Weekly 150: Frank G. Clement

Working in newspaper business and political area, you come across a huge assortment of folks. The longer you’re in the business you see multiple generations of folks have a tendency to follow in their forefather’s footsteps. In the April 25, 2023 edition of The Banner, local students bore witness to The Tennessee Civil Court of Appeals. One of the justices on the panel was Frank Clement, Jr. son of former Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement. A few years back while I was a member of the McKenzie City Council, I had the privilege to welcome the former governor’s other son, Bob Clement, to town.

Both men followed in their father and grandfather’s footsteps, Frank Jr. as an attorney and Bob as a politician. When I decided to read up on Frank Sr., I knew of his legendary oratory skills and the drumming of Carroll County’s Gordon Browning in two primary races for governor, yet I was thoroughly surprised by his revolutionary changes to our great state. This week I am dedicating a little ink and paper to the life of former Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement.

Frank Goad Clement was born on June 2, 1920, to Robert Samuel Clement, a local attorney and politician, and Maybelle (Goad) Clement. His mother operated the Hotel Halbrook in Dickson, Tennessee, the same hotel in which Frank was born. After graduating from Dickson High School, Clement enrolled at Cumberland University and completed his law degree from Vanderbilt University in 1942.

He went on to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an agent, assigned to the investigation of espionage, sabotage, problems of internal security, selective service investigations, and general criminal investigations. In 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the height of World War II. Clement was a second lieutenant with the Military Police Battalion at Fort Sam Houston, Texas then promoted to first lieutenant and commanding officer of Company C of the Military Police Battalion at Camp Bullis, Texas. He was discharged on March 28, 1946.

After his time in the service, Clement worked as counsel for the Tennessee Railroad and Public Utilities Commission from 1946 to 1950. He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention. It was around this time that he was taken under the wing of Nashville Banner publisher James Stahlman, where he drew attention as an alternative to the candidates of E. H. “Boss” Crump.

It was also around this same period, he was elected State Commander of Tennessee’s American Legion, allowing him to build relationships in all 95 Tennessee counties. By the early 1950s, he was practicing law in Dickson with his father and set his eyes on the governor’s mansion. In 1952, he challenged incumbent Gordon Browning for the Democratic Party’s nomination. Clement had the support of Crump and Stahlman. Browning referred to Clement as a “demagogue” and “pipsqueak” and Clement responded by calling Browning “dishonest, indecent, and immoral.” After taking the Democratic nomination, Clement easily defeated the Republican candidate, Beecher Witt. At 32 years old, Clement became the youngest governor in the nation.

In his first term, Clement authorized a bond issue to provide free textbooks to children in grades 1 through 12, implemented the state’s first long-range highway construction project, and established a mental health department (now the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services). To help pay for the programs, he raised the state’s sales tax from 2% to 3%. In 1953, a state constitutional convention proposed eight amendments to the state constitution, all were approved by voters. The amendments included the extension of the gubernatorial term from two to four years, the repeal of the poll tax, and the authorization of consolidated city-county a.k.a. metropolitan governments.

Set on a run for a second term, now extended to four years, Clement faced Browning for the Democratic nomination. Clement easily took the nomination with 481,808 votes to 195,156 and then defeated candidate John R. Neal in the general election.

With desegregation in full motion, Clement ordered state schools to comply with the law. In 1955, he vetoed a bill maintaining segregation in schools in Fayette and Haywood counties. He rejected a request by the Parents School Preference Committee to use the National Guard to prevent integration. In September 1956, he stationed National Guard troops in Clinton to protect the first black students to attend Clinton High School.

At the 1956 Democratic National Convention, Clement was selected to deliver the keynote address. According to Alan Griggs, “Determined to succeed, Clement prepared rigorously, reviewing films and scripts of previous keynotes and pushing his staff to produce numerous revisions of his speech. Appearing before the delegates and a national television audience, Clement delivered a rousing, old-fashioned Tennessee stump speech attacking the Republicans as the ‘party of privilege and pillage’ that would soon pass over the Potomac River in the ‘greatest water crossing since the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea.’ President Eisenhower, Clement claimed, peered down the ‘green fairways of indifference,’ a reference to the president’s love of golf. Clement referred to Vice-President Richard Nixon as the ‘vice hatchet man.’ His repeated use of the phrase, ‘How long, America, O how long,’ remains a hallmark of his address.

“While the speech impressed some people, many were repulsed by Clement’s attacks, his stump speech style, and his emphatic mannerisms. The speech was a failure. In a mere forty-three minutes, Clement had ended his national political hopes.”

Unable to run for a third consecutive term in 1958, he supported his former campaign manager and Commissioner of Agriculture, Buford Ellington. His return to practicing law was short-lived. In 1962, Clement sought the nomination for governor. In the primary, he defeated Memphis attorney Bill Farris and Chattanooga mayor Rudy Olgiati; then in the general election, he defeated Maryville attorney Hubert Patty.

Much of his third term was plagued by alcoholism and the loss of his political acumen. In 1964, he eyed the Democratic nomination for senator but failed to win the nomination over Ross Bass. Two years later, Clement defeated Bass for the nomination for the seat. Yet, old alliances with Ellington, the Nashville Tennessean, the Nashville Banner and the Memphis Commercial Appeal failed to provide an endorsement. Howard Baker, Jr. defeated him with a 55% to 44% margin in the general election.

At the end of his third term, he returned to his law practice but refused to call his political career over. In 1969, looking to resurrect his failing marriage and political prowess, he announced his candidacy for a fourth term for the Tennessee governorship. Shortly after his discussion to run, at the age of 49, Frank G. Clement died in a car crash on Franklin Road in Nashville. He is buried at the Dickson County Memorial Gardens in Burns, Tennessee.

The Hotel Halbrook, where Clement was born in Dickson, is home to the Clement Railroad Hotel Museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Clement’s namesakes include buildings at Austin Peay State University, the University of Tennessee, Tennessee Technological University, Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee at Martin, as well as a golf course at Montgomery Bell State Park and a bridge over Barren Fork in McMinnville.