.jpg) Eugene Talmadge statue (2020) | |
| Location | Georgia State Capitol,Atlanta,Georgia |
|---|---|
| Designer | Steffen Thomas |
| Dedicated date | September 23, 1949 |
| Dedicated to | Eugene Talmadge |
TheEugene Talmadge statue is a publicmonument located on the grounds of theGeorgia State Capitol inAtlanta,Georgia. Designed bySteffen Thomas, the statue was unveiled in 1949 and depictsGeorgia GovernorEugene Talmadge. The statue has been the subject of recent controversy given Talmadge'swhite supremacist andracist views.
Born in 1884,[1]Eugene Talmadge served multiple terms asGovernor of Georgia during the 1930s and 1940s.[1][2] We was first elected to that position in 1932 and in total was elected governor a total of four times. He died in 1946 after his fourth election before taking office.[3] He is noted for several scandals that occurred both during and after his governorships, including theCocking affair during his third term, theMoore's Ford lynchings during his campaign in the1946 Georgia gubernatorial election, and thethree governors controversy that occurred shortly after his death in 1946.[1][2] Talmadge was also asegregationist,[4] and during his 1946 campaign he made restoring theGeorgia Democratic Party'swhite primary (which had recently been ruled unconstitutional by theSupreme Court of the United States) a key campaign issue.[1][3]
In 1949, Eugene's sonHerman Talmadge, who had briefly served as governor during the three governors controversy, pushed for the installation of a statue honoring his deceased father.[1]Steffen Thomas sculpted the statue from his studio in nearbyStone Mountain, Georgia. While initially wanting to depict Talmadge with shirt sleeves and his thumbs hooked under his suspenders, the Talmadge family felt that that would be an "undignified" image of him.[5] The statue was unveiled on the grounds of theGeorgia State Capitol by his grandsons on September 23, 1949,[6] on what would have been Eugene's 65th birthday.[7] The statue's right hand features six fingers, an inconsistency from the real Talmadge.[5]
Since the 2010s, Talmadge's reputation as governor has come under more scrutiny, with multiple publications criticizing the statue's placement at the Georgia State Capitol. Following the removal of a statue honoringThomas E. Watson from the capitol grounds, publications includingThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution and theWashington Monthly criticized Talmadge and the statue, with the latter calling him a "reactionarydemagogue" and the former calling him one of several racist figures honored on the capitol grounds, which included astatue of John Brown Gordon.[3][8] Further criticism of the statue appeared following theUnite the Right rally in 2017.[1][2]
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