KEFAUVER, ESTES 1903-1963

DEMOCRATIC VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, 1956

Reputation as a Grassroots Campaigner and Antimob Crusader

As a candidate for the 1952 and 1956 Democratic presidential nominations, Estes Kefauver employed a grassroots style of campaigning that won the hearts of many who had grown tired of party-machine politics. The senator from Tennessee had won a national reputation as a political crusader in 1950-1951, when he headed up a Senate investigative committee on organized crime. In 1939 Kefauver easily won a House seat.

An Independent Thinker

Despite having been sent to Washington with the help of Tennessee's Democratic party machine, Kefauver soon established his independence as a political thinker. His voting pattern on issues of civil rights often ran counter to that of his southern colleagues. In 1942 he voted for anti-poll tax legislation (the poll tax being one method used by racist whites to keep poor blacks away from the voting booth), and in so doing he provoked the ire of Mississippi's fiery prosegregationist legislator, John Rankin, who pointed a finger at the Tennessean and shouted, "Shame on you, Estes Kefauver." Rankin's famous line would be used many times again on the House and Senate floors and in party conventions to denounce the man who was quickly gaining a reputation as a liberal southern Democrat.

The "Coonskin Crusade."

Kefauver ran for the Senate in 1948 in what would prove to be one of the most exciting campaigns in Tennessee history. His candidacy was bitterly opposed by state party bosses, who used red-baiting tactics throughout the campaign to assail his voting record and label him "pink." Kefauver sought to emphasize his political independence, and he began traveling the state with a live raccoon to symbolize his connection with pre-party-machine frontier politics. The live raccoon was later replaced by a coonskin cap. The campaign gimmick was a stunning success and created something of a fad. He would address thousands of coonskin-cap-wearing supporters. Kefauver won a close election, and in so doing he dealt a crushing blow to the state party bosses.

The Kefauver Committee

Kefauver had become interested in the growth of organized crime when he served as the chairman of a House subcommittee charged with investigating a corrupt federal judge; and in January 1950 he introduced a resolution on the Senate floor calling for an investigation of organized crime. A Senate committee, with Kefauver as its chairman, was soon formed. Popularly known as the Kefauver committee, the special body was given three responsibilities: (1) determine whether organized crime used interstate-commerce facilities to circumvent federal law; (2) investigate the "manner and extent" of such criminal operations; and (3) determine whether these corrupting influences were spreading. The committee's hearings were held in fourteen major U.S. cities and held the American public spellbound. The hearings in New York were televised, and many Americans sat glued to their television sets as the committee members grilled known hoodlums such as Frank Costello. Costello's testimony provided fascinating television imagery; to protect his identity, the gangster asked that his face not be shown, and instead the camera focused on his hands, which he increasingly wrung as the questions got tougher. The crime hearings also implicated many urban Democratic political bosses—an exposure of the dirtier side of politics that the bosses never forgot and for which Kefauver would later pay at the Democratic conventions.

Convention Losses

Kefauver went to both the 1952 and 1956 Democratic conventions with large numbers of delegates from states mostly outside of the South. His maverick style as a campaigner and a legislator, however, alienated him from too many in the party. Fellow southerners were by and large opposed to his candidacy due to his liberal-to-moderate stance on issues such as civil rights. Northern urban political bosses—who controlled the labor vote—had their score to settle with the Tennessean and worked hard to block his candidacy. In 1952 he was beaten out by Adlai Stevenson for the presidential nomination. In 1956 Stevenson's organizational strength forced Kefauver to relinquish his campaign during the primaries. At the convention, however, Kefauver managed to win a vice-presidential spot on the Stevenson ticket. Kefauver proved to be a tireless campaigner as Stevenson's running mate. Yet the incumbent team of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon was too strong and too popular for the Democrats. Kefauver returned to the Senate, where he continued to attract national attention for his refusal to join the Dixiecrats' anti-civil-rights voting bloc.