Some of the People Who Ate My Barbecue Didn't Vote for Me: The Life of Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin

15. Second Helpings, Anyone?

221 15 Second Helpings, Anyone? As the 1962 campaign season rolled around, Marvin Griffin prepared for his political comeback. In early 1962 there were two acknowledged front-runners: Griffin and lieutenant governor Garland Byrd of Butler— “Tweety Byrd,” as Griffin dubbed him. In many ways the two men were very similar in their outlook and ideology. Both were conservative segregationists from rural Georgia. Byrd was associated with Governor Vandiver and was generally seen as Vandiver’s chosen successor in the winter and early spring of 1962. Byrd also had the support of highway board chairman Jim Gillis. Griffin still had his support base in southwest Georgia as well as some residual support from elements of the Talmadge organization . However, that organization was not what it had been and was gradually losing some influence as Herman Talmadge concentrated his energies on the U.S. Senate. Also, the row between Talmadge and Griffin led some from the Talmadge camp to reject Griffin’s comeback.1 It appeared the Democratic primary fight would be waged by two rural Democrats under the county unit system. Life and politics have a way of throwing curve balls, though, and one came in late March 1962. The Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling in a landmark case known as Baker v. Carr. The case essentially asked whether legislative districts were the province of the courts to review on constitutional grounds. In the 7–2 decision, the Court affirmed their right to hear cases about legislative districting on the basis of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision became the basis of court action in the legislative branch that continues into the early twenty-first century. Since Georgia’s county unit system was tied to the apportionment of seats in the state legislature, legal pundits instantly saw that the system would be targeted by its opponents. The system’s foes did not hesitate. 222 “Some of the People Who Ate My Barbecue Didn’t Vote for Me” The day after the Baker decision, James Sanders, an Atlanta resident, challenged the constitutionality of the county unit system in a case known as Gray v. Sanders. In the month that followed, Ernest Vandiver called the General Assembly back into special session to modify the county unit system to make it more equitable. By 1962, the county unit system that had always been inequitable to the urban counties had become so to an extreme . A brief comparison illustrates this. In 1920, the eight largest urban counties collectively accounted for 12 percent of the total unit votes and 22 percent of the state’s population. By 1960, the number of unit votes had remained static at 12 percent, yet those same eight counties now accounted for 41 percent of the population.2 In a situation analogous to the British Parliament’s “rotten boroughs,” urban counties were vastly underrepresented in the system. These counties had long called for changes to be made to the system, or even for the elimination of the system. Those calls fell on deaf ears in rural Georgia, which dominated state politics under the system. With the court challenge, though, the General Assembly quickly moved to attempt a fix. The legislature approved a plan backed by Vandiver to apportion more solons to the larger counties in populace. In turn, this would give the urban counties more power under the county unit system, while still preserving some level of rural power. In essence, Vandiver ’s plan would still have malapportioned county representation, but not to the degree that had existed under the county unit system. Despite these attempts, the Atlanta-based Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in late April that the county unit system was unconstitutional. Siding with Sanders, the court ruled that the system’s very foundations violated the “one man, one vote” principle of Baker v. Carr. Even with the reforms recently passed by the legislature, the three-judge panel of Griffin Bell, Frank A. Hooper, and Elbert Tuttle struck down the system and ordered that the 1962 Democratic primary be the first one not to use the system since 1919. While the judges’ ruling was roundly criticized by most rural Georgians, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the decision in 1963 and the county unit system was dead forever. In the meantime , Gray v. Sanders set off a series of political events that came to a head in the Democratic primary held in September...