> It did take an armed insurrection on a small scale to overthrow the
> Memphis city machine back in '48 or so. (I forget the name of the man
> who ran that state. "Crump" comes to mind, but I think that was the
> Kansas City boss who managed Truman's plitical career.) A group of
> veterans got together, stormed the courthouse, and defended the ballot
> boxes with arms until they could arrange for an honest counting. There
> were shots fired, but I forget if anyone was wounded or not.
>
Yes, it was Edward H. Crump who ran essentially all of Shelby County. David Mayhew writes in "Placing Parties in American Politics" (Princeton UP, 1986), p. 111:
The Crump organization mobilized both blacks and whites, took
care of voters' poll taxes to increase turnout, and amassed
enormous county majorities like those of New Jersey's Hague
and Missouri's Pendergast organizations to swing outcomes in
statewide Democratic majorities.
In 1948, Crump failed to get his way in the state primary, and his machine did not long survive his death in 1954.
Mayhew writes that the Crump machine started sometime after World War I, and eventually lost the support of the business community. Crump strove to keep city taxes in Memphis as low as possible, so he opposed "expressways, public buildings, or sewage plants." (ibid at p. 296)
(V. O. Key surely writes about Crump in Southern Politics in State and Nation, but I'd surely wake at least one person up if I went to the attic to get it at this hour.)
--tim f-w