore G. Bilbo take from 1912 to 1916?
Theodore G . Bilbo Theodore Gilmore Bilbo ( October 13 , 1877August 21 , 1947 ) was an American politician who twice served as governor of Mississippi ( 1916–20 , 1928–32 ) and later was elected a U.S . Senator ( 1935–47 ) . A lifelong Democrat , he was a filibusterer whose name was synonymous with white supremacy—like many Southern Democrats of his era , Bilbo believed that black people were inferior ; he defended segregation , and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan . Bilbo was educated in rural Hancock County ( later Pearl River County ) . He attended Peabody Normal College in Nashville , Tennessee and Vanderbilt University Law School . After teaching school he attained admission to the bar in 1906 , and practiced in Poplarville . He then served in the Mississippi State Senate for four years , 1908 to 1912 . Bilbo overcame accusations of accepting bribes and won election as lieutenant governor , a position he held from 1912 to 1916 . In 1915 , he was elected governor , and he served from 1916 to 1920 . During this term he earned accolades for enacting Progressive measures such as compulsory school attendance , as well as increased spending on public works projects . He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 1920 . Bilbo won election to the governorship again in 1927 , and served from 1928 to 1932 . During this term Bilbo caused controversy by attempting to move the University of Mississippi from Oxford to Jackson . In another controversy , he aided Democratic nominee Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election by spreading the story that Republican nominee Herbert Hoover had socialized with a black woman ; Mississippi voters , considering whether to maintain their allegiance to the Democratic Party in light of Smiths Catholicism and support for the repeal of Prohibition , largely remained with Smith after Bilbos appeal to racism . In 1930 , under Governor Bilbo , Mississippi introduced a sales tax—the first American state to do so . In 1934 Bilbo won election to a seat in the United States Senate ; he served from 1935 until his death . In the Senate , Bilbo maintained his support for segregation and white supremacy ; he was also attracted to the ideas of the black separatist movement , considering it a potentially viable method of maintaining segregation . He died in a New Orleans hospital while undergoing treatment for cancer , and was buried at Juniper Grove Cemetery in Poplarville . Bilbo was of short stature ( ) , frequently wore bright , flashy clothing to draw attention to himself , and was nicknamed The Man because he tended to refer to himself in the third person . Bilbo was the author of a pro-segregation work , Take Your Choice : Separation or Mongrelization . Education and family background . On October 13 , 1877 , Bilbo was born in the small town of Juniper Grove in Hancock ( later Pearl River ) County . His parents , Obedience Beedy ( née Wallis or Wallace ) and James Oliver Bilbo , were of Scotch-Irish descent , and James was a farmer and veteran of the Confederate States Army who rose from poverty during Theodore Bilbos early years to become Vice President of the Poplarville National Bank . Theodore Bilbo obtained a scholarship to attend Peabody Normal College in Nashville , Tennessee , and later attended Vanderbilt University Law School , but did not graduate from either . He also taught school and worked at a drug store during his legal studies . During his teaching career , Bilbo was accused of being overly familiar with a female student . He was admitted to the bar in Tennessee in 1906 , and began a law practice in Poplarville , Mississippi the following year . At Vanderbilt , though he had been admitted to the senior class , he left without graduating . He was accused of cheating on academics , but it appears more likely that he left school for financial reasons . Though these accusations never rose to the level of formal charges , they helped create the perception that Bilbo was profligate and dishonest . State Senate . On November 5 , 1907 , Bilbo was elected to the Mississippi State Senate . He served there from 1908 to 1912 . In 1909 he attended non-credit summer courses at the University of Michigan Law School during a period when the legislature was not in session . In 1910 , Bilbo attracted national attention in a bribery scandal . After the death of U.S . Senator James Gordon , the legislature was deadlocked in choosing between LeRoy Percy or former Governor James K . Vardaman as Gordons successor . After 58 ballots , on February 28 Bilbo was one of several candidates to break the stalemate by switching his vote to Percy , who won 87–82 . Bilbo told a grand jury the next day that he had accepted a $645 bribe from L . C . Dulaney , but that he had done so as part of a private investigation . The State Senate voted 28–10 to expel him from office , falling one vote short of the majority needed . The Senate passed a resolution – which did not require a majority – calling him unfit to sit with honest , upright men in a respectable legislative body . During his subsequent campaign for lieutenant governor , Bilbo made a comment to Washington Dorsey Gibbs , a state senator from Yazoo City . Gibbs was insulted , and during the ensuing skirmish broke his cane over Bilbos head . But Bilbos campaign was successful , and he served as lieutenant governor from 1912 to 1916 . One of his first acts as lieutenant governor was to remove from the records the resolution calling him unfit to sit with honest men . First governorship . After serving as Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi for four years , Bilbo was elected governor in 1915 . Cresswell ( 2006 ) argues that in his first term ( 1916–20 ) Bilbo had the most successful administration of all the governors who served between 1877 and 1917 , putting state finances in order and supporting Progressive measures such as compulsory school attendance , a new charity hospital , and a board of bank examiners . In his first term , his Progressive program was largely implemented . He was known as Bilbo the Builder because of his authorization of a state highway system , as well as lime-crushing plants , new dormitories at the Old Soldiers Home , a tuberculosis hospital and his work on eradication of the South American tick . In 1916 he pushed through a law eliminating public hangings . The Haynes Report , a call to national action in response to race riots throughout the summer of 1919 , pointed to Bilbo as exemplifying the collective failure of the states to stop or even prosecute thousands of lawless executions over several decades . Before the mob lynching of John Hartfield in Ellisville , Miss. , on June 26 , 1919 , according to the report , Bilbo said in a speech : Campaign for US Congress . The state constitution prohibited governors from having successive terms , so Bilbo chose to run for a seat in the U.S . House of Representatives in 1918 . During the campaign , a bout of Texas fever broke out among cattle ; Bilbo supported a program to dip cattle in insecticide to kill the ticks carrying the fever . Mississippi farmers were generally not happy about the idea , and Bilbo lost the primary to Paul B . Johnson Sr. . Russells paternity suit . Lee M . Russell , then Governor , had served as Bilbos lieutenant governor and was being sued by his former secretary , who accused him of breach of promise and of seducing and impregnating her . She had undergone an abortion that left her unable to have further children . Russell asked Bilbo to convince the woman not to sue . Bilbo was unsuccessful , but Russells secretary was unsuccessful in her suit as well . Judge Edwin R . Holmes asked Bilbo to submit documents pertinent to the case . Bilbo refused , and was later caught hiding in a barn to avoid a subpoena . Subsequently , he was sentenced to 30 days in prison for contempt of court and served 10 days behind bars . He also lost his bid to return to the governorship in 1923 . Second governorship . In 1927 , Bilbo was elected governor again after winning the Democratic primary election over Governor Dennis Murphree , who had succeeded to the top position from the lieutenant governorship on the death of Governor Henry L . Whitfield . The lieutenant governor in Bilbos last term as governor was lawyer Bidwell Adam , a strong party loyalist and a staunch segregationist from Pass Christian and later Gulfport , sometimes known as the firebrand from the Coast . Bilbo criticized Murphree for calling out the Mississippi National Guard to prevent a lynching in Jackson , declaring that no black person was worthy of protection by the Guard . He also tried to move the University of Mississippi from Oxford to Jackson , although the idea never came to fruition . During the 1928 presidential election , Bilbo helped Al Smith ( D ) from New York to carry the state by a large margin . Conservative , Protestant Democratic voters were considering abandoning Smith because he was Catholic and because he supported the repeal of prohibition . Bilbo spread the rumor that Republican candidate Herbert Hoover had socialized with a black woman , which helped keep southern Democrats in Smiths column . In 1929 , Thomas G . Gunter of Benton County , MS was convicted of the murder of his son-in-law , Marlin Drew , on the testimony of his seven-year-old granddaughter , Dorothy Louise . He was sentenced to 5 years in prison . Three months later , after his daughter Pearl gave birth to her fourth child , she confessed that she had killed Marlin during an argument over the paternity of her then-unborn child , and requested that her 63-year-old father be pardoned . Pearl said she had coached Dorothy Louise to implicate her father . She added it was always her intention to tell the truth after the birth of her baby , and that she could not bear the thought of it beginning its life in prison . Governor Bilbo then granted Gunter a 90-day suspension of sentence as Pearl was bound over for an appearance before the Grand Jury . After the Grand Jury indicted Pearl for murder and perjury , Pearl was arraigned and pled guilty . The judge , however , used his statutory discretion and suspended Pearls sentence . When Gunters 90-day suspension expired in Feb . 1930 , the governor denied his application for a pardon and ordered him to return to prison . The governor stated , “Somebody ought to be in the penitentiary all the time for the murder of a sleeping man . If Judge Pegram does not believe Mrs . Drew is guilty enough to serve her term , then the man convicted of her murder will have to serve his term . Husbands ought to have some protection.” Gunter , however , refused to return to the penitentiary and as of Feb . 1931 when an account of the case was written , both he and Pearl had fled the state of Mississippi . Firing the professors . In 1930 , Bilbo convened a meeting of the State Board of Universities and Colleges to approve his plans to dismiss 179 faculty members . Appearing before reporters after the meeting , he announced , Boys , weve just hung up a new record . Weve bounced three college presidents and made three new ones in the record time of two hours . And thats just the beginning of whats going to happen . The presidents of the University of Mississippi ( Ole Miss ) , Mississippi A & M ( later Mississippi State University ) , and the Mississippi State College for Women were all fired and replaced , respectively , by a realtor , a press agent , and a recent B.A . degree-recipient . The Dean of the Medical School at Ole Miss was replaced by a man who once had a course in dentistry . The Association of American Universities and the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools then suspended recognition of degrees from all four of Mississippis state colleges . The American Medical Association voted to cancel the accreditation of the states college of medicine . The American Association of University Professors ( AAUP ) , meeting in Cleveland , passed a resolution that the remaining Mississippi professors would be regarded as retired members of the profession , after finding that their dismissals had been made for political considerations and without concern for the welfare of the students . During the crisis , Bilbo was burned in effigy by students at Ole Miss , but he was unconcerned about the states image . He made national headlines by giving an interview while sitting in a tub of hot water , soap in one hand , washrag in the other , and a cigar in his mouth . The lack of recognition continued until satisfactory evidence of improved conditions was provided to the AAUP and the other institutions in 1932 . In his final year of office , Bilbo and the legislature were at a stalemate , when he refused to sign their tax bills and the legislature refused to approve his tax bills . At the end of his term , the State of Mississippi was effectively bankrupt . The state treasury had only $1,326.57 in its coffers , and the state was $11.5 million in debt . Bilbo , whose actions had halted U.S . Department of Agriculture funding of the agricultural school at Mississippi State , was hired as a consultant on public relations for the USDA for a short time . He clipped newspaper articles for a high salary , a reward from Senator Pat Harrison for Bilbos campaign support . Pundits dubbed him the Pastemaster General . Soon , Bilbo made plans to run for the U.S . Senate seat held by Hubert Stephens . U.S . Senate . In 1934 , Bilbo defeated Stephens to win a seat in the United States Senate . There he spoke against farmer murderers , poor-folks haters , shooters of widows and orphans , international well-poisoners , charity hospital destroyers , spitters on our heroic veterans , rich enemies of our public schools , private bankers who ought to come out in the open and let folks see what theyre doing , European debt-cancelers , unemployment makers , pacifists , Communists , munitions manufacturers , and skunks who steal Gideon Bibles from hotel rooms . In Washington , Bilbo feuded with Mississippi senior Senator Pat Harrison . Bilbo , whose base was among tenant farmers , hated the upper-class Harrison , who represented the rich planters and merchants . The feud started in 1936 when Harrison nominated Judge Holmes for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals . Bilbo disliked Holmes , dating back to the Russell case , and spoke against him for five hours . Bilbo was the only Senator to vote no , and Holmes was confirmed . Later that year , Harrison faced a primary challenge from former Governor Mike Conner . Bilbo supported Conner . Bilbos former law partner Stewart C . Sweep Clean Broom , campaigned for Harrison . Harrison won reelection . When the Senate majority leaders job opened up in 1937 , Harrison ran and faced a close contest with Kentuckys Alben Barkley . Harrisons campaign manager asked Bilbo to consider voting for Harrison . Bilbo said he would vote for Harrison only if Harrison asked him personally . When asked if he would make the personal appeal to Bilbo , Harrison replied , Tell the son of a bitch I wouldnt speak to him even if it meant the presidency of the United States . Harrison lost by one vote , 37-to-38 , and his reputation as the Senator who wouldnt speak to his home-state colleague remained intact . Bilbo had taken revenge by voting against his fellow Mississippian . In the Senate , Bilbo supported Democratic President Franklin Roosevelts New Deal . Bilbos outspoken support of segregation and white supremacy was controversial in the Senate . Attracted by the ideas of black separatists such as Marcus Garvey , Bilbo proposed an amendment to the federal work-relief bill on June 6 , 1938 , which would have deported twelve million black Americans to Liberia at federal expense to relieve unemployment . Bilbo wrote a book advocating the idea . Garvey praised him in return , saying that Bilbo had done wonderfully well for the Negro . But Thomas W . Harvey , a senior Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League leader in the US , distanced himself from Bilbo because of his racist speeches . The Democrats assigned Bilbo to what was considered the least important Senate committee , one on governance of the District of Columbia , to try to limit his influence . Bilbo , however , used his position to advance his white supremacist views . Bilbo was against giving any vote to district residents , especially as the districts black population was increasing because of the Great Migration . After re-election , he advanced to sufficient seniority to chair the committee , 1945–47 . He also served on the Pensions Committee , chairing it 1942–45 . Bilbo revealed his membership in the Ku Klux Klan in an interview on the radio program Meet the Press . He said : He was a prominent participant in the lengthy southern Democratic filibuster of the Costigan-Wagner anti-lynching bill before the Senate in 1938 . Bilbo said : Bilbo denounced Richard Wrights autobiography , Black Boy ( 1945 ) , on the Senate floor : Bilbo was outspoken in saying that blacks should not be allowed to vote anywhere in the United States , regardless of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution . Black World War II veterans complained of longstanding disfranchisement in the South , which Mississippi had achieved in 1890 by changes to its constitution related to electoral and voter registration rules , which the other Confederate states and Oklahoma followed with similar changes through 1910 , most of which survived court challenges . Bilbos campaign was accused of provoking violence related to voting . Critics accused Bilbo of giving war contracts out to his friends . In 1946 , he wrote to General MacArthur that by MacArthurs role as the head of the Allied occupation of Japan that the Japanese should all be sterilized . During the 1946 Democratic Senate primary in Mississippi , his last race , Bilbo was the subject of a series of attacks by journalist Hodding Carter , Jr. , in his paper , the Greenville Delta Democrat-Times . Dismayed that the Supreme Court had ruled that white primaries were unconstitutional , he urged his white supporters to prevent black citizens from voting . At least half of all black citizens were prevented from voting in the primary due to threats of violence . He won that primary against three other opponents with 51.0 percent of the vote ; one of his rivals was Nelson Trimble Levings , who owned a Mississippi plantation and was an investment banker in New York City . As usual , Bilbo faced no Republican opposition in the 1946 general election . Based on a request by liberal Democratic Senator Glen H . Taylor of Idaho , the newly elected Republican majority in the United States Senate refused to seat Bilbo for the term to which he was elected because of his speeches . He was believed to have incited violence against blacks who wanted to vote in the South . In addition , a committee found that he had taken bribes . A filibuster by his supporters delayed the seating of the Senate for days . It was resolved when a supporter proposed that Bilbos credentials remain on the table while he returned home to Mississippi to seek medical treatment for oral cancer . Death . Bilbo retired to his Dream House estate in Poplarville , Mississippi , where he wrote and published a summary of his racial ideas entitled Take Your Choice : Separation or Mongrelization ( Dream House Publishing Company , 1947 ) . His house , which served as the eponym and office of his publishing company , burned down in late fall that year , with the fire consuming many copies of the book . Bilbo died at the age of sixty-nine in New Orleans , Louisiana . On his deathbed he summoned Leon Louis , the editor of the black newspaper Negro South to make a statement : His funeral at Juniper Grove Cemetery in Poplarville was attended by five thousand mourners , including the governor and the junior senator . A bronze statue of Bilbo was placed in the rotunda of the Mississippi State Capitol building . It was relocated to another room , which is now frequently used by the Legislative Black Caucus . Some of the members use the statues outstretched arm as a coat rack . In popular culture . Bilbo was satirized multiple times in popular culture . - In 1946 he was the subject of Bob and Adrienne Claibornes song Listen Mr . Bilbo ( 1946 ) , sung by Pete Seeger . - Jack Webb devoted an episode of his crusading 1946 radio show One Out of Seven to attacking Bilbos racial views . He dramatized extracts from Bilbos speeches and letters attacking Negroes , Dagoes ( Italians ) , and Jews , while asserting after each extract some variation of .. . but Senator Bilbo is an honorable man . We do not intend to prove otherwise , a reference to Marc Antonys funeral oration in Shakespeares play Julius Caesar . - In 1947 he was the subject of blues song Bilbo Is Dead by Andrew Tibbs . - Bilbo is the subject of the talking blues song Talking Bilbo by Lee Hays , included in the ten-disc compilation Songs for Political Action curated by Bear Family Records . - He was also mentioned in the 1947 Gregory Peck film Gentlemans Agreement as an exemplar of bigotry . - In 2001 , Andy Duncan published the short story Senator Bilbo , which conflated Theodore Bilbos racial attitudes into a Lord of the Rings short story , about a hobbit Senator post the LOTR trilogy . Further reading . - Boulard , Garry , The Man vs . The Quisling : Theodore Bilbo , Hodding Carter and the 1946 Democratic Parimary , Journal of Mississippi History,1989 , 51 , 201–17 . - Cresswell , Stephen . Rednecks , Redeemers , And Race : Mississippi After Reconstruction , 1877–1917 ] , 2006 – excerpt and text search ] - Gehrke , Pat J . The Southern Association of Teachers of Speech v . Senator Theodore Bilbo : Restraint and Indirection as Rhetorical Strategies . Southern Communication Journal 2007 , 72 , 95–104 . - Giroux , Vincent A. , Jr . The Rise of Theodore G . Bilbo ( 1908–1932 ) , Journal of Mississippi History 1981 43 ( 3 ) : 180–209 , - Morgan , Chester M . Redneck Liberal : Theodore G . Bilbo and the New Deal , Louisiana State U . Press , 1985 . 274 pp . External links . - Take Your Choice : Separation or Mongrelization ( 1946 ) . A compendium of segregationist arguments . - , Mississippi Department of Archives and History . Details Senate efforts to prevent Bilbo from resuming his seat in 1947 . - Bilbo Family History website