Eurith Dickinson Rivers (1 December 1895-11 June 1967) was the Democratic Governor of Georgia from 12 January 1937 to 14 January 1941, interrupting Eugene Talmadge's terms.
Biography[]
Eurith Dickinson Rivers was born in Center Point, Arkansas in 1895, and he settled in Cairo, Georgia while attending college and became a justice of the peace, town attorney, and county attorney. He later moved to Lakeland to become a newspaper editor, and he joined the Klan and served in the State House in 1924, in the State Senate in 1926, as Speaker of the House from 1933 to 1937, and as Governor from 1937 to 1941. He claimed that chain stores represented an "alien invasion" meant to "take away the freedom of government from the masses," and he strongly opposed the New Deal and delayed its implementation in Georgia. A Grand Titan of the Klan, he appointed Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans to his staff. He became a successful radio owner after leaving office and died in 1967.