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Some of the People Who Ate My Barbecue Didn't Vote for Me: The Life of Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin
Marvin Griffin was Georgia's seventy-second governor. Apart from that simple fact, virtually everything else about his career is the subject of controversy. Griffin governed at a point in the late 1950s when the state was undergoing a profound political transition from a rural-dominated, segregationist culture to a more urban landscape. As he attempted to guide Georgia through years of tumultuous change and upheaval throughout the South, Griffin developed a reputation for being inflammatory on racial issues and merciless to his political enemies.
In ""Some of the People Who Ate My Barbecue Didn't Vote for Me,"" Scott Buchanan portrays Marvin Griffin as a Yellow Dog Democrat struggling against inevitable change. Griffin was viewed by many as a charismatic voice of resistance in the Georgia and the South in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. He combined a staunch segregationist approach with economically progressive policies, assisting in Georgia's transformation from an agrarian economy to a more industrialized one.
Ironically, it was these efforts and the larger shift in politics that doomed Griffin's career, ensuring his administration would last only one term. In many ways, Griffin stands as a clear dividing line between the Old South and the New.
In ""Some of the People Who Ate My Barbecue Didn't Vote for Me,"" Scott Buchanan portrays Marvin Griffin as a Yellow Dog Democrat struggling against inevitable change. Griffin was viewed by many as a charismatic voice of resistance in the Georgia and the South in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. He combined a staunch segregationist approach with economically progressive policies, assisting in Georgia's transformation from an agrarian economy to a more industrialized one.
Ironically, it was these efforts and the larger shift in politics that doomed Griffin's career, ensuring his administration would last only one term. In many ways, Griffin stands as a clear dividing line between the Old South and the New.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published May 6, 2011
17 people want to read
About the author
Scott E. Buchanan
7 books1 followerScott Eugene Buchanan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at The Citadel and the Director of The Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 27, 2012
A very good biography. It's a warts and all look at Georgia 72nd Governor and first lieutenant governor. The best part of the book is it provides a look at Griffin's core beliefs but presents them as what was expected of southern politicians of the time. While some politicos morphed or changed their beliefs, Griffin never did and he became simply an historical relic from another time.
The author does provide a look at some of the good things from the Griffin years. The former governor has been dead thirty years this year and was the last of the old line stump speaking politicians. In this day and age of coiffed hair, speech and debate coaches and multi-million dollar campaigns, the days of a fish fry (or BBQ given the title) in a park with shirt sleeved sweat soaked candidates exhorting a crowd seems like a breath of fresh air.
The author does provide a look at some of the good things from the Griffin years. The former governor has been dead thirty years this year and was the last of the old line stump speaking politicians. In this day and age of coiffed hair, speech and debate coaches and multi-million dollar campaigns, the days of a fish fry (or BBQ given the title) in a park with shirt sleeved sweat soaked candidates exhorting a crowd seems like a breath of fresh air.
December 14, 2012
This was a solid biography. I have never heard of the author, but he can write a good story. Governor Griffin would be proud.
June 3, 2015
Understanding an era and the attitudes prevalent in those times is crucial in understanding the actions taken in those times. In the meticulously researched book, “Some of the people who ate my Barbecue didn’t vote for me” The Life of Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin”, author Scott E. Buchanan’s reveals his subject to be a multifaceted character worthy of study by anyone wanting to look through the window of time into an era which no longer exists, but has left resounding repercussions into our present.
On the surface, Marvin Griffin seems just stereotypical Southern segregationist, but he was an astute politician who had an innate sense of humor as his reputed comment, “Some of the people who ate my Barbecue didn’t vote for me” would imply. His tenure as Georgia’s Governor was known for controversy and corruption that existed in a era of “courthouse gangs” known for shenanigans and games and tricks such as offering Poll observers cold soda spiked with croton oil, which left them unable to observe any Polls for the rest of the day. . .
Georgia politics could get down right sleazy and it wasn’t only in the Griffin’s time in office, as Buchanan reveals through the forgotten 1970 gubernatorial campaign of future President, Jimmy Carter, who campaigned as more racially conservative than his opponent, reflecting the “last gasp of open racial appeals by Democrats.”
Marvin Griffin was a politician of his times but also a family man whose own personal loss reveals a much sadder glimpse into his humanity. On December 7, 1946, the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta burned, becoming the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. Among the 119 who died, was his own teenage daughter, Patricia Ann. The tragic circumstances of her death and loss was something he could never directly discuss.
This book is more than just a political biography, but an account of the times written in such a way as to make you feel like you are there at one of those great political rallies of old eating some of Marvin’s Barbecue.
I look forward to more books from Scott E Buchanan in the future and hope they will be available in audio format as well.
On the surface, Marvin Griffin seems just stereotypical Southern segregationist, but he was an astute politician who had an innate sense of humor as his reputed comment, “Some of the people who ate my Barbecue didn’t vote for me” would imply. His tenure as Georgia’s Governor was known for controversy and corruption that existed in a era of “courthouse gangs” known for shenanigans and games and tricks such as offering Poll observers cold soda spiked with croton oil, which left them unable to observe any Polls for the rest of the day. . .
Georgia politics could get down right sleazy and it wasn’t only in the Griffin’s time in office, as Buchanan reveals through the forgotten 1970 gubernatorial campaign of future President, Jimmy Carter, who campaigned as more racially conservative than his opponent, reflecting the “last gasp of open racial appeals by Democrats.”
Marvin Griffin was a politician of his times but also a family man whose own personal loss reveals a much sadder glimpse into his humanity. On December 7, 1946, the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta burned, becoming the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. Among the 119 who died, was his own teenage daughter, Patricia Ann. The tragic circumstances of her death and loss was something he could never directly discuss.
This book is more than just a political biography, but an account of the times written in such a way as to make you feel like you are there at one of those great political rallies of old eating some of Marvin’s Barbecue.
I look forward to more books from Scott E Buchanan in the future and hope they will be available in audio format as well.
September 5, 2014
Not the book I expected it to be. Griffin was not the progressive champion I though he would be. Took this ILL book back to the library this morning.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews