Olin Dewitt Talmadge Johnston

Johnston, Olin Dewitt Talmadge (Nov. 18, 1896 - Apr. 18, 1965), governor and U.S. senator, was born near Honea Path, S.C., the son of Edward Andrew Johnston and Leila Webb, tenant farmers and textile workers. He attended Barker's Creek public school and, at age eleven, began work in a textile mill. After attending high school irregularly, in 1914 he entered the Textile Industrial Institute in nearby Spartanburg, receiving a high school equivalency diploma with honors in 1915. He then entered Wofford College. When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, he joined the army and became a sergeant in the 117th Engineer Regiment of the Forty-Second Division--later named "the Rainbow Division"--commanded by General Douglas MacArthur. This unit saw much combat action in France in 1918. In June 1919, Johnston was discharged with a regimental citation for bravery under fire. He returned to Wofford, from which he graduated with the B.A. in 1921.

Johnston then entered the University of South Carolina, financing his schooling by operating a boardinghouse and a suit-pressing service. He received the M.A. in rural economics in 1923 and the LL.B. in 1924. He then opened an office in Spartanburg. On Dec. 28, 1924, he married Gladys Elizabeth Atkinson; they had three children.

Johnston's desire for a political career had been kindled by a term in the South Carolina House of Representatives while in law school (1923-1924), as the representative of Anderson County. In 1927 he was elected to the same body as representative from more populous Spartanburg County. He served until 1930, building on his experience in textile mills and his friendships with workers to develop a labor following that became the core of his political organization. While in the legislature he constantly championed bills to improve working conditions. As his legal business grew, he opened a law office in Columbia, S.C., where he handled cases for workers.

Johnston strongly opposed the issuance of state bonds to finance the highway program then being pushed by the representatives from the larger cities and by the state highway commission. His rural constituents saw no benefit from such roads. In 1930 he entered the Democratic primary as a gubernatorial candidate but lost by about 1,000 votes.

Johnston blamed his defeat on the Highway Commission. In 1934 he won the gubernatorial primary by a wide majority (which was tantamount to election in one-party South Carolina). After taking office he interpreted his victory as a mandate to declare war on the Commission. Johnston proclaimed the operation of the state highway system to be in a "state of insurrection," and surrounded the capitol with guards armed with machine guns. But the South Carolina Supreme Court and the legislature failed to back him, and Johnston had to withdraw his proclamation.

Unable to succeed himself as governor, Johnston waited four years, ran again in 1942, and won. While governor he supported virtually all of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. At the state level he achieved tax-exemption for small homes and farms, a seven-month state-financed school term, a forty-hour workweek for textile workers, and other class legislation.

During Johnston's second term the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of blacks to vote in primaries (Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 [1944]). He thereupon called a special session of the legislature to repeal all legislation relating to primary elections. Despite Johnston's and the legislature's efforts to make the Democratic party a segregated political club, the Supreme Court prevented them from doing so.

In 1938 Johnston ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Ellison D. ("Cotton Ed") Smith. He lost, but in 1944 he defeated Smith. In the Senate, Johnston continued to support labor legislation, such as increases in the minimum wage, and to oppose civil rights legislation, such as the Fair Employment Practices Commission and the bill outlawing the poll tax. He objected to President Harry Truman's civil rights stand and opposed Truman as party leader. Yet in 1948 he refused to join the Dixiecrat party, headed by South Carolina Governor J. Strom Thurmond.

In the 1950 Senate race Johnston defeated Thurmond largely because he convinced the voters that he could serve their interests better as a Democrat than as a Dixiecrat. In that term and two following ones he epitomized the ambivalent position that moderate or progressive southern legislators were forced to assume in order to continue in office. On the one hand he professed extreme racist and segregationist positions and opposed all legislation that might lead to legal or social equality for blacks. On the other hand he supported legislation designed to benefit the poor, the laborers, and the small business people. Thus Johnston voted for federal aid to education, food price subsidies, and a department of public welfare. He generally opposed foreign aid programs, including the Marshall Plan (1947), on the ground of economy. He early joined the extremists of the right in their anti-Communist crusade, and on one occasion advocated atomic war on Russia.

Johnston won election for the fourth time in 1962 over Governor Ernest F. Hollings, carrying all but one of the state's forty-six counties. He died in Columbia, S.C.