A Feudin’ Son of Tennessee: Kenneth McKellar Chapter 1
By Ray Hill It will soon be one hundred years since the people of Tennessee elected their first United States Senator by popular vote in 1916. Prior to that…
The Senator’s Secretary: D. W. McKellar
By Ray Hill Tennessee’s longest serving United States Senator, Kenneth D. McKellar, employed several secretaries during his thirty-six years as a member of the nation’s upper chamber. For sixteen…
The U.S. Senate In The Age of McKellar: 1917 – 1953
By Ray Hill Kenneth Douglas McKellar arrived in the United States Senate in 1917 and it was a much sleepier place than it would become a few decades later.…
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part VII
By Ray Hill Despite encountering stiff opposition to the candidates supported by Shelby County Boss E. H. Crump and Tennessee’s senior United States Senator Kenneth D. McKellar, the two…
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part VI
By Ray Hil By the decade of the 1940s, E. H. Crump, master of the Shelby County political machine, completely dominated Tennessee politics in partnership with Senator Kenneth D. McKellar. …
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part V
By Ray Hill Governor Gordon Browning had unleashed a fierce assault on the Memphis political machine, as well as its leader, E. H. Crump. Browning proposed to institute a county…
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part IV
By Ray Hill Edward Hull Crump, in partnership with U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar, began his domination of Tennessee politics in 1932. Crump was then a member of Congress, although…
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part III
By Ray Hill Henry Horton had won reelection as governor in 1930, but within days the landscape of Tennessee politics was forever altered. Both Horton and his closest political adviser…
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part II
By Ray Hill Following his ouster as Mayor of Memphis, E. H. Crump ran for and was elected Shelby County Trustee. His removal from the mayor’s office was a humiliation…
Edward Hull Crump: The Boss, Part I
Published March 26, 2012 By Ray Hill The modern history of Memphis is inextricably tied to that of Edward Hull Crump. “Mister” Crump was indisputably a political boss in a…
