Ernest R. Graham (politician)
Ernest R. "Cap" Graham (1886–March 14, 1964) was an American politician active in Florida, having served as a member of the Florida Senate from 1937 to 1944, when he unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Florida. As a state senator, he would help to successfully repeal Florida's poll tax in 1937. Early life and career. Graham was born in Croswell, Michigan and received his education at the Michigan State College. He would end up moving to Florida after World War I. Prior to this he was an engineer in gold mines  in South Dakota and had served for 10 months with the US Army during World War I. He was sent to Florida by the Pennsylvania Sugar Company so they could drain part of the Everglades with the intention of doing sugarcane cultivation. Who Graham was employed with would end leaving Florida towards the end of 1931 and he got as severance pay. After this he would become active in the dairy industry and later with breeding cattle as well. The dairy farm that was operated would become one of the largest in Florida. Political career and later life. While Graham  was campaigning for state senate in 1936, he would make repealing the poll tax a core component of his campaign. Since Graham was a dairy farmer, he would utilize his network of salesmen to help campaign on his behalf. He along with his salesmen would find out that many local white residents were not able to vote because of the poll tax and that many others could vote because someone had payed there tax for them. In 1937 during his first year in office as a senator he would help in successfully repealing the poll tax along his fellow senators , Spessard Holland, John Beacham and Robert Hodges. Graham's motivation for repealing the poll tax was to crack down on gambling and race track interests from committing fraud by "sponsoring" poll taxes to there respective blocs. One of the Senators Graham worked with, Spessard Holland; would later go on to be Florida's Governor and later a US Senator for the state. While Holland was a US Senator he would introduce what would become the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution which prohibited poll taxes being required to vote. Apart from his advocacy against the poll tax he  would get a reputation for attacking the management of horse racetracks and for increasing elderly pensions. He proposed the creation of a public university in the county, and although his efforts were unsuccessful during his lifetime, they eventually led to the establishment of Florida International University. The student union at Florida International University is named in honor of Graham, named the Graham Center. In 1948, Graham unsuccessfully sought election to the Dade County Commission but ended up losing in the primaries. Later on Graham and his family would end up creating Miami Lakes out of some of the land they  owned. Personal life. Graham married Florence Morris, originally of Lincoln, Nebraska and later of South Dakota with the two having four children together: Mary Graham (born in 1913), Philip Graham (born in 1915; who later became husband of Katharine Graham and publisher of "The Washington Post") and Bill Graham (born in 1924). In 1934, Florence (known as "Floss") died of cancer and in 1936, Graham married Hilda Simmons, a schoolteacher. They had one child, future Florida Governor and United States Senator Bob Graham. Ernest Graham died on March 14, 1964 in Coral Gables, Florida.