Wirt Yerger - Revision history

RobSmith at 19:49, November 29, 2025

2025-11-29T19:49:55Z

BHathorn2 at 13:20, July 18, 2024

2024-07-18T13:20:31Z

BHathorn2 at 13:19, July 18, 2024

2024-07-18T13:19:50Z

BHathorn2 at 13:19, July 18, 2024

2024-07-18T13:19:03Z

BHathorn2 at 13:18, July 18, 2024

2024-07-18T13:18:44Z

BHathorn: /* Replacing the Black and Tans */

2021-10-15T21:52:01Z

Replacing the Black and Tans

BHathorn: /* Vacating the chairmanship */

2021-10-15T21:12:34Z

Vacating the chairmanship

BHathorn: /* Vacating the chairmanship */

2021-10-15T20:44:03Z

Vacating the chairmanship

BHathorn: /* The 1967 campaign */

2021-10-15T20:43:16Z

The 1967 campaign

LT: /* Replacing the Black and Tans */

2021-10-15T01:10:24Z

Replacing the Black and Tans

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 '''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (March 18, 1930 &ndash; May 2, 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> was a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
-Yerger's efforts which re-established a strong Mississippi GOP was bolstered by economic mobility, which businessmen and entrepreneurs symbolized. Contrary to the left-wing "[[Southern strategy]]" narrative which alleges that white Southerners became Republicans on the basis of race, the slow trend towards the GOP was largely attributed to economic improvements.
+Yerger's efforts which re-established a strong Mississippi GOP was bolstered by economic mobility, which businessmen and entrepreneurs symbolized. Contrary to the left-wing "[[Southern strategy]]" [[narrative]] which alleges that white Southerners became Republicans on the basis of race, the slow trend towards the GOP was largely attributed to economic improvements.
 ==Background==

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 | term_start=1956
 | term_end=1966
-| preceded=''(first modern chairman)
+| preceded=First modern chairman
 | succeeded=Clarke Reed
 | birth_date=June 1, 1930

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 | birth_date=June 1, 1930
 | birth_place=[[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], USA
-| death_date=May 2, 2022 (aged 91)
+| death_date=March 18, 2022 (aged 92)
 | death_place=Jackson, Mississippi<br>
 '''Resting place''':<br>
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 }}
-'''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (June 1, 1930 &ndash; May 2, 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> was a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
+'''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (March 18, 1930 &ndash; May 2, 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> was a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
 Yerger's efforts which re-established a strong Mississippi GOP was bolstered by economic mobility, which businessmen and entrepreneurs symbolized. Contrary to the left-wing "[[Southern strategy]]" narrative which alleges that white Southerners became Republicans on the basis of race, the slow trend towards the GOP was largely attributed to economic improvements.

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 }}
-'''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (June 1, 1930 *ndash; May 2, 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> was a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
+'''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (June 1, 1930 &ndash; May 2, 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> was a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
 Yerger's efforts which re-established a strong Mississippi GOP was bolstered by economic mobility, which businessmen and entrepreneurs symbolized. Contrary to the left-wing "[[Southern strategy]]" narrative which alleges that white Southerners became Republicans on the basis of race, the slow trend towards the GOP was largely attributed to economic improvements.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 | birth_date=June 1, 1930
 | birth_place=[[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], USA
 | residence=Jackson, Mississippi
 | occupation=[[Insurance]] agent
@@ Line 16: / Line 20: @@
 }}
-'''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (born June 1, 1930)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> is a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
+'''Wirt Adams Yerger, Jr.''' (June 1, 1930 *ndash; May 2, 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mylife.com/wirt-yerger/e306067311948|title=Wirt Yerger|publisher=Mylife.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> was a retired [[business]]man from the capital city of [[Jackson]], [[Mississippi]], who is the founding 20th century state chairman of the [[Republican Party]], a position that he filled for the decade from 1956 to 1966.
 Yerger's efforts which re-established a strong Mississippi GOP was bolstered by economic mobility, which businessmen and entrepreneurs symbolized. Contrary to the left-wing "[[Southern strategy]]" narrative which alleges that white Southerners became Republicans on the basis of race, the slow trend towards the GOP was largely attributed to economic improvements.
 ==Background==
-Yerger is a son of Wirt Yerger, Sr. (1901–1974) and Rivers Applewhite Yerger (1904–1991), the latter of which is a native of Columbia in Marion County in southwestern Mississippi. The couple is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, along with other family members.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=111699935|title=Rivers Applewhite Yerger|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref>
+Yerger was a son of Wirt Yerger, Sr. (1901–1974) and Rivers Applewhite Yerger (1904–1991), the latter of which is a native of Columbia in Marion County in southwestern Mississippi. The couple is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, along with other family members.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=111699935|title=Rivers Applewhite Yerger|publisher=findagrave.com|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref>
 Yerger's younger brother, William Swan Yerger (born 1932), is a retired Hinds County circuit court [[judge]] who served from 1997 to 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mslitigationreview.com/2009/06/articles/hinds-county-circuit-court-2/hinds-circuit-judge-swan-yerger-announces-retirement-in-2010/|author=Philip Thomas|title=Hinds Circuit Judge Swan Yerger announces retirement in 2010|date=June 1, 2009|publisher=''Mississippi Litigation Review''|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> Swan Yerger, as he is known, ran unsuccessfully as a Republican nominee at the age of thirty-one for the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1963 against [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] William I. S. "Billy" Thompson, the son of Jackson Mayor Allen Cavett Thompson (1906–1980). At the time, Swan Yerger was a staunch critic of unpledged electors, which had carried Mississippi and half of [[Alabama]] in the 1960 presidential election.<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo: Rubel Lex Phillips and the Mississippi Republican Party (1963-1967)," ''The Journal of Mississippi History'' XLVII, November 1985, No. 4, p. 254.</ref>

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 ===Replacing the Black and Tans===
 [[File:Perry Wilbon Howard, II.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Mississippi Republican delegations were previously led by [[Perry Howard, II]] (pictured above).]]
-Yerger's conservatives, who stressed [[states' rights]], replaced the former Black and Tan contingent, which had governed the state party from [[Washington, D.C.]], with the [[African-American]] [[attorney]] [[Perry W. Howard, II]] (1877–1961) as the national committeeman and the past dispenser of the limited federal patronage in the state.<ref name=jacksonfp>{{cite web|url=http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2009/may/12/yergers-revisionist-lily-white-history/|author=Ronni Mott|title=Yerger's Revisionist ‘Lily White' History|date=May 12, 2009|publisher=''The Jackson Free Press''|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> At the  [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Chicago]] in 1952, Howard led an all-black delegation pledged not to Eisenhower, but [[U.S. Senator]] [[Robert A. Taft]] of [[Ohio]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mises.org/daily/2755|author=Murray N. Rothbard|title=Swan Song of the Old Right|publisher=mises.org|date=June 21, 2011|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> a favorite of the conservative forces and known for his opposition to segregation. Taft said, "No segregationist belongs on a Republican ticket or even in the party."<ref name="ReferenceA">"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 248.</ref>
+Yerger's conservatives, who stressed [[states' rights]], replaced the former Black and Tan contingent, which had governed the state party from [[Washington, D.C.]], with the [[African-American]] [[attorney]] [[Perry W. Howard, II]] (1877–1961) as the national committeeman and the past dispenser of the limited federal patronage in the state.<ref name=jacksonfp>{{cite web|url=http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2009/may/12/yergers-revisionist-lily-white-history/|author=Ronni Mott|title=Yerger's Revisionist ‘Lily White' History|date=May 12, 2009|publisher=''The Jackson Free Press''|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> At the  [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Chicago]] in 1952, Howard led an all-black delegation pledged not to Eisenhower, but [[U.S. Senator]] [[Robert A. Taft]] of [[Ohio]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mises.org/daily/2755|author=Murray N. Rothbard|title=Swan Song of the Old Right|publisher=mises.org|date=June 21, 2011|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref> a favorite of the conservative forces and known for his opposition to segregation.<ref name="ReferenceA">"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 248.</ref>
 In addition to the Yerger and Howard factions, there were two other smaller groups contending for intra-party power, the Lily-White Movement, led by George Lawson Sheldon (1870–1960), a former [[governor]] of [[Nebraska]], who had run for governor of Mississippi in 1947 and polled only 2.5 percent of the vote, and the "Democrats for Eisenhower" under E. O. Spencer. Some media had incorrectly identified Yerger as the head of the Lily Whites who had ousted the Black and Tans.<ref name=madison>{{cite web|url=http://onlinemadison.com/m/Articles.aspx?ArticleID=23246|title=Yerger recounts history of state GOP in new book|publisher=onlinemadison.com|date=January 21, 2011|accessdate=June 30, 2020}}</ref>

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 ===Vacating the chairmanship===
-Yerger stepped down as chairman with plans to challenge Democratic U.S. Senator [[James Eastland]] in the 1966 general election. In the Phillips-Johnson race, Yerger had accused Eastland of missing twenty-five of fifty-one roll call votes while Eastland was in Mississippi campaigning in 1963 for Paul Burney Johnson, Jr. (1916–1985), the Democrat running against Phillips. Eastland said that his support of Johnson was essential to protect "white rule" in Mississippi. Democratic Chairman [[Bidwell Adam]] said that Eastland had a "patriotic duty" to support the state's Democratic nominees.<ref name=eastland>"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 256.</ref> However, Prentiss Walker (1917–1998), the freshman Republican [[U.S. Representative]] from Mize, who was elected in the Goldwater sweep of Mississippi, instead ran against Eastland. Walker was the first Mississippi Republican since [[Reconstruction]] to win a U.S. House seat. Yerger therefore did not pursue an elected office but later said that Walker's relinquishing of his House seat to pursue a senatorial candidacy was "very devastating" to the Mississippi GOP because the seat returned to the Democrats and was held for decades by Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery (1920–2006) of Meridian, who carried bipartisan support. Walker polled barely a quarter of the vote against Eastland.<ref name=eastland/>
+Yerger stepped down as chairman with plans to challenge Democratic U.S. Senator [[James Eastland]] in the 1966 general election. In the Phillips-Johnson race, Yerger had accused Eastland of missing twenty-five of fifty-one roll call votes while Eastland was in Mississippi campaigning in 1963 for Paul Burney Johnson, Jr. (1916–1985), the Democrat running against Phillips. Eastland said that his support of Johnson was essential to protect "white rule" in Mississippi. Democratic Chairman [[Bidwell Adam]] said that Eastland had a "patriotic duty" to support the state's Democratic nominees.<ref name=eastland>"Challenging the Status Quo," p. 256.</ref> However, [[Prentiss Walker]], the freshman Republican [[U.S. Representative]] from Mize, who was elected in the Goldwater sweep of Mississippi, instead ran against Eastland. Walker was the first Mississippi Republican since [[Reconstruction]] to win a U.S. House seat. Yerger therefore did not pursue an elected office but later said that Walker's relinquishing of his House seat to pursue a senatorial candidacy was "very devastating" to the Mississippi GOP because the seat returned to the Democrats and was held for decades by Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery (1920–2006) of Meridian, who carried bipartisan support. Walker polled barely a quarter of the vote against Eastland.<ref name=eastland/>
 Yerger was succeeded as chairman by Clarke Reed, a businessman from Greenville in Washington County, who also served ten years in the post.

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 ===The 1967 campaign===
-In 1967, Phillips mounted his second unsuccessful race for governor, this time against [[U.S. Representative]] [[John Bell Williams]] (1918–1983) of Mississippi's 3rd congressional district, who had supported Goldwater in 1964 and was stripped in 1965 of House seniority for doing so. Sensing that he could not run to the "right" of Williams, as he had tried to do with Johnson in 1963, Phillips shed his former segregationiost image and adopted a more moderate stance similar to that employed unsuccessfully by Williams' Democratic runoff rival, state Treasurer and subsequent Governor William Forrest Winter (born 1923).
+In 1967, Phillips mounted his second unsuccessful race for governor, this time against [[U.S. Representative]] [[John Bell Williams]] of Mississippi's 3rd congressional district, who had supported Goldwater in 1964 and was stripped in 1965 of House seniority for doing so. Sensing that he could not run to the "right" of Williams, as he had tried to do with Johnson in 1963, Phillips shed his former segregationiost image and adopted a more moderate stance similar to that employed unsuccessfully by Williams' Democratic runoff rival, state Treasurer and subsequent Governor William Forrest Winter (born 1923).
 ==Later years==