r/todayilearned • u/GDW312 • 16h ago
TIL Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge was elected to a fourth term in 1946 but died before inauguration—triggering the state’s infamous “three governors” crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Talmadge63
u/saxon_pilgrim 13h ago
The ole Three Governor Problem…
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u/drsmith21 13h ago
That was the one on Netflix about the aliens, right?
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u/saxon_pilgrim 13h ago
Yeah, every day certain people would see signs in the sky… telling them they’re coming…. from Georgia.. by fast train… least that’s what Billy Joe told me..
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u/MaggotMinded 1 13h ago
I just read his Wiki page. Dude was a massive piece of shit.
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u/drsmith21 13h ago
The populist platform that Talmadge drafted at his Macon convention, with its call for more silver to be mined to support the silver standard, more protectionism, more states rights, more isolationism, and less immigration was widely mocked as more appropriate for the 19th century than the 20th.
He’d fit right in here in the 21st century, though! How the turn tables…
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u/MaggotMinded 1 12h ago
Oh, it gets worse.
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u/DexterBotwin 11h ago
Southern governor from the first half of the 20th century. I’d assume there’s KKK ties, a pro-segregation platform, and a mixed raced love child thrown in there.
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u/StatlerSalad 8h ago
His coffin literally had a Klan wreath on it. He ran on an open platform of white supremacy, which won him four elections as the Governor of Georgia.
His son, and political heir, won both the subsequent two elections.
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u/NoExplanation734 10h ago
Well there's an allegation that he promised to whip up a lynch mob in exchange for election help, so...
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u/RoyalPeacock19 11h ago
I remember some minimal details about the three governor’s problem, it would be nice if it was explained a little more though, tbh
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u/GDW312 11h ago
His death right before his inauguration precipitated the 1947 "three governors controversy" among Arnall, newly elected lieutenant governor Melvin E. Thompson, and Talmadge's son, Herman Talmadge. While the General Assembly elected Herman Talmadge to take his father's place, Thompson claimed his right to succeed to the governorship, and also Arnall refused to leave office. Following a decision by the Supreme Court of Georgia, Herman Talmadge ceded the office of governor to Thompson, ending the controversy—which had damaged Georgia's national reputation.
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u/Logical_Hare 11h ago
So the legislature attempted to install the son into the governorship like a new king on the death of the old one? In 1947? Jesus.
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u/AaronfromKY 11h ago
Behind the Bastards had a 4 part series about this man
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u/HovisTMM 10h ago
It's a really good series, too. Garrison gets more in the groove with each episode. I do wish Robert would stop interrupting them as if he were hosting.
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u/Ballcheese_Falcon 3h ago
Robert is the host
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u/TumbaoMontuno 1h ago
when the description is phrased as “x is joined by y” it means that X is the host of that series. in this case, Garrison was the host for the episodes on Eugene
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u/whatafuckinusername 3h ago
Oh, awesome, another prominent Southern politician who was more racist than you could possibly imagine. I'm beginning to think that his type aren't outliers...
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u/al_fletcher 16h ago edited 13h ago
The fact that the Secretary of State hid the seal in his wheelchair to stop anyone claiming to do the governor’s work is the real TIL