Editor’s note: fourth in a series.
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Tennesseans woke up on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1948, to see the Chattanooga Daily Times headline, “It’s A New Day in Tennessee,” and details that “Estes Kefauver was elected to the United States Senate; Gordon Browning was elected Governor of Tennessee and James B. Frazier was chosen to take Mr. Kefauver’s place in Congress in yesterday’s election.”
The excitement did not end there. Indeed, the editorial page announced with apparent glee, “Estes Kefauver and Gordon Browning have unshackled Tennessee after twenty-five years of domination by the E.H. Crump political organization. This is the newest and perhaps the greatest of a series of victories over machine politics.”
(READ MORE: Local History: Kefauver calls out corruption in Tennessee politics)