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181 12 The Liquor Gets a Little Thin In the spring of 1957, Marvin Griffin’s legacy began to form. Since he could not run for a successive term in 1958, he hoped to prepare for a triumphant return to the governor’s office in 1962. As it turned out, the close of the 1957 legislative session was the high-water mark of the Griffin administration. From that point on, the Griffin luster began to diminish considerably. At the end of the 1957 legislative session, Griffin headed to Florida for a short vacation. While he was gone, rumors began to spread that the revenue commissioner, Red Williams, and Cheney Griffin were planning to run for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, with Griffin’s blessings. The two began to engage in politicking for the two offices, leading the Atlanta Journal to opine that such behavior was akin to reading a will before a person was dead. As soon as Griffin returned, he quickly issued a “no politicking” order on appointed officials in his administration, stating that he did not care “whether it’s my brother or whoever it is.”1 While the talk of Williams and Cheney running for office quieted down somewhat, the men’s actions essentially inaugurated Griffin’s lame-duck governorship. For the remainder of his term, he was noticeably weaker than he had been in the first two years. This was also the beginning of a protracted bloodletting of the administration at the hands of the Atlanta newspapers. Questions still remained at that point about whether Griffin was supporting a Williams candidacy. Then in April 1957, a story appeared that knocked Williams out of the gubernatorial race. It was revealed by the Atlanta newspapers that Williams was running an illegal liquor fund out of his office to combat moonshiners. Licensed liquor wholesalers would 182 “Some of the People Who Ate My Barbecue Didn’t Vote for Me” donate money to a fund controlled by Williams, who in turn would use the fund to combat illegal moonshine activity in Georgia counties. While Williams, rather unconvincingly, stressed that the fund was above board and donations were voluntary, critics quickly labeled it a slush fund that Williams could use in any way he saw fit since it did not officially exist . On top of that, allegations arose that Williams required donations in order to renew the liquor licenses of wholesalers. Williams denied these charges, but Griffin ordered Williams to liquidate the fund and dismantle the program. If Griffin ever entertained any thoughts of a Williams candidacy , they ended at that point. But this would not be the end of Williams ’s troubles over the next few years. Simultaneously, Griffin began to dabble in Atlanta electoral politics for the first time as governor. Traditionally, Georgia governors used Atlanta as a whipping boy on the stump but did not involve themselves in the municipal government of the capital city. In May 1957, Griffin broke that precedent when the Atlanta mayoral and aldermen elections took place. Despite the position of state leaders on segregation, the political and business leaders of Atlanta had attempted to forge a working relationship with the black community. In 1953, a black candidate had been elected to the Atlanta school board. In 1957, T. M. Alexander, a black insurance salesman , ran for a position on the board of aldermen and won the support of the Atlanta political and business elite. After Alexander got into a runoff, Griffin decided to jump into the fray and publicly support the candidacy of Jack Summers, a white barber. Griffin stated at a press conference that “it is no time for the white people to witness the election of a Negro. It is the duty of every true patriot in Atlanta to lay side all business, if necessary , and go to the polls to see that Mr. Summers is elected.”2 The runoff saw a huge turnout and a victory for Summers, despite the fact that Alexander had won a plurality of the vote in the primary. Griffin exulted in his triumph over the Atlanta elites, who were appalled at the actions of the governor.3 An examination of newspaper coverage on the Griffin administration after the revelation of Williams’s liquor fund and Griffin’s involvement in the election reveals a decidedly negative turn. The coverage of Griffin begins to take an increasingly strident tone. In fairness, though, the media reports on actual events, and there was not a lack of material to...

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