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| Governor | Gubernatorial Candidate 1966 |
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Ellis Gibbs Arnall was born on March 20, 1907 in Newnan, Georgia. After first attending Macon University, he switched to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee where he earned his B.A. degree in 1928. He then studied law at the University of Georgia, receiving his LL.B. degree in 1931, and passing the bar soon after. He made his first foray into politics in 1933 when he ran for the Georgia House of Representatives. He won easily in the five man contest.
After serving a four-year term, Arnall was appointed assistant State attorney general; two years later, he ran for attorney general and won. At the time, he was the youngest attorney general in the United States.
Arnall was extremely outspoken in his criticism of then Governor Eugene Talmadge and his administration, and made it his personal project to oust Talmadge from office by running against him for the governorship.
The campaign was a bitter one, with Talmadge spouting his "white supremacy, States' rights, and old-time religion" rhetoric, and Arnall vowing to reform the administration, saying: "Georgia now presents the worst type of dictatorship...I now hope to be able to do something about it." In September of 1942, Arnall running on the Democratic ticket, won the primary by over 45,000 votes, which in the South, at that time, meant he had won the election.
Inaugurated in January of 1943, "the boy wonder of Georgia politics" wasted no time in cleaning up the mess left by Eugene Talmadge. Within a month, Arnall, with unanimous support from the legislature, implemented every reform he had promised in his campaign, thus putting his Georgian "revolution" in motion. While implementing his reforms, he also decided to update and streamline Georgia's constitution, requesting help and advice from some of the top legal and administrative people in the country. The new document, which hadn't been updated since 1877, was adopted by Georgia citizens by almost three-to-one.
At the end of his term, Arnall returned to his private law practice. He served as director of the Office of Price Stabilization in 1952, then in 1966, ran for the governorship a second time, losing to Lester Maddox in the Democratic primary.
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| Governor | Gubernatorial Candidate 1966 |
| Audio Files | Video Files | Text Files |