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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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| Name | Homer Adkins |
| Address |
Jacksonville, Arkansas , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
June 08, 1890
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| Died | February 25, 1964
(73 years)
|
| Contributor | Not in Public Domain |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Mar 16, 2024 01:07am |
| Tags |
Army - Freemason - Ku Klux Klan - Methodist -
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| Info | Homer Martin Adkins
(1941-1945)
Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission
Homer Adkins, born near Jacksonville, Arkansas, on October 15, 1890, attended Little Rock public schools, Draughton Business College, and the Hodges Pharmacy School of Little Rock. He received his pharmacist license and special permission to practice before his twenty-first birthday. During World War I he entered the army as a private and rose to the rank of captain in the medical corps. While at Camp Beauregard in Louisiana, he met a Red Cross nurse named Estelle Smith. The two served together in France and were married in 1921 following the war. They had no children.
In 1923 Adkins was elected Pulaski County Sheriff as the Ku Klux Klan candidate, though he would later seek to distance himself from that organization, claiming he had joined out of expediency. Nine years later, Adkins emerged as one of the leading organizers of Franklin Roosevelt's presidential campaign in Arkansas and quickly gained a reputation as the master of the smoke-filled room as a genius at the nuts-and-bolts of campaigning, and as an expert mechanic in the crafting of political machines. Appointed Internal Revenue Collector by Roosevelt, Adkins used the post to build a strong political base. In 1940, he wrested the governor's office from his old enemy, incumbent Governor Carl Bailey.
Like his predecessors, Adkins directed his attention to refunding the state's highway debt, but unlike them, he secured legislative approval of his refunding plan in 1941. The deal was so sweet that the Arkansas electorate, notoriously contrary in such matters, overwhelmingly approved the bond issue by a margin of 89 to 1. Adkins' New Deal ties paid off when the Reconstruction Finance Corporation purchased the entire $136 million bond issue.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States became involved in World War II. During the war some $300 million worth of defense plants were located in Arkansas, rescuing the state from the Depression. The state's treasury surplus more than doubled.
Atkins abilities as an efficient organizer and administrator served him well as a wartime governor. His record, however, was tarnished by an inflexible attitude on social issues. For example, he became obsessed with ending gambling, both the now legal pari-mutuel betting and the illegal casinos at Hot Springs. He even went so far as to threaten to make use of wartime powers to place Hot Springs under martial law. The courts thwarted his anti-gambling efforts.
Adkins was no less intractable toward the Japanese-Americans interned in two "relocation" camps in Arkansas. Though most of the inhabitants of the camps were loyal, native-born Americans, Adkins refused to allow them to work outside the camps in Arkansas or to own property in the state, not withstanding the fact that planters in the area were desperate for workers. Actively hostile to the civil rights of blacks, he also continually resisted the anti-discrimination edicts of the Roosevelt Administration.
Adkins stepped down as governor in 1944 to seek the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hattie Caraway. Former governor Carl Bailey backed his rival J. William Fulbright in a bitter and expensive battle which came to be known as the "million dollar race." When Fulbright won, Adkins returned to his role as a behind-the-scenes power broker and promoted the election of Sid McMath.
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