James k vardaman biography of martin luther

For a century after the Civil War, Mississippi was affected by all of the elements necessary for the production of demagogues: deep racial suspicions left over from the days of slavery, lingering resentment of Reconstruction, an impoverished agrarian society, sharp class distinctions between the few haves and the many have-nots, and a poorly educated electorate.

In their book, Dixie Demagogues, Allan A. Michie and Frank Ryhlick wrote, “A fantastic parade of charlatans has marched across the hustings of the South since the Civil War.” Nowhere was the tramping of the demagogic guard more resounding than in Mississippi, where politicians exploited the frustrations of poor people. Rabble-rousing rhetoric filled the chambers of the state legislature and echoed from the steps of county courthouses. The practitioners of demagoguery won many elective positions over the years; some rose to the highest offices in the state.

James K. Vardaman, editor of the Greenwood Commonwealth, emerged in the latter part of the nineteenth century as a leader of populist forces in the state, with a strong strain of racism permeating his speeches and writings. Known as the Great White Chief, Vardaman targeted Mississippi’s black population in his diatribes. He characterized the Negro as “a lazy, lustful animal which no conceivable amount of training can transform into a tolerable citizen.” He also singled out corporate interests as enemies of the people and waged class warfare against wealthy business owners and planters.

Vardaman was twice defeated as a candidate for governor before winning the office in and plunging the state into such quixotic initiatives as a futile attempt to repeal the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to all races, and legislation to limit corporations to property worth no more than two million dollars. Vardaman later became involved in bitter contests for a US Senate seat against LeRoy Percy, a member of an aristocratic Delta family. Though P

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