Fielding L. Wright | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 49th and 50thGovernor of Mississippi | |
| In office November 2, 1946 – January 22, 1952 | |
| Lieutenant | Sam Lumpkin |
| Preceded by | Thomas L. Bailey |
| Succeeded by | Hugh L. White |
| 25thLieutenant Governor of Mississippi | |
| In office January 17, 1944 – November 2, 1946 | |
| Governor | Dennis Murphree Thomas L. Bailey |
| Preceded by | Dennis Murphree |
| Succeeded by | Sam Lumpkin |
| 54th Speaker of theMississippi House of Representatives | |
| In office September 14, 1936 – January 2, 1940 | |
| Preceded by | Horace Stansel |
| Succeeded by | Sam Lumpkin |
| Acting Speaker of theMississippi House of Representatives | |
| In office February 1936 – September 14, 1936 | |
| Member of theMississippi House of Representatives | |
| In office January 5, 1932 – January 2, 1940 | |
| Member of theMississippi State Senate from the 20th District | |
| In office 1928 – January 5, 1932 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Fielding Lewis Wright (1895-05-16)May 16, 1895 |
| Died | May 4, 1956(1956-05-04) (aged 60) Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Other political affiliations | Dixiecrat(1948) |
| Spouse | Nan Kelly |
| Education | Gardner–Webb University University of Alabama (LLB) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1918–1919 |
| Rank | Private |
| Unit | 38th Infantry Division 105th Engineer Combat Battalion[1] Mississippi National Guard |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
Fielding Lewis Wright (May 16, 1895 – May 4, 1956) was an American politician who served as the 25thlieutenant governor and 49th and 50thgovernor of Mississippi. During the1948 presidential election he served as the vice presidential nominee of theStates' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) alongside presidential nomineeStrom Thurmond. During his political career he fought to maintain racial segregation, fighting with PresidentHarry S. Truman over civil rights legislation, and holding other racist views.
Wright grew up inRolling Fork, Mississippi, where he was educated and later attendedGardner–Webb University and theUniversity of Alabama. DuringWorld War I he was sent toFrance as a captain. Wright served in the 149th Machine Gun Battalion and the 105th Engineer Combat Battalion before being honorably discharged in 1919. Following his service in theUnited States Army, he joined theMississippi National Guard.
After entering politics in the 1920s, Wright was elected to the state legislature, where he served in the late 1920s and through the 1930s. Following the death of SpeakerHorace Stansel, he rose to the speakership of the state House of Representatives. After a brief absence from politics, Wright was elected as Mississippi's lieutenant governor and served until he ascended to the governorship following the death ofThomas L. Bailey on November 2, 1946. During his gubernatorial tenure he made efforts to maintain racial segregation and supported SenatorTheodore G. Bilbo, a member of theKu Klux Klan and segregationist, in his attempt to maintain his seat in the United States Senate.[2][3] Over the two decades prior to his becoming governor, Wright had (according to one observer) “been acclaimed for his progressive legislative record in transportation, education, tax policy, industrial development, natural resource conservation, public health, old-age pensions, and welfare.”[4]
Wright was elected to a term in his own right in the1947 election. In his inaugural address, he voiced opposition to Truman's support of civil rights and called forSouthern Democrats to leave the Democratic Party. He served as a leader of the States' Rights Democratic Party, declining offers to run for the presidential nomination, although he later accepted the vice-presidential nomination. In the presidential election, Thurmond and Wright won multiple Southern states, but failed to prevent Truman from winning the presidential election. Wright completed his gubernatorial term on January 22, 1952, and retired from public service. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the1955 Mississippi gubernatorial election, and died on May 4, 1956.
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Fielding Lewis Wright was born on May 16, 1895, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, to Frances Foote Clements and Henry James Wright and was named after his uncle, Colonel Fielding Lewis.[5] In 1901, he entered elementary school and graduated in 1911, as a member of the school's second graduating class. Wright attendedGardner–Webb University and theUniversity of Alabama, graduating with a law degree and was later admitted to the legal bar in September 1916.[1][6][7] On July 16, 1917, he married Nan Kelly, with whom he had two children.[8]
In April 1918, Wright enlisted into theUnited States Army and was given the rank of private atCamp Shelby. He served as a member of the 149th Machine Gun Battalion inside the38th Infantry Division.[1] He later served as the commander of the 105th Engineer Combat Battalion. DuringWorld War I he participated in the battles ofBelleau Wood andChâteau-Thierry before being honorably discharged on August 31, 1919. After leaving the army he organized a unit of theMississippi National Guard in Rolling Fork and was selected to serve as its first captain where he would lead the unit through theGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927.[6]
During the 1920s Wright served two terms on the Rolling Fork Board of Alderman. In 1927, he was elected to represent the Twentieth district in thestate senate and served until 1932.[9] In 1929 he authored a paved highway bill, but it was vetoed by GovernorTheodore G. Bilbo due to disputes over the program's implementation.[10] In 1930, he was appointed to serve as the assistant director of the state tax commission to aid in the enforcement and administration of the tax laws.[11]
In 1932, Wright was elected to thestate House of Representatives and served until 1940. In 1932, he was appointed to serve as the chairman of the House Committee on Highways and Highway Financing.[12] In 1936, he was appointed to serve as the chairman of the House Rules Committee and was also appointed onto the Levees committee and the Joint Committee on Executive Contingent Fund.[13][14] On March 19, 1936, he introduced a resolution proposing a state constitutional amendment that would allow for the election of highway commission members starting in the 1938 elections, but the resolution failed.[15][16] Facing opposition from House and statewide leadership for his highway reforms, he helped organize the removal of SpeakerThomas L. Bailey and his replacement by a fellow highway advocate,Horace Stansel. Stansel made Wright chairman of the House Rules Committee.[10]
In February 1936, Speaker Stansel requested for Wright to be designated as the acting Speaker of the House and the request was accepted. On April 4, Stansel died from a heart attack while Wright was still serving as the acting Speaker and Wright participated in the planning of Stansel's funeral.[17][18]
From June 23 to 27, 1936, GovernorHugh L. White was outside of Mississippi to attend theDemocratic national convention causing Lieutenant GovernorJacob Buehler Snider to become the acting governor. When Snider left the state, John Culkin, President pro tempore of the Senate, was elevated to acting governor. If Culkin had left the state the Speaker of the House would have become the acting governor, but Wright was not eligible as he was in an acting role. However, Culkin did not leave the state which prevented aconstitutional crisis over the succession of acting governor.[19]
On September 14, 1936, he was nominated by Pearl Stansel and the House of Representatives voted by acclamation, as he faced no opposition despite statements made by John Armstrong and Ira L. Morgan about being interested in running, to formally appoint Wright as the Speaker of the House.[20][21][22][23]
After being appointed to the speakership Wright appointed Hilton Waits to replace him as the chairman of the House Rules committee and appointed R. E. Lee to replace him as the chairman of the Highways and Highway Financing House committee.[24] Waits resigned shortly after being appointed as chairman of the House Rules Committee and Joe Owen was selected by Wright to replace him.[25] Wright would continue to serve as Speaker of the House until 1940.[26]
On March 24, 1938, the House of Representatives voted twenty-one to nineteen in favor of drafting articles of impeachment against Land CommissionerR. D. Moore.[27] Wright appointed a five-man committee of Walter Sillers, John T. Armstrong, Gerald Chatham, Guy B. Mitchell, andSam Lumpkin to draft the articles of impeachment.[28] Moore criticized the committee as being "stacked" against his favor by Wright.[29]
Although it was speculated that Wright would run in the lieutenant gubernatorial election in 1939, he announced on July 19, 1938, that he would not seek another term in the House of Representatives and would not seek election to another office.[30][31]
After leaving the state house he started working for the law firm of John Brunini and Sons in Rolling Fork.[32] In 1942, he represented the Union Producing company at a House Ways and Means committee to argue for Mississippi to place flat taxes on oil producers rather than multiple severance and sales taxes.[33] After the United States enteredWorld War II Wright attempted to rejoin the army, but was rejected due to his poor eyesight.[34][35]
On November 19, 1942, Wright met with friends in Jackson, Mississippi, and stated that he would be a candidate in the lieutenant gubernatorial election.[34] In January 1943, he formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the lieutenant gubernatorial election.[36] Walter D. Davis, a former member of the state House of Representatives and attorney in theDepartment of War, was appointed to serve as his campaign manager.[37]
In the initial primary he won with a plurality of the vote ahead of Paul Spearman and Charles G. Hamilton, who were eliminated, and John Lumpkin, who would continue onto the runoff primary.[38] Wright defeated Lumpkin in the runoff with 155,265 to 108,661 votes winning the Democratic nomination.[39] In the general election he and gubernatorial nominee Thomas L. Bailey faced no opposition.[40]
The state House and Senate passed a resolution allowing for Wright to be inaugurated one day before Bailey[why?] and Wright was inaugurated as the Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi on January 17, 1944.[41][42] On March 21, 1944, he gave his first tie breaking vote, in which he voted in favor, when the state Senate voted nineteen in favor to nineteen against on a bill authorizing chancery clerks to use photostat machines in recording records.[43] In April 1944, Wright became acting governor when Governor Bailey went to Kansas City to attend the Methodist general conference as one of Mississippi's two delegates.[44]
In 1946, he attempted to call another session of the state legislature to have the state's election laws changed to prevent black voters from participating in the 1947 primaries.[45] In June 1946, he refused to authorize the extradition of George Johnson, a black man facing charges of child abandonment, back to California and refused to commute the death sentence of James Leo Williams, a 25 year old black man convicted for murder, while serving as acting governor.[46][47] On August 1, 1946, he was made aware of plans by theDepartment of Justice to investigate the activities of theKu Klux Klan in Mississippi. Wright claimed that he did not know of any activities conducted by the Ku Klux Klan and that the organization had not existed in the state since 1923.[48]
On October 30, 1946, Governor Bailey suffered a stroke and was in poor health for the next four days until he died from a spinal tumor on November 2. Wright was supposed to leave the state for a physical checkup, but remained in Mississippi due to Bailey's poor health and succeeded him following his death to fulfill the remainder of his term as the 49th governor.[49] On November 7, he was formally inaugurated by Chief JusticeSydney M. Smith without a ceremony.[50]
TheUnited States Senate, controlled by a Republican majority, refused to seat Senator Theodore G. Bilbo at the request of SenatorGlen H. Taylor. Wright threatened to appoint Bilbo to serve as an interim senator if he was not allowed to be seated, for which the Harrison County affiliate of the Bilbo Campaign Committee passed a resolution praising Wright.[51][52] The issue was resolved when it was proposed that Bilbo's credentials remain on the table while he returned home to Mississippi to seek medical treatment for oral cancer.[53][54] When Bilbo died on August 21, 1947, Wright stated that "He was a long and faithful servant of the state. He was an outstanding official whose loss will be felt by Mississippi."[55]
On May 20, theAmalgamated Association of Street, Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, affiliated with theAmerican Federation of Labor, organized a walkout and strike to improve the wages of bus drivers working for Southern Trailways, the Mississippi affiliate of theTrailways Transportation System.[56] On September 28, a man driving a carnival truck attempted to crash into two Trailway buses and later another driver attempted to crash a bus off a highway nearWinona. On October 1, Wright threatened to place members of theMississippi National Guard onboard every bus with orders to shoot to protect the buses.[57] In November, theMississippi Bureau of Investigation was formed as a temporarily state police force to prevent further violence during the strike, although it was criticized as similar to theGestapo and the Veterans of Foreign Wars post inHattiesburg passed a resolution calling it fascist, Wright successfully transformed it into a permanent police force.[58][56]
On January 25, 1947, Wright announced his intention to seek election to a term in his own right in the1947 Mississippi gubernatorial election.[59]Paul B. Johnson Jr., the son of former governor and representativePaul B. Johnson Sr., later announced his intention to challenge Wright in the Democratic primary.[60] On June 12, he formally launched his campaign at a campaign rally in Rolling Fork where he showed his twenty-point platform which included support for veteran benefits, road improvements, sales tax exemptions, and stopping outside influence on Mississippi.[61]
On August 5, he won the Democratic primary with over 55% of the popular vote and later received a letter of congratulations from Johnson, who had placed second in the primary.[62][63] Wright's first ballot victory was the second time in Mississippi history that the Democratic gubernatorial nominee won without a runoff being needed, with Theodore G. Bilbo's1915 victory being the first.[64] In the general election he defeated former Nebraskan GovernorGeorge L. Sheldon, who ran on the ballot as anIndependent Republican and who had stated that he had only expected to receive a few thousand votes against Wright.[65][66][67]
On January 20, 1948, Wright was inaugurated as the 50th Governor of Mississippi by Chief JusticeSydney M. Smith.[68] In his inaugural address he called forSouthern Democrats to abandon the Democratic Party due to theFair Employment Practice Committee, andanti-poll tax,anti-lynching, andpro-civil rights measures. He also criticized PresidentHarry S. Truman for hiscommittee on civil rights and support for other "anti-southern" legislation.[69]
His speech and call for Southern Democrats to leave the party was praised by SenatorJames Eastland and RepresentativesJohn Bell Williams andJamie Whitten who stated that they had been ignored by the party's leadership and should not allow the region's racial beliefs to be undermined.[70] However, SenatorsAllen J. Ellender andClaude Pepper, RepresentativeWilliam Madison Whittington, GovernorBenjamin Travis Laney, and Alabama Democratic Chairman Gessner T. McCorvey criticized him stating that they should remain in the party to reform it from the inside.[70][71][72] On January 21, the state house and senate approved resolutions supporting threats to leave the party if more "anti-southern" legislation was passed.[73]
In April, the state legislature passed the firstworkers' compensation bill in Mississippi history and it was later signed into law by Wright. Secretary of LaborLewis B. Schwellenbach praised the passage of the bill as Mississippi was the last of the then forty-eight states to pass a workers' compensation bill.[74][75]
On July 8, Lycurgus Spinks, who had run in the 1947 Democratic gubernatorial primary and was an Imperial Emperor of theUnited Klans of America, filed a $50,000 lawsuit against Wright claiming that Wright, W.W. Wright, and George Godwin had convinced John L. Dagget to cancel a contract he had with Spinks.[76][77] On January 11, 1949, Spinks' lawsuit was dismissed by JudgeSidney Carr Mize of theSouthern District Court of Mississippi, but Spinks refiled his lawsuit.[78][79] On June 29, Spinks removed Wright from his lawsuit, but continued his lawsuit against W. W. Wright and George Godwin.[80]
On September 7, Wright declared a state of emergency as Mississippi had suffered its second highest number ofpolio cases in its history during 1949.[81]
In February 1948, a "State-wide Mass Meeting of Negro citizens" organized in Jackson, Mississippi, and called for a biracial committee to oversee the educational improvement project that was started in 1946, but Wright declined their request.[82]
Due to federal threats to force theintegration of schools Wright reorganized Mississippi's public education system in an attempt to maintain racial segregation. Education funding towards black schools was increased, but still remained inferior to the funding given to white-only schools.[83] In 1951, he opposed attempts by theNAACP to admit black students into white-only colleges and stated that he would "insist on (racial) segregation regardless of the costs or consequences".[84] At the Southern Governors Conference Wright stated that "regardless of what others may say, we in Mississippi are determined that the segregated educational system shall be maintained."[85]
Wright's inaugural address calling for Southerners to abandon the Democratic Party was supported by Senator James Eastland, who was later invited to speak before the state legislature. On January 29, 1948, Senator Eastland gave a speech to a joint session of the Mississippi state legislature where he called for theSolid South to withhold its 127 electoral votes from the Democratic presidential nominee so that "a Southern man would emerge as president of the United States".[86]
In February, Wright attended theSouthern Governors' Association conference with plans to introduce a resolution calling for the creation of a newSouthern party. However, Georgia GovernorMelvin E. Thompson gave Wright a copy of a statement condemning his call although Wright stated that he would still introduce his resolution. Alabama GovernorJim Folsom, Maryland GovernorWilliam Preston Lane Jr., and Florida GovernorMillard Caldwell also criticized Wright while South Carolina GovernorStrom Thurmond and Texas GovernorBeauford H. Jester declined to comment.[87] When he proposed his resolution it was rejected by the eight other governors present and a different resolution calling for a committee to study the effects of recently proposed civil rights legislation was accepted.[88] Although Wright's resolution was unsuccessful another resolution proposed by Thurmond calling for the Truman administration to stop attacking white supremacy or the Southern Democrats would leave the party.[89]
After his failure at the Southern Governors' Association conference Wright went to Little Rock, Arkansas to meet with political leaders. While there almost four hundred Arkansas political leaders voted unanimously in favor of a resolution supporting Wright and in Virginia GovernorWilliam M. Tuck called for the state legislature to prevent Truman from appearing on theballot.[90] On March 13, another Southern governor meeting was held where a resolution against civil rights and the party's leadership was supported by the governors of South Carolina, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida while the governors of North Carolina and Louisiana were not at the meeting and the governor of Maryland voted "present".[91][92]
The Anti-Truman Democratic Club of Florida, which controlled twenty-eight of Florida's delegates to the national convention, formed apresidential draft movement supporting Wright. The organization also passed a resolution where it would support South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond or Arkansas GovernorBenjamin Travis Laney if Wright did not run for the presidency.[93] After being informed of the movement Wright stated that he was not interested in running for president.[94] Former Alabama GovernorFrank M. Dixon attempted to start another draft movement for Wright, but Wright declined to run for president again.[95]
On May 10, the States' Rights Democrats conference was held in Jackson, Mississippi, with Wright serving as temporary chairman.[96] The conference was attended by around 2,500 people and a resolution calling for a separate national convention in Birmingham was passed.[97]
On May 25, Wright was elected to serve as one ofSharkey County's eight delegates to Mississippi's state Democratic convention.[98] On June 23, he was selected to serve as one of the delegates to the national convention.[99]
Wright and former GovernorHugh L. White led the twenty-two member Mississippi delegation to theDemocratic National Convention.[8] At the national convention he and the Mississippi delegation supported Governor Laney for the presidential nomination.[100] An attempt was made by Charles Hamilton to prevent the seating of the Mississippi delegation due to its pledge to leave the party if Truman was nominated or if the platform was pro-civil rights. However, the Credentials Committee voted fifteen to eleven in favor of seating Wright's delegation.[101]
On July 14, he led the Mississippi delegation in a walkout of the convention to protest the adoption of a pro-civil rights plank into the party's platform. On July 17, the Conference of States' Rights Democrats in Birmingham, Alabama suggested him as a candidate for the vice presidential nomination of the breakawayStates' Rights Democratic Party and he later accepted the nomination on August 11.[8]
During the election Wright, a supporter of racial segregation, stated that "if any of you [African Americans] have become so deluded as to want to enter our white schools, patronize our hotels and cafes, enjoy social equality with the whites, then true kindness and sympathy requires me to advise you to make your homes in some other state."[102]
In the general election he and South Carolina GovernorStrom Thurmond won the popular and electoral votes of the states ofLouisiana,Mississippi,Alabama, andSouth Carolina, and received one faithless electoral vote fromTennessee. Although the party won multiple states it was unsuccessful in its goal of preventing Truman from winning the election as he still managed to defeat Republican nomineeThomas E. Dewey without the unanimous support of the Solid South.[103]
The failure to spoil the election against Truman was credited to the Dixiecrats being a third party within the United States'two-party system, the Republicans' campaign against Truman in which Dewey did not criticize Truman for his administration's scandals, theProgressive presidential nomineeHenry A. Wallace focusing on an idealistic foreign policy, remaining support of theNew Deal, labor issues voters against theTaft–Hartley Act, and farm issue voters.[104] In 1950, Truman invited every governor from the South to a luncheon, except for Wright and Thurmond, as Truman stated that invitations were given to Democrats only.[105] Wright continued to defend states' rights and segregation, but conceded that complete obstinance along the lines of the 1948 departure from the Democratic Party would cause Mississippi to lose "its standing with everybody in America."[106]
Upon leaving gubernatorial office, Wright opened a law practice in Jackson.[107] In 1952, he was selected to serve as Mississippi's national committeeman to theDemocratic National Committee for a four-year term.[108] During the1952 presidential election he supported the Democratic presidential ticket of GovernorAdlai Stevenson II and SenatorJohn Sparkman and stated that he would not support the Republican presidential ticket of GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower and SenatorRichard Nixon.[109]
On October 2, 1954, Wright announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for governor and he selected Gordon Roach, an attorney who had served asPike County attorney, as his campaign manager.[110][111] On May 5, 1955, he formally launched his campaign at his home in Rolling Fork with around 3,500 people in attendance.[112] Hoping to build off of white discontent with theUnited States Supreme Court's 1954Brown v. Board of Education ruling mandating desegregation in public schools, Wright framed himself as an ardent segregationist. He argued that his involvement in the Dixiecrat foray made him "the man most feared by Negroleaders who seek to integrate the schools" and pledged to use Mississippi'spolice power to prevent such integration.[113] Though the media reported his chances favorably, Wright placed third in the Democratic primary behindJames P. Coleman andPaul B. Johnson Jr., surprising many observers[113] and preventing him from participating in the primary runoff.[114] He thereafter returned to practicing law[107] and Coleman went on to be elected governor.[113]
On May 4, 1956, Wright suffered a heart attack and died forty minutes later at his home inJackson, Mississippi.[115] Following his death, his son Fielding Wright Jr. was selected to succeed him as the president of the United Cerebral Palsy of Mississippi, Incorporated, acerebral palsy humanitarian organization.[116] His funeral was held on May 6, and was attended by SenatorStrom Thurmond, state senator R. M. Kennedy, Mississippi GovernorJames P. Coleman, Mississippi Lieutenant GovernorCarroll Gartin, and Mississippi Secretary of StateHeber Ladner.[115] Thurmond stated that his death was "a tremendous loss to the South and to the nation".[1] Most state newspaper obituaries focused on his participation in the 1948 Dixiecrat movement and his staunch segregationist pledges in the 1955 gubernatorial race.[117] He was buried at Kelly Cemetery in Rolling Fork.[107]
On November 17, 1960, a section ofU.S. Route 61 inside Mississippi was designated as the Fielding L. Wright Memorial Highway.[118] An art center at theDelta State University and a science complex in theMississippi Valley State University were named after him.[119]
In 1990, former Arkansas GovernorSid McMath stated that Wright and Thurmond's nominations were "a racist thing" as "they were against Truman because of his attitude toward race and fair employment and these other things that finally became a matter of course later on, this social legislation."[120] Historian James Patterson Smith wrote that Wright's association with the Dixiecrat movement "built the profoundly negative image that has long obscured his substantial achievements as a progressive legislator".[121] His personal papers were destroyed in a fire shortly after he left office, and he has generally been ignored in historiography or dismissed as a reactionary.[122]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Fielding L. Wright | 155,265 | 58.83% | |
| Democratic | John Lumpkin | 108,661 | 41.17% | |
| Total votes | 263,926 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Fielding L. Wright (incumbent) | 202,014 | 55.31% | |
| Democratic | Paul B. Johnson Jr. | 112,123 | 30.70% | |
| Democratic | Jesse M. Byrd | 37,997 | 10.40% | |
| Democratic | Frank L. Jacobs | 8,750 | 2.40% | |
| Democratic | William L. Spinks | 4,344 | 1.19% | |
| Total votes | 365,228 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Fielding L. Wright (incumbent) | 166,095 | 97.59% | −2.41% | |
| Independent Republican | George L. Sheldon | 4,102 | 2.41% | +2.41% | |
| Total votes | 170,197 | 100.00% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Paul B. Johnson Jr. | 122,483 | 28.07% | |
| Democratic | James P. Coleman | 104,140 | 23.87% | |
| Democratic | Fielding L. Wright | 94,460 | 21.65% | |
| Democratic | Ross Barnett | 92,785 | 21.27% | |
| Democratic | Mary D. Cain | 22,469 | 5.15% | |
| Total votes | 436,337 | 100.00% | ||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi 1944–1946 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Mississippi 1946–1952 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forLieutenant Governor of Mississippi 1943 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Mississippi 1947 | Succeeded by |
| New political party | Dixiecrat nominee forVice President of the United States 1948 | Party dissolved |
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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
