by Ray Hill | Jul 27, 2014 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
By Ray Hill For years, Ben W. Hooper was the most successful Republican politician in the state of Tennessee, if the measure was the ability to win a statewide election. A fiery and dynamic speaker, Hooper was a successful lawyer, yet he had overcome serious adversity...
by Ray Hill | Jul 13, 2014 | Archives, Columnist, Hill
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. Many historians have made the mistake of overestimating Crump’s influence and...
by Ray Hill | Jul 6, 2014 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
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 unit bill to render the huge voting majorities produced in Shelby County meaningless in...
by Ray Hill | Jun 29, 2014 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives, Stories In This Week's Focus:
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 he served for only four years. The Memphis Boss announced he would not be a candidate...
by Ray Hill | Jun 22, 2014 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
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 , Luke Lea, were made politically impotent when Caldwell and Company, one of the...
by Ray Hill | Jun 15, 2014 | Archives, Columnist, Hill, Ray Hill's Archives
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 Crump never forgot and he certainly never forgave anyone he considered to have played a part in his...
