Well, Mr. Rankin was on the far right, you know. Bear in mind, I was
always good friends with Senator Eastland personally, and I supported
him when he was elected the first time. One of the things that I don't
want to be quoted on, which might make all the historians blink, blink,
blink: in 1972 when Senator Eastland was up for reelection, he sent his
man down here from Washington to tell me if I'd go on and run for the
U.S. Senate, he'd retire and he'd support me. Well, he didn't announce
that. He shouldn't have because he finally wound up running himself. Of
course, I told him no. I had six years invested in the Court of Appeals
then. If I jumped that and ran for the Senate, I might very likely get
beat. The outstanding example of that, you know, is—what was the
fellow's name in North Carolina, the big chemical heir that was a
federal judge. He resigned to run for governor or the Senate one in
North Carolina, and led the ticket 50,000 votes the first primary, and
got beat in the run-off. Ah, that just shows you I'm getting old, I used
to have a computer memory for names. But anyway, politics is a very
uncertain game. In 1952, talking about things casting their shadows
before them, in '51, to take office in '52,
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candidates for governor were Governor Hugh White, who had been governor
before and one of the only two men in Mississippi history who'd ever
been elected a second time, Bilbo being the other one. And Bilbo got
beat once before he brought it off, you know. In '52, is Hugh White, Sam
Hopson
[?], who was the lieutenant governor, and Ross Barnett, a great
demagogue—I hate to say that about a man when he's dead—and Mary
Cane
[?]. That's '51. Governor White and Paul Johnson Jr. went to the
second primary, and they carried 41 counties apiece, in the second
primary, and Governor White just had a few more totals. Had an equal
number of counties. Sam Hopson got left out of the second primary by 500
votes. This sounds like bragging, but it just shows you how politics
turns around. Governor White came to me in the '51 campaign, and he
said, "If you'll go on and run for governor, I'll withdraw in your
favor." Of course, that was great compliment. Well, I said, "Governor,
that's sort of like an end run in a football game. It works fine when it
works, and it fails miserably when it fails."
[Laughter] I said, "I think I just like four more years having the
statewide acquaintances and connections to be able to make it." So, of
course, I didn't do it. Well, of course, Governor White, he was for me
to be his successor, but he didn't take any active part in the first
primary because he was also a great friend of Fielding Wright, you know.
Fielding Wright had been Speaker of the House in the legislature when
Governor White, I believe, was governor himself from '36 to '40.
A lot of things could have been changed. There's no doubt about it. Well,
I like to think that it was highly changed in Mississippi during my four
years because we didn't have a single lawsuit to integrate the schools.
We had no racial incidents except the case of the black man who raped a
white women, and I didn't hear about it until—the circuit judge, the
District Attorney, nobody told me a thing about it until a bunch went in
there and hung him, which was wholly unnecessary because the due process
of law would have done the same thing. It was a most unforgivable. . .
.