James K. Vardaman

James Kimble Vardaman (July 26, 1861 – June 25, 1930) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Mississippi and was the Governor of Mississippi from 1904 to 1908. A Democrat, Vardaman was elected in 1912 to the United States Senate in the first popular vote for the office, following adoption of the 17th Amendment. He defeated incumbent LeRoy Percy, a member of the planter elite. Vardaman served from 1913 to 1919.
Known as "The Great White Chief", Vardaman had gained electoral support for his advocacy of populism and white supremacy, saying: "If it is necessary every Negro in the state will be lynched; it will be done to maintain white supremacy." He appealed to the poorer whites, yeomen farmers and factory workers.

Vardaman was born in Jackson County, Texas in July 1861. He moved to Mississippi, where he studied law and passed the bar. He settled in Greenwood, Mississippi, becoming editor of the Greenwood Commonwealth. This newspaper is still in publication as of 2015.

Vardaman along with James Thomas Heflin and Ollie Murray James in 1912.

Vardaman during his time as a U.S. senator.

Mississippi election campaigns frequently were marked by violence and fraud after Reconstruction. A biracial coalition of Republicans and Populists had briefly controlled the governorship and Mississippi House in the late 1880s.

As a Democrat, Vardaman served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1890 to 1896 and was elected as speaker of that body in 1894. He was known for his populist appeal to the common man. The Democrats took action to ensure they did not lose power again in the state. After having gained control of the legislature by suppressing the black vote, they passed a new constitution in 1890 with provisions, such as a poll tax and literacy test, that in practice disenfranchised most blacks.

Referring to the 1890 Mississippi state constitution, Vardaman said:

There is no use to equivocate or lie about the matter. ... Mississippi's constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the nigger from politics. Not the 'ignorant and vicious', as some of the apologists would have you believe, but the nigger. ... Let the world know it just as it is. ... In Mississippi we have in our constitution legislated against the racial peculiarities of the Negro. ... When that device fails, we will resort to something else.

Vardaman was commissioned as a major in the U.S. Army during the Spanish–American War. He served in Puerto Rico.

Vardaman ran twice in Democratic primaries for governor, in 1895 and 1899, but was not successful. The state was virtually one-party, and winning the Democratic primary established a candidate as the winning candidate for office. In 1903 Vardaman won the primary and the governorship, serving one four-year term (1904–1908).

By 1910, his political coalition, comprising chiefly poor white farmers and industrial workers, began to describe themselves proudly as "rednecks." They began to wear red neckerchiefs to political rallies and picnics.

Vardaman advocated a policy of state-sponsored racism against African Americans, saying that he supported lynching in order to maintain his vision of white supremacy. He was known as the "Great White Chief".

Vardaman was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1912 in the first popular election of senators, defeating the incumbent LeRoy Percy, a member of the planter elite. Vardaman served one term, from 1913 until 1919. He was defeated in his primary reelection bid in 1918. The main factor in Vardaman's defeat was his vote against the US Declaration of War on Germany and entry into World War I. Only five other Senators voted with him.

Vardaman ran in the Democratic primary for the US Senate in 1922, but was defeated in the primary runoff by Congressman Hubert Stephens by 9,000 votes.

Oratory

Vardaman was known for his provocative speeches and quotes, once calling Theodore Roosevelt a "little, mean, coon-flavored miscegenationist." In reference to the education of black children, he remarked, "The only effect of Negro education is to spoil a good field hand and make an insolent cook."

After Tuskegee University president Booker T. Washington had dined with Roosevelt, Vardaman said the White House was "so saturated with the odor of the nigger that the rats have taken refuge in the stable."

Referring to Washington's role in politics, Vardaman said: "I am just as much opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter as I am to the coconut-headed, chocolate-colored typical little coon who blacks my shoes every morning."

Vardaman married Anna Burleson Robinson. Their son, James K. Vardaman, Jr., served as the Governor of the Federal Reserve System from 1946 to 1958.

Vardaman died on June 25, 1930 at the Birmingham Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama at the age of 68.