Changes

==Political life==

==Political life==

===Winning the chairmanship by one vote===​

====Winning the chairmanship by one vote==

Yerger led a younger and more vigorous group of [[conservative]] entrepreneurs, [[business]]people, and [[attorney]]s, some having previously been part of the Young Republicans organization, and most the product of increasing urbanization of a still predominantly [[rural]]-oriented state. At the age of twenty-six, he was named in his native Jackson as the party's first chairman by the margin of his one vote, his own. Yerger's faction defeated a motion to include [[segregation]] in the first party platform,<ref name=madison/> but many of the early Mississippi Republicans, like their Democratic counterparts,  were segregationists. In 1957 and 1958, Yerger was placed on the defensive in Mississippi following the desegregation of Central High School in [[Little Rock]], [[Arkansas]]. Years later, Yerger said that he and his wife were harassed by segregationists, the kind of treatment also received by [[civil rights]] activists, because he was viewed as a threat to "white rule" as the chairman of the party of the president, [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], who intervened in Little Rock. In 1960, the Mississippi GOP declared segregation a "local matter that could best be handled by individual states" and attempted to focus on other matters, such as [[reapportionment]] of legislative bodies and local-option liquor elections to replace statewide [[prohibition]], which ended in Mississippi in 1966.<ref>"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 241.</ref>​

 

A Yerger led a younger and more vigorous group of [[conservative]] entrepreneurs, [[business]]people, and [[attorney]]s, some having previously been part of the Young Republicans organization, and most the product of increasing urbanization of a still predominantly [[rural]]-oriented state. At the age of twenty-six, he was named in his native Jackson as the party's first chairman by the margin of his one vote, his own. Yerger's faction defeated a motion to include [[segregation]] in the first party platform,<ref name=madison/> but many of the early Mississippi Republicans, like their Democratic counterparts,  were segregationists. In 1957 and 1958, Yerger was placed on the defensive in Mississippi following the desegregation of Central High School in [[Little Rock]], [[Arkansas]]. Years later, Yerger said that he and his wife were harassed by segregationists, the kind of treatment also received by [[civil rights]] activists, because he was viewed as a threat to "white rule" as the chairman of the party of the president, [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], who intervened in Little Rock. In 1960, the Mississippi GOP declared segregation a "local matter that could best be handled by individual states" and attempted to focus on other matters, such as [[reapportionment]] of legislative bodies and local-option liquor elections to replace statewide [[prohibition]], which ended in Mississippi in 1966.<ref>"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 241.</ref>​

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===Replacing the Black and Tans===

===Replacing the Black and Tans===

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Yerger built his state party from scratch. He gained recognition for his chairmanship from the Eisenhower administration and thereafter supported the presidential candidacies of [[Richard M. Nixon]] and [[Barry Goldwater]]. In April 1961, the first Republican in Mississippi during the Yerger chairmanship elected to a local office, '''Joe O. Sams, Jr.''', of Columbus became the county attorney of Lowndes County.<ref>"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 242.</ref>​

Yerger built his state party from scratch. He gained recognition for his chairmanship from the Eisenhower administration and thereafter supported the presidential candidacies of [[Richard M. Nixon]] and [[Barry Goldwater]]. In April 1961, the first Republican in Mississippi during the Yerger chairmanship elected to a local office, '''Joe O. Sams, Jr.''', of Columbus became the county attorney of Lowndes County.<ref>"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 242.</ref>​

 

===The 1963 campaign===​

===The 1963 campaign===​

In 1963, the Mississippi Republican Party offered candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, [[Rubel Phillips]], a former Democratic member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, and state Senator [[Stanford Morse]] of Harrison County, who challenged Carroll Gartin (1913-1966). Neither Phillips nor Morse reached 40 percent of the vote in the [[general election]], but they paved the way for later Republican candidates who in time won the majority of statewide offices in Mississippi.<ref>"Challenging the Status Quo," pp. 242-243.</ref>​

In 1963, the Mississippi Republican Party offered candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, [[Rubel Phillips]], a former Democratic member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, and state Senator [[Stanford Morse]] of Harrison County, who challenged Carroll Gartin (1913-1966). Neither Phillips nor Morse reached 40 percent of the vote in the [[general election]], but they paved the way for later Republican candidates who in time won the majority of statewide offices in Mississippi.<ref>"Challenging the Status Quo," pp. 242-243.</ref>​

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