Browse Items (13 total)

Vladimir Orlando Key’s (1908-1963) Southern Politics in State and Nation is a microscopic examination, state by state, of southern politics using interviews and statistics. The book is considered one of the most influential books on the subject.…

The Nashville Tennessean editor John Seigenthaler (1927-2014) and reporters Frank Sutherland (1945- ) and Wendell “Sonny” Rawls (1941- ) stand in the reporter’s bullpen of the newspaper. Journalism in the 20th century went through tremendous changes…

A Memo from John Seigenthaler to Ben Cantrell and William Farmer about Jimmy Hoffa. 54 pages in all.

James R. Sasser (1936- ) served three terms as a United States Senator from Tennessee (1977-1995) and was the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. From 1996 to 1999 he served as the United States Ambassador to China. In this political cartoon by…

In his bid for a fourth term in the Senate, Democrat James R. Sasser (1936- ) ran for re-election in 1994 against the Republican candidate Bill Frist (1952- ). In one of the largest upsets in the November 1994 general elections, Frist defeated…

Lamar Alexander( 1940- ) ran for governor of the state of Tennessee three times; in 1974 he lost to Ray Blanton, in 1978 he handily beat Jake Butcher, and in 1982 he defeated Randy Tyree by a wide margin. By the time of his 1982 campaign, Alexander…

Lamar Alexander won the 1978 Tennessee gubernatorial election over incumbent Ray Blanton by a wide margin. This button was part of Alexander’s re-election bid in 1982. Referencing his trademark red and black plaid shirt and his walk across the…

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) was a congressman from Massachusetts and the thirty-fifth President of the United States. He was assassinated during a November 22, 1963, visit to Dallas, Texas. The 1954 letter from then Senator Kennedy, the 1967…

Corruption at the highest level of state office forced Governor-elect Lamar Alexander to make a difficult decision—to take office early and risk the appearance of a coup, leading to four years of struggle with a democratic house. If he did not act,…

John Egerton (1935-2013) was an author and journalist known for his insightful writings on the Civil Rights Movement and southern culture. Generations: An American Family, written after extensive interviews with members of the Ledford family of…