Crusades for Freedom: Memphis and the Political Transformation of the American South

5. “To Compel the White Race”

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3BDF¯ Russell Sugarmon had a plan. In early 1959 he became convinced that conditions were ripe for him to become the first African American in the twentieth century to achieve electoral office in Memphis. The Tennessee General Assembly had recently passed a law requiring political candidates in municipal elections to run for a specific school board or city commission post rather than the past practice of assigning seats to those who received the highest number of votes.1 The law was specifically designed to limit the impact of African American voting on local elections. As previously mentioned, since 1951 black voters had been employing the technique of “single-shot” voting—that is, casting their ballots for a black candidate while ignoring all other races in the hope of electing African Americans to political office. The strategy had not led to black officeholding, but in 1955 Roy Love had nearly been elected to the school board, and S. A. Wilbun almost won a seat in the state legislature in 1958. Memphis segregationists, alarmed that blacks might actually win an election, were determined to curb their political aspirations and their answer was the anti–single shot voting law. While those in the white power structure were smug in their belief that they had checkmated black voters, Sugarmon sensed an opportunity. He quickly realized that the new law did not hamper black electoral opportunities but rather strengthened them if the white vote was split between two or more candidates . On May 22, as Sugarmon was making his calculations, public works commissioner Henry Loeb announced his decision to run for mayor against Edmund Orgill, who had announced his reelection bid two days before.2 Just as Sugarmon had hoped, several whites immediately announced their candidacy for Loeb’s commission seat, including city personnel director William W. Farris, John Ford Canale, county commission administrative assistant, and city engineer Will Fowler.3 With so many white candidates in the race, Sugarmon believed that, given the anti–single shot voting law, he had a real chance of being elected public works commissioner himself. A graduate of Rutgers University and Harvard Law School, Sugarmon had practiced law in Memphis since 1956 and had managed S. A. Wilbun’s unsuccessful race for the state legislature in 1958. Therefore he was quite aware ˜PK
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 of how difficult it was for a black candidate in a white-dominated political campaign, but nevertheless he announced his candidacy in early June. Sugarmon’s candidacy electrified the black community and spurred other African Americans to seek public office. Elihue Stanback, a leader in the Binghampton Civic League, announced his candidacy for tax assessor, while O. Z. Evers declared his intention to run for the city commission.4 Around the same time, former army chaplain and pastor of Mount Olive Christian Methodist Episcopal Cathedral Henry Bunton and Roy Love of Mt. Nebo Baptist Church ran for seats on the school board. The two black religious leaders joined with Sugarmon to form a unified black political campaign, which they called the Volunteer Ticket. In order to round out the slate and gain the support of George W. Lee and the GOP, Sugarmon and his campaign manager, A. W. Willis, Jr., induced Republican Benjamin L. Hooks to join the ticket as candidate for juvenile court judge.5 Archie Walter Willis, Jr., was born in Birmingham but relocated to Memphis where he graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, Willis opened the first integrated legal firm in Memphis with his friend Russell Sugarmon.6 Describing their campaign as a “Crusade for Freedom,” the Volunteer Ticket organized a voter registration drive which resulted in 57,109 African Americans becoming voters.7 Secretaries from Universal Life Insurance Company culled the African American names from the registration rolls to compile a master list of black voters, but the list was stolen from the ticket’s Beale Street headquarters.8 Despite this setback, 1,200 African Americans served as campaign workers for the Volunteer Ticket.9 While workers distributed campaign literature, Sugarmon attended rallies, spoke at countless church and civic organizations, and appeared on WMCT’s “meet your candidates ” television program alongside his white opponents.10 Meanwhile, the ticket’s finance committee organized a mass rally at the Church of God in Christ’s Mason Temple to raise needed campaign funds and encourage the electorate...