Eugene Talmadge (September 23, 1884 – December 21, 1946) was an attorney and American politician who served three terms as the 67th governor of Georgia, from 1933 to 1937, and then again from 1941 to 1943. Elected to a fourth term in November 1946, he died before his inauguration, scheduled for January 1947. Only Talmadge and Joe Brown, in the mid-19th century, have been elected four times as governor of Georgia. A member of the Democratic Party, he is known for having actively promoted segregation and white supremacy, and for advocating for racism in the University System of Georgia. Early life, education and career Eugene Talmadge was born in 1884 in Forsyth, Georgia, to Thomas and Carrie (Roberts) Talmadge. He attended the University of Georgia and graduated from the university's law school. While at UGA, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and Sigma Nu fraternity. Talmadge set up a law practice in Telfair County, Georgia and joined the Democratic Party. He twice ran for the Georgia state legislature and lost both times. He was elected as state agriculture commissioner in 1926. Talmadge was re-elected commissioner in 1928 and 1930. In 1908 the Democratic-dominated legislature passed a constitutional amendment that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans in Georgia. This institutionalized the Democratic Party's dominance in the state, in a pattern that had been repeated across most of the former Confederate states since 1890, when Mississippi was the first to pass such legislation. As commissioner, Talmadge used the newspaper of his department to give advice to farmers and promote his political views, extolling the virtues of a laissez-faire economic policy and individual action to improve the well-being of farmers. During his time as agriculture commissioner, Talmadge also developed a reputation for being a corrupt, freewheeling individual who disregarded standard ethics and played by his own set of rules. He maintained widespread support among Georgia's rural white communities. He was an "admitted flogger and racial demagogue who presided over a Klan-ridden regime". The State Senate concluded that Talmadge violated a state law requiring that fertilizer fees collected by the agriculture department be deposited in the state treasury. He was criticized for paying himself and family members more than $40,000 in salaries and expenses, and using department funds to make trips to the Kentucky Derby. Accused of "stealing" $20,000 in order to raise the price of hogs, Talmadge told one group