[2] He began his career as a staunch segregationist known for his opposition to civil rights, including supporting legislation that would have closed public schools to prevent desegregation.

[6][7] Talmadge, who first became governor at age 33, supported a new statewide sales tax during his second term to fund the construction of new schools and expanded state services.

[8] In so doing, the younger governor Talmadge departed from his father's stingy, low-tax and low-spending philosophy while remaining steadfastly opposed to racial desegregation and political equality for Black Americans.

He left the governor's office as an incredibly popular executive whose administration earned praise from the traditionally liberal outlets such as the Atlanta Constitution and even Harper's Magazine.

[2] The investigation, as well as Georgia's changing demographics, helped Republican Mack Mattingly defeat Talmadge for re-election in 1980.

Herman Talmadge was born on August 9, 1913, on a farm near the small town of McRae in Telfair County in southeastern Georgia.

[14] In the fall of 1931, he entered the University of Georgia for his undergraduate degree and was a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society and Sigma Nu fraternity.

He served as flag secretary to the commandant of naval forces in New Zealand from June 1943 to April 1944 and then as executive officer of the USS Dauphin.

While continuing to practice law and to farm, he took over publishing his father's weekly newspaper, The Statesman, and started a ham-curing business.

They studied the state constitution and found that if the governor-elect died before his term began, the Georgia General Assembly would choose between the second and third-place finishers.

As part of Talmadge's 1956 Senate campaign,[18] he published the infamous segregationist pamphlet You and Segregation,[19] arguing that desegregation was a communist plot, that the use of federal power to ban segregation was unconstitutional, and that, in the now-infamous phrase, the United States was a "Republic not a Democracy", since democracy was communist.

Most Black people in Georgia were still disenfranchised under state laws passed by white Democrats and discriminatory practices they had conducted since the turn of the 20th century.

After President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Talmadge, along with more than a dozen other southern senators, boycotted the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

As a junior member of the Agriculture Committee, he worked to address the nation's farmers' changing needs in an evolving global economy.

After noting that only a third of American children living in families making less than $2000 a year were able to participate in the program, Talmadge said: "We must use food as a tool of education.

Major goals of Talmadge's new proposal were to provide funding for equipment; increase the required level of support from states; allow the "lunch to follow the child", letting students from low-income families that lived in higher-income areas remain eligible for the program; establish the National Advisory Council on Child Nutrition; and give needy children special assistance.

[23] Talmadge's elevation to Agriculture Committee Chairman came at a time when many analysts were forecasting that the world's need for food would soon outstrip its productive capacity.

The four-year period established a cycle that ensured the next three farm bills appeared on the congressional agenda after presidential elections, thereby preventing them from becoming entangled in election-year politics.

Talmadge ran a disciplined office, requiring his staff to respond to every constituent letter within 24 hours of receipt.

[33] Though Talmadge won the primary runoff against Miller, his ethical conduct was a significant issue and he was defeated by the Republican nominee, former state GOP chairman Mack Mattingly.

[33] In 1977, following a long period of personal troubles, including self-admitted alcoholism, which spiraled out of control after his son, Bobby, drowned in 1975, Talmadge filed for divorce from his wife, Betty.