MISSISSIPPI POLITICS; SHALL THE PEOPLE RULE OR CROOKED POLITICIANS. (Front cover title: "Mississippi Politics ? Shall the People Rule or Crooked Politicians.")

Presumed first edition (no direct statement provided). 99 pages plus covers. Staple-bound paperback booklet: H 22.1cm x L 14.6cm. Paper covers strongly toned/foxed, soiled, and stained with creasing/curling and small losses at worn fore-edge corners; shallow chips and some tearing at spine ends exposing quire tips. Foxing/soiling to text block edges. First and last leaves well foxed/soiled; interior foxing and soiling mostly occurs at margins; frequent creased/curled fore-edge corners; page 37 marred by black staining particularly at upper right. Staples rusted but text block remains firm. A good copy of an exceptionally scarce if not rare political diatribe as OCLC locates a single institutional holding (Mississippi State University Special Collections). Features a succinct Preface, b/w portrait photo of the author, b/w image of the Mississippi State Capitol building followed by text sections titled as: "Mississippi in the Jaws of Destruction" (pages 11-15), "Taxation" (16-24), "State Banking Department" (25-29), "State Education Department" (30-43), "State Highway Department" (44-74), "Gravy Train Politics in Mississippi" (75-79), "Results" (pages 80-82), "Character" (82-83), and "Hot Shots" (pages 84-99) - an incongruous collection of the author's favorite maxims and anecdotes composed for speaking engagement jocularity. Although no publishing date is specified, MISSISSIPPI POLITICS was likely issued circa 1935 as the text cites several 1934 government financial figures. In his 2010 book "The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: A History" author Michael Newton characterizes William Lycurgus Spinks as "an aging ex-minister, self-styled 'sexology' expert, and all-around flimflam man who once billed himself as the reincarnation of George Washington." Spinks' MISSISSIPPI POLITICS, although certainly containing vehemently racist comments, is more of an anti-government graft commentary than a vitriolic race-baiting example of American hate literature. But it remains an intriguing souvenir an individual who was both a colorful con man and a vile bigot. Fleeing South Carolina in 1930 just ahead of embezzlement charges, Spinks moved to Mississippi where he quickly ingratiated himself with Governor Theodore Bilbo who promptly blocked Spinks' extradition. Spinks' notoriety increased in the late 1930s and 1940s as he unsuccessfully ran thrice for Mississippi public office - twice for state tax collector and once for governor in 1947 - before shifting efforts to Montgomery, Alabama where in August 1949 Spinks was crowned Imperial Emperor of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America, one of several contemporary but disharmonious KKK factions. Following a ludicrous September 1949 interview on the Mutual Broadcasting System's national radio program "Meet the Press," Spinks lost favor with other Klan leaders and relocated to a small house, aka his "Imperial Palace," on the outskirts of Jackson, Mississippi and thereafter was increasingly marginalized as other segregationists rose in influence during the state's brutal anti-civil rights actions throughout the 1950s and 1960s. OCLC cites three other Spinks' tracts: "16 Years on the Throne and the Death of the New Deal" (Jackson, MS: 1948; single copy at University of Mississippi) "Hell and Integration" (Millington, TN: 1959; single copy at Michigan State University), and "The Masquerade of Democracy" (Meridian, MS: circa 1939; held by University of Tulsa and Michigan State). Spinks' Magnolia Publishing Company was never officially incorporated per Mississippi Secretary of State's historical business listings. However, government records do cite Spinks as a co-incorporator of The Knights of the New Deal Crusade (1934) and The Over 60 Clubs of Mississippi (1944) with both, given consideration of Spinks' career vicissitudes, were likely, at the minimum, further dalliances with the illicit. Description copyright David Hallinan, Bookseller.…