A biography entitled Ernest Vandiver, Governor of Georgia written by Abraham Baldwin College professor Dr. Hal Henderson is now available in bookstores. Henderson, who retired this past spring, was a professor of political science at ABAC for 30 years.
"I enjoyed researching and writing this biography because Vandiver played such a pivotal role in the creation of modern Georgia," Henderson said.
S. Ernest Vandiver, Jr. served as governor from 1959-63. During his administration, the state faced its most serious challenge to maintaining racially segregated public schools when a federal judge ordered the admission of two black students to the University of Georgia. The state legislature had earlier passed legislation that mandated the closing of public schools before permitting their desegregation.
While campaigning for the governorship in 1958, Vandiver had promised that the state's schools would never be desegregated while he was governor. He concluded, however, that the state's schools must remain open for the well being of young people and the economic future of the state and prevailed upon the legislature to repeal the anti-desegregation laws. In doing so, Vandiver led Georgia's efforts to peacefully desegregate its public schools and to avoid the intervention of federal troops to carry out desegregation mandates by federal judges.
Vandiver began his political career as a supporter of two of the state's best-known segregationist politicians: Eugene and Herman Talmadge. He served as an aide, campaign manager, and adjutant general in the Herman Talmadge administration. Later Vandiver held the office of lieutenant governor. In his 1958 gubernatorial campaign, Vandiver also pledged to clean up state government. He succeeded in reforming state government and expanding state services without raising taxes.
Vandiver also led efforts to improve the treatment of mental illness at Milledgeville State Hospital. Barred by the state constitution from seeking reelection in 1962, Vandiver ran again for the governorship four years later and was considered the leading candidate until health problems forced him to withdraw from the race. His last political campaign, this time for a seat in the U.S. Senate, was not successful. Today, Vandiver is retired and lives in Lavonia with his wife Betty.
Henderson has had a long interest in Georgia politics, writing his master's thesis on the state's 1946 gubernatorial election and his doctoral dissertation on the state's 1966 gubernatorial election. Henderson and Dr. Gary L. Roberts, retired professor of political science at ABAC, co-edited Georgia Governors in an Age of Change: From Ellis Arnall to George Busbee. In that publication, Henderson wrote essays on former governors Ellis Arnall and M.E. Thompson. He has also written Georgia and the Politics of Change: A Political Biography of Ellis Arnall.
In writing the book, Henderson interviewed Vandiver and over 30 of his contemporaries, including Carl Sanders, Herman Talmadge, George T. Smith, Peter Zack Geer, Jr., and Griffin B. Bell. Henderson was the first author to use the Ernest Vandiver Papers at UGA.
Henderson's book, which was published by the University of Georgia Press, was praised by Lock K. Johnson, Regents Professor of Political Science at UGA, as a "thoroughly researched, lucidly written, and indeed fascinating biography."
The book is now available in the ABAC Bookstore for $35.
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