Arthur L. Gilliom | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 25th Indiana Attorney General | |
| In office January 1, 1925 –January 1, 1929 | |
| Governor | Emmett Forest Branch,Edward L. Jackson |
| Preceded by | U. S. Lesh |
| Succeeded by | James M. Ogden |
Arthur Luther Gilliom (August 2,1886 - February 19,1968) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the twenty-fifth Indiana Attorney General from January 1,1925 to January 1,1929. [1] [2] [3]
Gilliom was born in Hickory County,Missouri to Swiss farmers,Peter and Rachel (née Lehman) Gilliom. He was the tenth of their fourteen children. [1] [4]
After several crop failures,the Gillioms were forced to leave their Missouri home and go live with family in Berne,Indiana,when Arthur was just four years old. Growing up in the town until age twenty-one,Gilliom left home to attend college. From 1907 to 1910,he attended Goshen College. He then transferred to the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor,graduating in 1913 with his LL.B. Soon after graduating,Gilliom was admitted to the Indiana and Michigan bars,and he moved to South Bend to practice law. Gilliom became increasingly involved in politics and worked as a campaign speaker. [1] [4] [5]
In 1922,Gilliom was the Republican nominee in the local justice of the peace election,but he was defeated. Also in 1922,Gilliom tried to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from gaining a permit that would allow them to march through South Bend and helped to protect an official at a local school who was being targeted by the Klan. Gilliom would spend his whole career fighting the KKK,who were increasingly becoming a major force in state politics. [4]
In 1923,Gilliom argued before the Indiana Supreme Court in a case involving the constitutionality of a new law regarding automobile licenses. The case earned Gilliom statewide fame. In 1924,he sought the Republican nomination in the election of the state attorney general. He won the nomination in an upset victory,defeating fellow Republican candidates Wilbur Ryman (a Klansman from Muncie who had the support of both the KKK and the Anti-Saloon League,another very powerful organization in 1920s state politics that allied itself with the Klan) and Edward M. White. Gilliom defeated his Democratic opponent,Harvey Harman,in the general election. Edward J. Lennon,a lawyer from Fort Wayne,served as Deputy Attorney General under Gilliom. [4]
Succeeding Attorney General U. S. Lesh,Gilliom served in the administration of Governor Edward L. Jackson. Gilliom and Jackson were both Republicans,but Jackson was a supporter of the KKK and the Anti-Saloon League,leading to frequent clashes between the two. Early into his term,Gilliom came into conflict with the powerful leader of the Indiana Anti-Saloon League and KKK ally,Edward Shumaker,after Shumaker began spreading libelous information about the Indiana Supreme Court. Gilliom charged Shumaker with contempt of court and he was sentenced to a short prison term. Governor Jackson,an ally of Shumaker's,tried to pardon him,but the Indiana Supreme Court blocked the pardon from taking effect. Gilliom again provoked the ire of the state's temperance movement when he attacked strict state laws restricting the prescription of alcohol for medicinal use. In a 1927 open letter to Governor Jackson,Gilliom revealed to the public that he had illegally procured and gave his sons whiskey on the recommendation of his physician while his sons were suffering from typhoid and pneumonia. Gilliom also revealed in the letter that Governor Jackson had approached him about illegally procuring alcohol for his wife,who was also suffering from pneumonia. Later that year,Gilliom admitted he had illegally procured alcohol again for his ill sister. These sensational reveals caused organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union to again attack Gilliom. Some called for his arrest,but a grand jury refused to indict him. In 1928,Gilliom filed a lawsuit against the KKK with the goal of forcing the Klan out of Indiana altogether. The KKK had already lost much of its power and influence following the widely publicized rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer by Indiana Klan leader D.C. Stephenson. Gilliom was succeeded in 1928 by James M. Ogden. [4]
Gilliom sought the Republican nomination in the 1928 U.S. Senate election in Indiana,but was defeated by the incumbent Arthur Raymond Robinson. [4]
Gilliom returned to practicing law after leaving office and losing the Senate election. He joined the firm of Pickens,Davidson,Gause,and Pickens in Indianapolis. [4]
Gilliom was a Freemason,a Knight of Pythias,and a member of the South Bend Chamber of Commerce. [1]
Gilliom married Nancy B. Kulp of Elkhart in 1912. They had four children;Elbert,Luther,Arthur,and Richard. [1]
Gilliom died in 1968. [2]
The Ku Klux Klan,commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan in recent decades,is an American white supremacist,right-wing terrorist,and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans,Hispanics,Jews,Latinos,Asian Americans,Native Americans,and Catholics,as well as immigrants,leftists,homosexuals,Muslims,atheists,and abortion providers.
Berne is a city within Monroe and Wabash townships,Adams County,Indiana,United States,located 35 miles (56 km) south of Fort Wayne. The population was 4,173 at the 2020 Census. Berne is widely known for its Swiss heritage,architecture and culture,and for its status as the "Furniture Capital of Indiana." In 2021 Berne was rated the "Safest Small City in Indiana." Bloomberg Businessweek rated Berne the 2nd "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in Indiana in 2011.
Madge Augustine Oberholtzer was a white American woman whose rape and murder played a critical role in the demise of the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. In March 1925,while working for the state of Indiana on an adult literacy campaign,Oberholtzer was abducted by D. C. Stephenson,Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan. Holding her captive in his private train car,Stephenson raped and tortured her. Oberholtzer died from a combination of a staphylococcal infection from her injuries and kidney failure from mercury chloride poisoning,which she took while held captive in an attempt to commit suicide.
David Curtis "Steve" Stephenson was an American Ku Klux Klan leader,convicted rapist and murderer. In 1923 he was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and head of Klan recruiting for seven other states. Later that year,he led those groups to independence from the national KKK organization. Amassing wealth and political power in Indiana politics,he was one of the most prominent national Klan leaders. He had close relationships with numerous Indiana politicians,especially Governor Edward L. Jackson.
The 1924 Democratic National Convention,held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 9,1924,was the longest continuously running convention in United States political history. It took a record 103 ballots to nominate a presidential candidate. It was the first major party national convention that saw the name of a woman,Lena Springs,placed in nomination for the vice president. John W. Davis,a dark horse,eventually won the presidential nomination on the 103rd ballot,a compromise candidate following a protracted convention fight between distant front-runners William Gibbs McAdoo and Al Smith.
Edward L. Jackson was an American attorney,judge and politician,elected the 32nd governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from January 12,1925,to January 14,1929. He had also been elected as Secretary of State of Indiana.
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Earle Bradford Mayfield was a Texas lawyer who,from 1907 to 1913,was a Texas State Senator. In 1922,he was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat. He was the first U.S. Senator to be widely considered by the voters to be a member of the revived Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Mayfield quietly accepted KKK support but never said he had joined. He was defeated for reelection in 1928 when his opponent attacked his links to the KKK.
William David Upshaw served eight years in Congress (1919–1927),where he was such a strong proponent of the temperance movement that he became known as the "driest of the drys." In Congress,Upshaw was a staunch defender of the Ku Klux Klan,which was founded in his congressional district,and lost reelection because of major KKK scandals in the mid-1920s. In 1932,he ran for President of the United States on the Prohibition Party ticket,finishing the race in fifth place.
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The Indiana Klan was a branch of the Ku Klux Klan,a secret society in the United States that organized in 1915 to promote ideas of racial superiority and affect public affairs on issues of Prohibition,education,political corruption,and morality. It was strongly white supremacist against African Americans,Chinese Americans,and also Catholics and Jews,whose faiths were commonly associated with Irish,Italian,Balkan,and Slavic immigrants and their descendants. In Indiana,the Klan did not tend to practice overt violence but used intimidation in certain cases,whereas nationally the organization practiced illegal acts against minority ethnic and religious groups.
Benjamin Milton Willoughby was an American lawyer,politician,and judge. He served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 6,1919 to January 7,1931.
Julius Curtis Travis was an American lawyer,politician,sports journalist,businessman,and judge who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 3,1921 to January 3,1933.
Moses Barnett Lairy was an American lawyer,politician,and judge who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 4,1915 to January 3,1921.
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Malcolm Buie Seawell was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party,he served as North Carolina Attorney General from 1958 to 1960. Seawell was raised in Lee County,North Carolina. After law school,he moved to Lumberton and joined a law firm. From 1942 to 1945 he worked for the U.S. Department of War in Washington,D.C. He then returned to Lumberton and successfully ran for the office of mayor in 1947. He held the post until the following year when he was appointed 9th Solicitorial District Solicitor. While working as solicitor Seawell gained state-wide prominence for his aggressive efforts to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan (KKK),and was credited for ultimately pushing the organization out of Robeson County. Governor Luther H. Hodges later made him a judge before appointing him Attorney General of North Carolina in 1958 to fill a vacancy.
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