Coleman Livingston Blease

Coleman Livingston Blease was a South Carolina politician of the Democratic Party who served as Governor of South Carolina from 1911 to 1915, and as a United States Senator from 1925 to 1931. Blease was the political heir of Benjamin Tillman. He led a political revolution in South Carolina by building a political base of white textile mill workers from the state's upountry region. He was notorious for playing on the prejudices of poor whites to gain their votes and was an unrepentant white supremacist. Ultimately, despite his political strength, Blease failed to pass any significant legislation while governor.