Jimmy Carter - Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age

ALSO BY Jimmy Carter

Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation

An Outdoor Journal

Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (with Rosalynn Carter)

The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East

Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President

A Government as Good as Its People

Why Not the Best?

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution for permission to reprint an editorial entitled Cloud Over Georgetown from the October 30, 1962, issue of the Atlanta Journal, page 22. Reprinted by permission from the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution.

Copyright 1992 by Jimmy Carter
Map copyright 1992 by Anita Karl and Jim Kemp

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Originally published by Times Books in 1992.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carter, Jimmy

Turning point: a candidate, a state, and a nation come of age /
Jimmy Carter.1st ed.

1. Carter, Jimmy, 1924. 2. GeorgiaPolitics and government1951 .

I. Title.
E873.A3 1992
973.926092-dc20 92-53671

eISBN: 978-0-307-78618-0

v3.1

For Maggie, Jeremy, and Jamie

I have relived many exciting events in writing this book, centered on the election year of 1962. Some of the memories are too vivid ever to forget, while others had become confused with the passage of thirty years. As would be expected, Rosalynn and I retained our scrapbooks and other personal records of those days, and these have provided the foundation for the account. Since most of the key players in the drama are still living, I have also been able to consult with them extensively. It has been especially interesting to go back to Quitman County, Georgia, where most of the action took place, and to reminisce with the people who still live there. Regardless of whether they were my supporters or opponents in those earlier days, all of them have been willing to spend a few hours recalling what was to all of us a series of historic experiences.

It was surprising how many of the attorneys had retained their records of the legal cases, and they were gracious enough to review their files and make the pertinent ones available to me.

Dr. Steve Hochman was of special help. He had assisted me in reviewing White House records when I wrote my memoir, Keeping Faith, in 1981 and has been my special assistant during the past decade while I lectured regularly at Emory University. When I decided to write Turning Point, Steve continued to help me. He also recruited an outstanding Emory student, Scott Bertschi, who studied the legal history of the one man, one vote Supreme Court ruling, perused the files of newspapers published during the summer and fall of 1962, and presented all this information to me so I could use it most effectively. Research was conducted at the Georgia Department of Archives and History, the Jimmy Carter Library, the Emory University Library, and the University of Georgia Library.

My assistant, Faye Dill, played an integral role in the preparation of this book. She located many of the people involved, arranged my interviews with them, obtained approval for the use of personal and copyrighted texts and photographs, and helped resolve differences between me and the editors.

Peter Osnos and Paul Golob, Times Books editors, helped me arrange this material in a more logical and orderly fashion, and prodded me to expand on some of the incidents so that they would be described in a more understandable way.

I am grateful to all of them, and I hope this text will do justice to their good work.

(in order of appearance)

E RNEST V ANDIVER , governor of Georgia, 19591963.

B EN F ORTSON , Georgia secretary of state, brother of Warren Fortson.

G RIFFIN B ELL , judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, member of the two judicial panels that heard the county unit and reapportionment cases, Rosalynns cousin, former law partner of Charles Kirbo.

C ARL S ANDERS , president pro tem of the state Senate and successful Democratic candidate for governor in 1962.

J OE H URST , state representative from Quitman County, chairman of the county Democratic committee, employee of the state Department of Agriculture, supporter of Homer Moore.

H OMER M OORE , my opponent in the race for the state Senate seat representing the Fourteenth Senatorial District, warehouseman and hardware store owner in Richland, Georgia.

R OBERT M CKENZIE , incumbent state senator from Quitman County, also representing Stewart and Webster counties.

R ALPH B ALKCOM , farmer, Quitman County school superintendent, Rosalynns cousin, who observed the voting in Quitman County on my behalf.

S AM S INGER , state representative from Stewart County, campaign manager for Homer Moore and his representative on the recount committee, warehouseman and former mayor of Lumpkin, Georgia.

J OHN P OPE , manufacturer of burial vaults from Americus, who observed the voting in Quitman County on my behalf.

R OBERT E LLIS , Quitman County ordinary (probate judge).

D OC H AMMOND , close associate of Joe Hurst, assistant poll manager for state senatorial election in Quitman County.

L UKE T EASLEY , reporter for the Columbus Enquirer.

T OMMY G ARY , U.S. peanut warehouse inspector, son of the late Senator Loren Gary of Quitman County.

L OREN W HITAKER , chief poll manager and longtime supporter of Joe Hurst, whose daughter worked the polls for the state senatorial election in Quitman County.

W ARREN F ORTSON , my attorney in the election dispute, brother of Ben Fortson.

J. B. F UQUA , chairman of the state Democratic party, owner of television and radio stations in Augusta, close associate of Carl Sanders.

W INGATE D YKES , Sumter County Democratic chairman, my fathers lawyer, brother-in-law and supporter of Tom Marshall.

T OM M ARSHALL , brother-in-law of Wingate Dykes and state superior court judge for the Southwest Judicial Circuit, who made a midnight ruling in our case.