Imagine an election so chaotic that three people all claim to be the governor at the same time.

Well, that's exactly what happened in Georgia in 1946.

Known as the Three Governors Controversy, the event marked a confusing time in Georgia politics, but it was also connected to a major change in voting rights in the state, the end of the White primary.

(dramatic music) To best understand Georgia's election dynamics in the mid 1940s, we need to go back 80 years.

Soon after the American Civil War, three important changes were made to the US Constitution.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and indentured servitude.

The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States, and guaranteed equal protection of the law.

And the 15th Amendment prohibited states from denying any male citizen the right to vote, regardless of his race or previous status of enslavement.

So for a brief moment during the Reconstruction Era, Black men in Georgia enjoyed their new right to vote.

But state lawmakers soon passed a series of laws that essentially disenfranchised Georgia's Black citizens, or took away their right to vote.

One of those laws was known as the White primary.

A primary election is when people in the same political party vote to choose which person they want to run in the general election.

For example, registered Democrats vote for the Democrat candidate they want on the general election ballot, and registered Republicans vote for the Republican candidate they want to represent their party in the general election.

Since Georgia was basically a one party state, the Democratic primary usually decided who would win in the general election.

So to prevent Black people from having a meaningful voice in the state's elections, Georgia established the White primary, which banned African Americans and other racial minorities from voting in Democratic primary elections.

But in 1944, Primus King, a Black Georgian challenged this law by trying to vote in the Democratic primary in Columbus.

When he was told he couldn't vote, he filed the lawsuit against the Muskogee County Democratic Party for violating his rights.

In 1945, a federal court ruled the White primary unconstitutional.

Georgia's Governor, Ellis Arnall, supported the court's decision and didn't fight the ruling.

While black Georgians still faced other voting obstacles like poll taxes and literacy tests, primary elections were no longer White only.

Black citizens celebrated this victory, but others were unhappy about it.

Eugene Talmadge, a former Georgia governor known for supporting segregation, ran for governor again in 1946, promising to restore the White primary.

Talmadge was very popular among voters who didn't want change, and he won the election.

But this is when things got crazy.

Eugene Talmadge, who had in poor health, died before he could take office, and that's when three men claimed the governor's job.

Ellis Arnall, the outgoing governor; Melvin Thompson, the new lieutenant governor elect; and Herman Talmadge, Eugene's son who shared many of his father's beliefs, who is secretly added as a write-in candidate by supporters who suspected Eugene might die before taking office.

Part of the confusion came from Georgia's state constitution.

It had recently been changed to create a new position called lieutenant governor, who would take over if the governor died while in office.

However, it didn't clearly explain what should happen if the governor elect died before being sworn in or before the election had been certified.

So the General Assembly, Georgia's legislature, reverted to the old rules, which stated it could choose the next governor from the second and third place candidates.

Ultimately, the General Assembly selected Herman Talmadge.

Believing the legislature had broken the rules set by Georgia's new constitution, Melvin Thompson insisted he was next in line to serve as governor, so he got ready to fight the decision in court.

With all this confusion, the outgoing Governor, Ellis Arnall, announced that he wouldn't give up the office until it was clear who the rightful governor was.

For weeks, Georgia had two offices of the governor.

Arnall set up a second office in the state capitol while Herman Talmadge had state troopers lock the doors to the official office.

Fights even broke out amongst supporters.

Finally, in March, 1947, the Georgia Supreme Court stepped in.

It ruled that Melvin Thompson, the newly elected lieutenant governor, was the rightful governor until a special election could be held.

So Herman Talmadge left office, but only temporarily.

In 1948, he won the special election and became George's governor.

Although efforts to bring back the White primary failed, the fact that it was used as a campaign issue showed that many White Georgians still wanted to preserve racial discriminatory systems.

In the end, the 1946 governor's race and the Three Governors Controversy showed how Georgia was caught between the past and the future.

The end of the White primary had opened the door for more Black citizens to vote, but it also angered many White voters who wanted to keep things the same.

Eugene Talmadge's campaign and the chaos that followed his death reflected that tension.

While some Georgians fought to preserve old systems that limited who could vote, others like Primus King helped move the state toward fairer elections.

Beneath the political drama of 1946 was a deeper struggle over equality and whose voices would help define Georgia's future.

(dramatic music)