What role did Herman Talmadge play in the civil rights movement?

Herman Eugene Talmadge (August 9, 1913 - March 21, 2002), was an attorney and a Democratic American politician from the state of Georgia, the son of former governor Eugene Talmadge. He ran his father's successful campaign for re-election in 1946 but his father died before taking office.

The younger Talmadge had been a write-in candidate and was one of three competitors serving briefly as the 70th Governor of Georgia before yielding to a court decision in favor of the elected lieutenant governor. Talmadge was elected as governor in a special election in 1948, and elected again to a full term in 1950, serving into 1955. After leaving office, Talmadge was elected in 1956 to the U. S. Senate, serving four terms from 1957 until 1981. He gained considerable power over the decades. He gained chairmanship by seniority of the powerful Senate Agriculture Committee.

After being censured by the Senate in 1979 for financial irregularities, Talmadge lost the 1980 general election to Republican Mack Mattingly, part of the shift of white conservatives in the South to the Republican Party. It was a reversal of party affiliation from the 19th century.