Gil Carmichael

Carmichael in 1974

Gilbert Ellzey Carmichael (June 27, 1927 – January 31, 2016) was an American businessman and politician.

Early life

Gilbert Ellzey Carmichael was born on June 27, 1927 in Columbia, Mississippi, United States to Calvin Ellzey Carmichael and Clyde Myrna Smith Carmichael. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1944, served in the United States Military from 1945 to 1946. He thereafter attended Texas A&M University, where he graduated in 1950 with a business degree and a minor in petroleum engineering. He married and had a son. Carmichael was commissioned as an officer in the United States Coast Guard during the Korean War. While serving at the rank of ensign in 1952, he participated in the rescue of crewmen from the sinking tanker SS Fort Mercer of the coast of Cape Cod, when the ship broke apart in a storm. He commanded a boat which retrieved two men off of the ship's bow, and for his efforts was awarded a Silver Lifesaving Medal for "heroic action".

Business career

In June 1950 Carmichael was hired by the Dow Jones & Company to sell its newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. Assigned to distribution area of southern Mississippi, southern Louisiana, and the city of New Orleans, he would go door-to-door in office buildings and pitch the paper and teach potential customers how it should be read. After eight years, he joined a friend in distributing Fiat cars in Shreveport, Louisiana. He later became a partner in a car dealership in Meridian before buying out the entire business. He established a Volkswagen dealership in 1961 and acquired Audi and Mercedes vehicles. He also acquired dealerships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He later became involved in his son's commercial real estate company, Missouth Properties.

Political career

Mississippi

Carmichael was a member of the Republican Party. He became involved in politics in the 1960s, making two unsuccessful bids for a seat in the Mississippi State Legislature. In 1972 black civil rights activist James Meredith declared himself a candidate for the Republican nomination to contest the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat James Eastland. A group of Mississippi Republicans felt that Meredith was not a strong enough contender, and recruited Carmichael to run instead. He won the Republican primary election, but faced opposition in his bid from national Republicans. President Richard Nixon, though a Republican, wanted to maintain good relations with Eastland so as to ease his political interests in the federal government. A Nixon campaign official visited Carmichael and told him that if he withdrew from the race, Nixon would appoint him as an ambassador. Carmichael refused. When Vice President Spiro Agnew traveled to Mississippi to host a rally, he was instructed to specifically not invite Carmichael. This action backfired, as the press learned of the maneuvering and covered Carmichael as an underdog. Carmichael ultimately lost the general election to Eastland, taking only 39 percent of the vote.

In 1975 Carmichael declared his candidacy for the office of Governor of Mississippi. He was the first serious Republican candidate for gubernatorial office in decades. In the general election he faced Democrat Cliff Finch. A black politician, Henry J. Kirksey, also ran as an independent. Finch largely ignored his opponents and espoused vague rhetoric. Carmichael offered specific proposals and stances. He supported the creation of a new state constitution, the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the supply of federal financial aid to New York City, and gun registration. Carmichael ultimately lost but drew 47 percent of the vote, a high figure for a statewide Republican candidate at that time. His largest support came from urban and suburban areas. Many Republicans felt he had staked out positions viewed as too liberal by Mississippians and would have won the election otherwise.

Carmichael decided to run for governor again in 1979. Finch's administration had been plagued by corruption scandals, and he hoped to exude a moderate and professional image which Mississippians would find attractive. More conservative Mississippi Republicans who blamed Carmichael for losing the 1975 race thought he should not run again and recruited another candidate for the Republican primary, Leon Bramlett. Bramlett styled himself as the "conservative alternative" to Carmichael. Carmichael ultimately had better name recognition and prevailed in the primary, taking 17,216 votes to his opponent's 15,236. Long-time politician William F. Winter won the Democratic primary to Carmichael's dismay; the two men exuded similar images, but Winter had more experience in government. Harmed by his divisive primary, Carmichael trailed Winter in polls and lost the general election, carrying a majority of the votes in only three counties.

Carmichael ran for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi in 1983 as an independent. He took only 35.7 percent of the vote, losing to Brad Dye. In 1998 he delivered a series of speeches calling for the state of Mississippi to rewrite its constitution. He also advocated changing the Mississippi state flag later in his life.

Transportation

In 1973 Carmichael was appointed to the National Highway Safety Advisory Committee as a consolation for the Nixon administration's lack of support for him in the 1972 Senate race. He became its chairman before being made the federal commissioner for the National Transportation Policy Study Commission in 1976. He left the job in 1979. Carmichael worked in the Federal Railroad Administration from 1989 to 1993. He created the Transportation Institute at the University of Denver in 1996. In 1998 he was appointed to the Amtrak Reform Council. He was made chairman the following year and left the council in mid-2002. The body produced recommendations to U.S. Congress on ways to improve the financial viability of Amtrak. From 1993 to 2002 he wrote a column for Progressive Railroading.

Later life

Carmichael died of a heart attack at Anderson Regional Medical Center in Meridian, Mississippi on January 31, 2016. A funeral was held for him at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Meridian on February 5.

Works cited

• Bass, Jack (1995). The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945 (reprint ed.). University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820317281.
• Bullock, Charles S.; Rozell, Mark J., eds. (2010). The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742570214.
• Danielson, Chris (2019). "Cliff Finch (1976-1980) and the Limits of Racial Integration" (PDF). The Journal of Mississippi History. LXXXI (1–2): 121–132. ISSN 0022-2771.
• Davidson, June Davis; Putnam, Richelle (2013). Legendary Locals of Meridian. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467100793.
• Foster, E. C. (1983). "A Time of Challenge: Afro-Mississippi Political Developments Since 1965". The Journal of Negro History. 68 (2): 185–200. doi:10.2307/2717721.
• Nash, Jere; Taggart, Andy (2009). Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2008 (second ed.). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781604733570.