Home
   Weather
   Sports
   Opinion
   Obituaries
   Special Sections
   Forums
   Archive
   Search
   Front Page
   Subscription
     Services
   @ugusta Help

   City Guide
   Classifieds
   Employment
   Coupons
   Autos
   Real Estate
   Yellow Pages
   Maps
   Directions

   Applause
   Dining
   Movies
   Travel
   Television
   Lottery
   Horoscopes

   Net Music
   Quick Cooking
   Remote
   Your Health
   Fitness Files
   JobSmart
   Food & Recipes
   Newspapers
    in Education

   Xtreme
   Citizen Activist
   Augusta Golf
   Augusta
     Magazine
   Business
     Chronicle

   F.A.Q.
   Advertise
   Chronicle Staff
   Chronicle Jobs
   Internet Service

 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.

Roy V. Harris

Roy V. Harris

Web posted January 1, 2000

 Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.

The wily Augusta lawyer never became governor, but was a Georgia ``kingmaker'' for decades until his death in 1985. Harris' state base of power was as speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives -- until 1946 when he was defeated by Chronicle owner William Morris. His Augusta power base was through the Cracker Party and, later, his Democratic ``South Augusta mafia'' political machine.

In the 1930s he was known as the architect of the state's modern public school system through his ``Minimum Foundation'' law that equalized educational opportunities, through a sales tax, and boosted teacher salaries. A fiery orator, he promulgated segregationist views in his Augusta Courier tabloid, and was well known during the 1960s as a top adviser to third-party presidential candidate George Wallace.