of black economic advancement. He denounced their support as a "kiss of death type endorsement". He lost overwhelmingly to Williams, only garnering 30 percent of the vote, much of it coming from black voters registered in wake of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He never ran for office again but continued to fundraise for Republican candidates throughout the rest of his life. Later life Following his second failed gubernatorial bid, Phillips became an executive for the Stirling Homex Corporation, a New York-based company which built housing modules. The firm went bankrupt in 1972, and Phillips and four other executives were indicted for conspiracy and the fraudulent sale of stock. Phillips and three others were convicted of inflating profits to deceive investors, auditors, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine and 10 months of incarceration. The defendants appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear their case in 1978. Two years later the Mississippi Supreme Court disbarred Phillips. He successfully sought reinstatement to the bar in September 1982 and resumed practicing law in Jackson. From 1979 to 1990 he worked as a consultant and retained counsel for Mobile Communications Corporation of America. He died on June 18, 2011 at an assisted living facility in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Historian Billy Burton Hathorn reflected that Phillips' "two campaigns breathed new life in a previously moribund party [...] Phillips spearheaded a gradual change in the political climate of his native state so that in the future it would be the general election, not the second Democratic primary, which became the principal focus of attention." References Works cited |- Mississippi Republicans 1925 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American lawyers Military personnel from Mississippi