Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 2,104

This is the grave of Ernest “Fritz” Hollings.

Born in 1922 in Charleston, South Carolina, Hollings was raised there and went to college there too, at The Citadel. He started early and graduated in 1942. Then it was of course time in World War II. He was inducted as an officer and rose to the rank of captain, serving in Europe, and receiving a Bronze Star for his work in France and Germany. Before that he was in Africa and received the awkwardly titled European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal for that. He then returned to South Carolina and got a Bachelor of Laws from The Citadel in 1947 and then took a job teaching law at the University of South Carolina. But after one academic year, he left for a law practice back in Charleston.

Like so many people in this series, the military and the law were conduits for higher office, which Hollings very much wanted. He was a man of a changing South Carolina and did pretty well despite not being a revanchist racist. Not that Hollings was any hero, but still, he did a lot more than others. He was first elected to the state legislature in 1948 and sent back twice more. While there, the state’s whites lynched a man named Willie Earle. This was the last real lynching in South Carolina. The reason is that Hollings pushed hard on a bill that made participating in a lynching a capital crime. That he could get through the legislature without destroying his political career was testament to the slow changes to the country and state, as well as his own political acumen. So unsurprisingly, a man of this skill rose quickly, being elected as the state’s lieutenant governor in 1954 and then governor in 1958.

Now, obviously the question I had here was just what was Hollings’ civil rights record? He personally had other priorities of course–educational reform was a big one, as was attracting more industry to the state, which companies were happy to do as they fled unions in the north. But who really cares about that stuff, at least in 2026? Sure, whatever. The answer on the civil rights question is that he really played up the idea of the moderate. Hollings wasn’t going to do the first thing to help the state’s black population, not directly. But he also wasn’t going to be Orval Faubus or George Wallace either. His position that was that moderation meant that the issue would not be that huge in his state. And it’s true–South Carolina, for all its horrible history, saw very little major civil rights action. Few of the big stories from that movement are from South Carolina because the state was not going to use its police forces to make giant stands for white supremacy and while Hollings was most certainly ambitious, he did not see a path forward by being a demagogue in the Wallace style. In fact, his last address to the legislature as governor was to say that Clemson needed to be integrated without violence, which is what happened. in 1963. That student? Harvey Gantt, the future mayor of Charlotte and the man who nearly defeated the scumbag Jesse Helms in 1990 and 1996.

But Hollings did have a hiccup. He lost the Democratic primary for the Senate against the incumbent Olin Johnston, in part because the incumbent was racebaiting. So from 1962 to 1966, Hollings was out of office. When Johnston died in 1965, the governor, Donald Russell, resigned to become senator himself. That never works for the people. So Hollings ran against him in the special election and then won. He then narrowly beat Strom Thurmond’s Republican friend Marshall Parker in the general, staving off South Carolina’s sprint to the Republicans for a bit longer.

Hollings would serve eight full terms in the Senate, plus that half term, sticking around until he chose not to run again in the 2004 elections. He managed this within a rapidly changing South Carolina through shapeshifting. Early in his career, he was a big Great Society guy, pushing hard for anti-poverty legislation and writing a book about the terribleness of hunger, still an issue in rural South Carolina. He claimed this was not about race nor about politics (he stated that the poor don’t vote much, which is mostly true) but about morality. He became a master centrist early on. For example, with the upheaval of the late 60s and early 70s, he managed to blame Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, the hippies, civil rights leaders, and basically everyone but good moderates like him. He would vote against key Democratic legislation or nominees, especially if it wasn’t going to make much difference. This could range from opposing Carter’s Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall (still living!) for being too pro-union to the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. He was a huge believer in national military service and wanted to reinstitute the draft after it ended with the end of the Vietnam War. He would vote to renew the Voting Rights Act and then vote against confirming Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. And he was huge on balanced budgets, working with Phil Gramm and Warren Rudman on their idea for a balanced budget amendment for the Constitution. And with all this, he endorsed Jesse Jackson for president before the South Carolina primary in 1988.

In short, Hollings was the kind of pain in the ass unconnected to much in the way of ideology but had to run in a right-wing state that Democrats both needed and rued. Hollings also really wanted to be president and ran in 1984 but lost to the other Fritz, Walter Mondale. There was zero interest in him, unsurprisingly. When he was crushed in New Hampshire, he endorsed Gary Hart.

Hollings was also a bought and sold hack of the media industry, known jokingly as the Senator from Disney since he would go to the bat for that and other companies over such issues as copyright extension so that the rich could continue to profit off the exclusive use of Mickey Mouse’s image forever and stuff like that. Well, it’s hardly surprising that a long-time powerful senator would have an industry completely behind him.

Hollings decided not to run in 2004 because by this point, he knew he couldn’t win in South Carolina anymore. Jim DeMint replaced him. Gross.

In the aftermath, Hollings really enjoyed being an Old Man in Politics. He taught, he gave lectures, he wrote newspaper columns about how free trade was bad. He donated a bunch of money to South Carolina institutes. He established an institute to bring Americans and Turkish people together. He even wrote for Huffington Post for quite awhile.

Hollings was healthy and active for a long time. He died in 2019, at the age of 97.

Ernest Hollings is buried in Bethany Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina. The family has not gotten around to putting his death date on the gravestone. I was just there last month.

If you would like this series to visit other senators elected to full terms in 1968, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Harold Hughes is in Ida Grove, Iowa and Edward Gurney is in Winter Park, Florida. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.