"[1] Aligning with economically left-wing populists and favoring progressive reforms in railing against banks, railroads, and tariffs,[2] he appealed to the poorer whites, yeomen farmers, and factory workers.

Vardaman's tenure as Governor of Mississippi was marked by his advocacy of regulating corporations, enacting child labor laws, segregating streetcars, ending educational opportunities for African Americans, and defending lynching.

[5] Vardaman was born in July 1861 in Jackson County, Texas, while it was under the control of the Confederate States of America, a fact he often remembered.

The state was virtually one-party, and winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to victory in the general election for any office.

"[16] In late December 1906, he went to Scooba, in rural Kemper County, with the Mississippi National Guard, to ensure that control was established.

[19] By 1910, his political coalition of chiefly poor white farmers and industrial workers began to identify proudly as "rednecks."

[20] Vardaman advocated a policy of state-sponsored racism against blacks and said that he supported lynching to maintain white supremacy.

[32] While serving as senator in Congress, Vardaman supported at the national level many reforms he advocated in Mississippi including higher tax surcharges on high incomes, government ownership of coal mines, shipping companies, telephone lines and railroads, and also long-term credit for farmers.

"[35] "The knowledge of books does not seem to produce any good substantial result with the Negro, but serves to sharpen his cunning, breeds hopes that cannot be fulfilled, creates an inclination to avoid labor, promotes indolence, and in turn leads to crime.

"[36]: 105 After the president of Tuskegee University, Booker T. Washington, had dined with Roosevelt, Vardaman said that the White House was "so saturated with the odor of the nigger that the rats have taken refuge in the stable.

"[37] Regarding Washington's role in politics, Vardaman said: "I am opposed to the nigger's voting, it matters not what his advertised moral and mental qualifications may be.