Theodore Gilmore Bilbo (October 13, 1877 – August 21, 1947) was an American politician who twice served as governor of Mississippi (1916–1920, 1928–1932) and later was elected a U.S. Senator (1935–1947). A lifelong Democrat, he was a filibusterer whose name was synonymous with white supremacy – like many Southern Democrats of his era, Bilbo believed that black people were inferior; he defended segregation, and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the United States' most notable white supremacist terrorist organization. He also published a pro-segregation work, Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization.
Bilbo was educated in rural Hancock County (later Pearl River County). He attended Peabody Normal College in Nashville, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt University Law School. After teaching school, he attained admission to the bar in 1906 and practiced in Poplarville. He then served in the Mississippi State Senate for four years, from 1908 to 1912.
Bilbo overcame accusations of accepting bribes and won an election for lieutenant governor, a position that he held from 1912 to 1916. In 1915, he was elected governor and served from 1916 to 1920. During this term, he earned accolades for enacting Progressive measures such as compulsory school attendance and increased spending on public works projects. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 1920.
Bilbo won the election to the governorship again in 1927, and he served from 1928 to 1932. During this term, Bilbo caused controversy by attempting to move the University of Mississippi from Oxford to Jackson. In another controversy, he aided Democratic nominee Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election by spreading the story that Republican nominee Herbert Hoover had socialized with a black woman; Mississippi voters, considering whether to maintain their allegiance to the Democratic Party in light of Smith's Catholicism and support for the repeal of Prohibition, largely remained with Smith after Bilbo's appeal to racism.
In 1930, under Governor Bilbo, Mississippi introduced a sales tax—the first American state to do so. In 1934, Bilbo won election to a seat in the United States Senate. In the Senate, Bilbo maintained his support for segregation and white supremacy; he was also attracted to the ideas of the black separatist movement, considering it a potentially viable method of maintaining segregation. He proposed resettling the 12 million American blacks in Africa. In his second term, he made anti-black racism a major theme. Regarding economic policy, he moved away from support for the New Deal and increasingly joined the Conservative Coalition. Opposing Roosevelt, he became isolationist in foreign policy and opposed labor unions. He was the leader in fighting FDR's Fair Employment Practice Committee and helped kill the nomination of New Dealer Aubrey Willis Williams, a liberal Southerner, to head the Rural Electrification Administration. Although reelected to a third term in 1946, liberals led by Glen H. Taylor blocked his seating based on denying the vote to blacks and accepting bribes. By the time he died (without taking his seat), the national media had made him the symbol of racism.<ref>Charles Pope Smith, Theodore G. Bilbo's Senatorial Career. The Final Years: 1941–1947" (PhD dissertation, The University of Southern Mississippi, 1983), p. 249.</ref>
Bilbo died in a New Orleans hospital while undergoing cancer treatment and was buried at Juniper Grove Cemetery in Poplarville. Bilbo was of short stature (), frequently wore bright, flashy clothing to draw attention to himself, and was nicknamed "The Man" because he tended to refer to himself in the third person.
Education and family background
On October 13, 1877, Bilbo was born in the small town of Juniper Grove in Hancock (later Pearl River) County. His parents, Obedience "Beedy" (née Wallis or Wallace) and James Oliver Bilbo, were of Scotch-Irish descent; James was a farmer and veteran of the Confederate States Army who rose from poverty during Theodore Bilbo's early years to become Vice President of the Poplarville National Bank. Theodore Bilbo obtained a scholarship to attend Peabody Normal College in Nashville, Tennessee, and later attended Vanderbilt University Law School, but did not graduate from either. He also taught school and worked at a drug store during his legal studies. During his teaching career, Bilbo was accused of being overly familiar with a female student. He was admitted to the bar in Tennessee in 1906, and began a law practice in Poplarville, Mississippi, the following year.