Edwin P. Morrow

Morrow served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916, 1920, and 1928.[2] In 1919, he was chosen by acclamation as his party's candidate for governor.[17] This time, his opponent was James D. Black.[4] Black was Stanley's lieutenant governor and had ascended to the governorship in May 1919 when Stanley resigned to take a seat in the U.S. Senate.[4]

Morrow encouraged the state's voters to "Right the Wrong of 1915".[21] He again ran on a progressive platform, advocating an amendment to the state constitution to grant women's suffrage.[4] His support was not as strong for a prohibition amendment.[4] He attacked the Stanley–Black administration as corrupt.[4] Days before the election, he exposed a contract awarded by the state Board of Control to a non-existent company.[4] Historian Lowell H. Harrison argued that Black's refusal to remove the members of the board following this revelation probably sealed his defeat.[4] Morrow won the general election by more than 40,000 votes.[4] It was the largest margin of victory for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in the state's history.[21]

Morrow signs the bill ratifying the 19th Amendment, Kentucky Equal Rights Association members look on in celebration, January 6, 1920.

On January 6, 1920, Governor Morrow signed the bill ratifying the Nineteenth Amendment, making Kentucky the 23rd state to ratify it, and the moment is captured in a photograph with members of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association. During the 1920 legislative session, the Republicans held a majority in the state House of Representatives and were a minority by only two votes in the state Senate.[4] During the session, Morrow was often able to convince C. W. Burton, a Democratic senator from Grant County, to support Republican proposals.[22] Tie votes in the Senate were broken by Republican lieutenant governor S. Thruston Ballard.[22] Consequently, Morrow was able to effect a considerable reorganization of the state government, including replacing the Board of Control with a nonpartisan Board of Charities and Corrections, centralizing highway works, and revising property taxes.[4][23] He oversaw improvements to the education system, including better textbook selection and a tax on racetracks to support a minimum salary for teachers.[4][22] Among Morrow's reforms that did not pass was a proposal to make the judiciary nonpartisan.[4]

Morrow urged enforcement of state laws against carrying concealed weapons and restricted activities of the Ku Klux Klan.[4] During his first year in office, he granted only 100 pardons.[24] This was a considerable decrease from the number granted by his immediate predecessors. During their first years in office, J. C. W. Beckham granted 350 pardons, James B. McCreary (during his second stint as governor) granted 139, and Augustus O. Stanley granted 257.[24] He was also an active member of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, a society for the elimination of racial violence in the South.[25]

A mob gathered outside the courthouse during the trial of Will Lockett in 1920.

On February 9, 1920, Morrow dispatched the Kentucky National Guard to Lexington to protect Will Lockett, a black World War I veteran on trial for murder.[26] Morrow told the state adjutant general "Do as much as you have to do to keep that negro in the hands of the law. If he falls into the hands of the mob I do not expect to see you alive."[27] Lockett had already confessed, without the benefit of a lawyer, to the murder.[26] His trial took only thirty minutes as he pleaded guilty but asked for a life sentence instead of death.[27] Despite his plea, he was sentenced to die in the electric chair.[27]

A crowd of several thousand gathered outside the courthouse while Lockett's trial was underway.[26] A cameraman asked a large group of those gathered to shake their fists and yell so he could get a picture.[28] The rest of the crowd mistakenly believed they were storming the courthouse and rushed forward.[28] In the ensuing skirmish, one policeman was injured so badly that his arm later had to be amputated.[29] The National Guard opened fire, killing six people and wounding approximately fifty.[28] Some members of the mob looted nearby stores in search of weapons to retaliate, but reinforcements arrived from a nearby army post by mid-afternoon.[30] Martial law was declared, and no further violence was perpetrated.[30] A month later, Lockett was executed at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.[30]

The incident is believed to be the first forceful suppression of a lynch mob by state and local officials in the South.[26] Morrow received a laudatory telegram from the NAACP, and most of the national press regarding the incident was favorable. W. E. B. Du Bois called it the "Second Battle of Lexington".[29] Morrow was consistent in his use of state troops to end violence in the state. In 1922, he again dispatched the National Guard to quell a violent mill strike in Newport.[4]

Morrow also demanded consistency from local law enforcement officials. In 1921, he removed the Woodford County jailer from office because he allowed a black inmate to be lynched and offered a reward of $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators.[31] Citizens of Versailles were more outraged that the jailer had been removed from office than that the prisoner had been lynched.[32] The locals refused to aid in the investigation, and the lynchers were never arrested or charged.[33] Local officials appointed the jailer's wife to finish his term in an attempt to skirt the removal.[34]

In August 1922, a traveling salesman named Jack Eaton was arrested for allegedly assaulting several young girls.[34] The girls' parents refused to press charges, and Eaton was released.[34] Later, he was captured by a mob, who cut him several times and poured turpentine into his wounds.[34] An investigation found that the Scott County sheriff had willfully delivered Eaton to the mob, and Morrow removed him from office.[34] Though Eaton was a white man, blacks were elated with the removal because they hoped it would encourage other jailers to step up efforts to protect against lynchings and mob violence.[34]

Morrow was frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president in 1920, but he withdrew his name from consideration, sticking to a campaign promise not to seek a higher office while governor. On July 27, 1920, he made a speech in Northampton, Massachusetts, officially notifying Calvin Coolidge of his nomination for that office. Although he supported Frank O. Lowden for president, the nomination went to Warren G. Harding, and Morrow campaigned vigorously on behalf of his party's ticket.[35]

In his address to the 1922 legislature, Morrow asked for $50 million for improvements to the state highway system and for the repeal of all laws denying equal rights to women.[4] He also recommended a large bond issue to finance improvements to the state's universities, schools, prisons, and hospitals.[36] By this time, however, the Republicans had surrendered their majority in the state House, and practically all of Morrow's proposals were voted down.[4] Morrow countered by vetoing several Democratic bills, including $700,000 in appropriations.[4][37] Among the few accomplishments of the 1922 legislature were passage of an anti-lynching law, the abolition of convict labor and the establishment of normal schools at Murray and Morehead.[28][37] Today, these schools are Murray State University and Morehead State University, respectively. The 1922 legislature also established a commission to govern My Old Kentucky Home State Park and approved construction of the Jefferson Davis Monument.[37]

Despite the fact that Morrow gained national praise for his handling of the Lockett trial, historian James C. Klotter opined that he "left behind a solid, and rather typical, record for a Kentucky governor."[38] He cited Morrow's fiscal conservatism and inability to control the legislature in 1922 as reasons for his lackluster assessment, although he praised Morrow's advancement of racial equality in the state. Morrow was prohibited by the state constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, and the achievements of his administration were not significant enough to ensure the election of Charles I. Dawson, his would-be Republican successor in the gubernatorial election of 1923.[38]

Following his term as governor, Morrow retired to Somerset where he became active in the Watchmen of the Republic, an organization devoted to the eradication of prejudice and the promotion of tolerance.[4] He served on the United States Railroad Labor Board from 1923 to 1926 and its successor, the Railway Mediation Board, from 1926 to 1934.[4] He resigned to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Ninth District, but lost his party's nomination to John M. Robsion.[5][36]

Following his defeat in the congressional primary, Morrow made plans to return to Lexington to resume his law practice.[36] On June 15, 1935, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack while temporarily living with a cousin in Frankfort.[36] He is buried in Frankfort Cemetery.[2]