Marvin Griffin

Samuel Marvin Griffin, Sr. (September 4, 1907 – June 13, 1982) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Georgia.

A lifelong Democrat, Griffin was a native of Bainbridge, Georgia and publisher of the Bainbridge Post-Searchlight.

Griffin was born in Bainbridge, Georgia and graduated from The Citadel in 1929.

At The Citadel, Griffin was a battalion commander and also played on the baseball team.

He taught in Virginia for a short time before moving back to Bainbridge.

In 1934, Griffin, a lifelong Democrat, was elected to the Georgia General Assembly.

Two years later, he failed in an attempt to be elected to the United States House of Representatives.

After that, he served in the administration of Governor Eurith D. Rivers, rising to the post of executive secretary.

He also owned the Bainbridge radio station, WMGR, which was established in the late 1940s.

The call sign was for Marvin Griffin Radio.

When the United States entered World War II, Griffin commanded a Georgia National Guard anti-aircraft battery sent to New Guinea.

Griffin was a major for most of World War II and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant colonel in 1944.

The next day, Governor Ellis Arnall appointed Griffin adjutant general of the Georgia National Guard, where he served until 1947.

During his tenure as adjutant general, Griffin was a brigadier general in the Georgia National Guard.

The first person elected as Georgia's lieutenant governor was Melvin E. Thompson, who took office in January 1947, but also claimed the office of governor after the death of Governor-elect Eugene Talmadge in December 1946.

Griffin became the first Lieutenant Governor of Georgia to win office in a special election, in 1948.

Griffin was elected to a full term in 1950.

Van Leer rejected this request, which was not a stand to serve him well in the 1950s.

Van Leer was already catching heat for pushing through a vote to allow women in Georgia Tech.

Griffin also sent public telegrams to multiple news publications.

Van Leer refused to back down during multiple meetings with the board of regents.

In one meeting he would threaten to resign as a show of support when summoned by the board of regents.

He was quoted: "Either we’re going to the Sugar Bowl or you can find yourself another damn president of Georgia Tech."Griffin would later request that Van Leer and Georgia Tech's players be punished for student riots, followed up with an investigation request.

Another state representative John P Drinkard recommended that all of Georgia Tech's state funding be cut off if they proceed and later Griffin suggested anyone who adhered to the principles of integration should not be admitted to Tech.

Van Leer still stuck to his statements and later received a standing ovation from the faculty senate.

Griffin was seen as the successor to Governor Herman Talmadge, and he won the governorship in 1954 before runoff elections were required in Georgia.

Griffin received a plurality of 36.3 percent of the ballots cast.

Melvin E. Thompson, Griffin's predecessor as lieutenant governor, trailed with 25.1 percent.

Another primary candidate was the later Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. As governor, Griffin was a staunch segregationist.

He spoke out against the Brown v. Board of Education decision and pledged to keep Georgia's schools segregated "come hell or high water."

He served as the 72nd governor of Georgia from 1955 to 1959, where he supported educational segregation and opposed the integration of Georgia schools.

However in December 1955, Griffin publicly sent a telegram to his state's Board of Regents in an attempt to pressure Georgia Tech's president Blake R. Van Leer to pull out.

Griffin implored teams from Georgia not to engage in racially integrated events which had black citizens either as participants or as spectators.

Much controversy preceded the 1956 Sugar Bowl, where the Pitt Panthers, including African-American player Bobby Grier, were scheduled to meet the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

There was controversy over whether Grier should be allowed to play, and whether Georgia Tech should even play at all due to Governor Griffin's opposition to integration.

Tech president Blake R. Van Leer and coach Dodd met with Governor Marvin Griffin privately who promised to not interfere with the game.

In 1958, Griffin, who was a segregationist and accused of being racist, took advantage of the intense media coverage surrounding the Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada to promote tourism to his state by offering a group of survivors free vacations to Jekyll Island.

However, to the segregationist governor's chagrin, one of the rescued miners was black, resulting in a public relations nightmare.

After the end of his gubernatorial tenure, he returned to his native Bainbridge and entered the real estate business, helping to found Bainbridge College (later Bainbridge State College) in 1970.

He served on the college's board of directors and died from lung cancer in 1982.