American History TeacherS Collaborative

Mayor Crump Don’t Like It

Edward H. Crump’s Rise to The Top of Memphis Politics

Andrew Peralta

4/6/2010

Within the course of Wayne Dowdy’s work, Mayor Crump Don’t Like It, the author speaks on how in the early part of the twentieth century, thousands of African Americans left their long-standing loyalty to the Republican Party and the party of Lincoln and began voting for alternate candidates. This realignment of voters within the Mid-South helped to change leadership in national politics and modify forever the relationships between citizens and government.

Dowdy claims that one of the builders of this modern Democratic Party was Memphis mayor and congressman Edward Hull Crump (1874-1954). Crump created a multiethnic, biracial political machine within the divided South that transformed the river’s largest city into a modern southern metropolis. Mayor Crump pressed for the ability of the city to regulate power, established a publicly owned electric utility, and increased government efficiency. Along with Mayor’s Crump desire for city control of public utilities, he secured a comprehensive flood control system for portions of the lower Mississippi River Valley through the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Crump ran as a reformer in his early campaigns, even though he was never consistent in his support for Progressive reform. As an antiprohibitionist, however, Crump was removed from office in 1915 after pleading guilty to failing to enforce Tennessee's statewide Prohibition law. Even after being removed from office, Crump’s loyal supporters remained on local election boards, commissioner positions, and within the business community. It wasn’t before long that Crump desired to rejoin the political lifestyle. With the support of the black community within the county, he secured control of area government and ultimately, when Watkins Overton was elected mayor in 1927, of the city political mechanism as well. "After twelve years of struggle," Dowdy writes, "Crump had unified Memphis and Shelby County into a coherent political force" (p. 53).

Toward the end of his reign, however, an arrogant Crump surrounded himself with yes-men, and intimidation of the black community prompted A. Philip Randolph to describe the boss as "a symbol of Southern Fascism that is a menace and danger to American democracy and hence must be exterminated" (p. 109). Although "Crump remained a political force to be reckoned with until his death in 1954," Dowdy described him during his last years as "a shell of the remarkable politician he had been in the 1930s" (p. 111).

Edward H. Crump was brought up in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi, and moved to Memphis in 1892. After marrying into an influential business family within the community, he worked hard, became a successful businessman, and began to make the political connections that served him for the rest of his life. With some of these connections, he attended the Tennessee Democratic State Convention in 1902 and 1904 as a delegate. In 1905, he was named to the city’s Board of Public Works, and was appointed Commissioner of Fire and Police in 1907.

Beginning in 1911, Crump embarked on building his coalition which came to have wide spread influence. He was especially skillful in his use of what were two politically meager minority groups in Tennessee: Republicans and African Americans. Unlike most Southern Democrats of his time period, Mayor Crump was not hostile to blacks voting. The African Americans of Memphis were steadfast Crump political machine voters for the most part. Crump also expertly manipulated Republicans, who were very weak in the western half of the state but dominated political affairs in East Tennessee. Frequently, Democrats and minority groups found it necessary to ally themselves with Crump’s machine in order to accomplish even the smallest of their goals.

Due to the fact that Crump preferred to work for the most part behind the scenes of his political machine, he remained influential for fifty years. He served three terms as mayor (1910-1915) at the start of career, but essentially hand picked the mayor of Memphis. His political career in the spotlight hit a snag though when he was removed from office with the use of the “Ouster Law”, a law designed to remove officials who choose not to enforce statutes of the state. Crump, choosing to look the other way on the sale of liquor during prohibition, was forced from office in 1915 and eventually took over as county treasurer of Shelby County from 1917 to 1923.

With his influence expanding throughout Shelby County government, Crump became involved in state politics when he supported Hill McAlister for governor over appointed Governor Horton, after Austin Peay passed away. Crump supported McAlister in the Democratic primary while the Nashville political machine of supported Horton. Gov. Horton eventually won the election, but with McAlister claiming large vote counts in Shelby County and Western Tennessee. After the election, Horton realized the power that Crump had in Tennessee politics and cut a deal with him. This agreement helps to cement Horton’s victory in the November general election.

After years of working beneath the radar, Crump decided to run for U.S. House of Representatives in 1930. He was easily elected to the seat, which was then serving the people of Shelby County. He served two terms, from March 4, 1931 to January 3, 1935. But even with all the pressures of national politics, he could never stay away from his influence in Memphis. Crump made sure to stay in constant communication with his operatives and visit during all Congressional recesses.

The city of Memphis has the marks of Edward Crump to this very day. He was a strong supporter of the fire department and of city utilities. Crump felt that separate leadership and operations for each of the different utilities was a waste of taxpayer’s resources. Mayor Crump also believed that a modern city should be cognizant of the noise within the city. He stepped in to institute noise ordinances within the city and these laws were aggressively endorsed. Along with these contributions, he helped to bring about automobile safety inspections, the construction of Crump Stadium and Crump Boulevard, and numerous other projects that have sprung up throughout the city.

Dowdy, at times in this examination of Crump’s life, overstates his accomplishments. The author admits that "Memphis had a culture of crime that was hard to uproot," that "[not] even the local correctional institution was tree of vice," and, as a contributor for Collier's magazine explained, that "vice flourished because the people wanted to participate in illegal activities while local politicians received campaign contributions from criminal leaders," Dowdy comes to the conclusions that "Crump's organization remained assiduously honest, and, consequently, inefficiency and corruption failed to take root in the Bluff City" (p. 112). Nevertheless, the strength of this study is the author's examination of the complex relationship between all levels of governments throughout the United States.