Alongside his rising business career, Crump began to make the political connections that served him for the rest of his life. He was a delegate to the Tennessee
Democratic State Convention in 1902 and 1904. In 1905, he was named to the municipal Board of Public Works, and was elected to the powerful position of Commissioner of Fire and Police in 1907, among three commissioners who governed the city. Starting in the 1910s, Crump began to build a
political machine which came to have statewide influence. He was particularly adept in his use of what were at the time two politically weak minority groups in Tennessee:
Blacks and
Republicans. Unlike most
Southern Democrats of his era, Crump was not opposed to Blacks voting. The Memphis-based African American
Memphis Jug Band, which he often booked at his home when he held parties, was also among his favorite musicians. Memphis Blacks were reliable Crump machine voters for the most part. The party often paid the
poll taxes required by state law since the late 1880s; otherwise this requirement resulted in
disenfranchising many poor Black people. One of Crump's lieutenants in the Black community was
funeral director N. J. Ford, whose family (in the persons of several sons, including
Harold Sr. and
John Ford, daughter
Ophelia, and grandson
Harold, Jr.) became influential in Memphis, state and national politics, continuing to be so today. A
symbiotic relationship developed in which Black people aided Crump, and he aided them, as was usual in politics. Crump also skillfully manipulated Republicans, who were numerically very weak in the western two-thirds of the state due to the disenfranchisement of the Black population, but dominated politics in
East Tennessee. Frequently, they found it necessary to align with Crump in order to accomplish any of their goals in the state government. Crump was influential for nearly half a century. He usually preferred to work behind the scenes and served only three two-year terms as mayor of Memphis (1910–1915) at the beginning of his career. He essentially named the next several mayors. His rise to prominence disturbed many of the state political leaders in
Nashville. The "Ouster Law", designed to remove officials who refused to enforce state laws, was passed primarily with Crump, who was responsible for lax enforcement of state
Prohibition in mind. He was county treasurer of
Shelby County from 1917 to 1923. He was elected seven times as a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention. Crump became involved in earnest in state politics during the 1928 gubernatorial election when
Henry Horton was seeking election in his own right. Horton had earlier been
speaker of the
state senate and succeeded to the position of governor when
Austin Peay died in office. Crump supported
Hill McAlister in the Democratic primary, while the Nashville machine of
Luke Lea supported Governor Horton. Horton won the primary despite the strong vote for McAlister in populous Shelby County. When Horton ran for reelection in 1930, Crump and Lea cut a deal, and Crump swung his formidable political machine behind Horton. Horton defeated independent Democrat
L. E. Gwinn in the primary and Republican C. Arthur Bruce in the general election. After years of working behind the scenes, Crump decided to run for
U.S. Representative in 1930. He was easily elected to the Tenth District, which was then co-extensive with Shelby County (it became the
Ninth in 1932). He served two terms: from March 4, 1931, to January 3, 1935. (The
Twentieth Amendment was enacted in 1933, shifting the starting date of Congressional terms.) During this time, he was also a regent of the
Smithsonian Institution. He remained hugely influential in Memphis as well. He was in constant communication with his operatives there and visited during each congressional recess. In 1936, Crump was named to the
Democratic National Committee, serving on that body until 1945. In 1939, he was elected a final time as mayor, although that term was officially served by
Walter Chandler. Chandler was U.S. Representative for the Ninth District, and Crump thought that Chandler's time was better spent tending to congressional matters in Washington than campaigning for mayor in Memphis. So, without a platform, without a speech, and without opposition, Crump was elected mayor of Memphis. Crump was sworn in at a few minutes past midnight on January 1, 1940, in a snowstorm on the platform of the railroad station, just before leaving for
New Orleans to attend the
Sugar Bowl football game. In high humor, he resigned immediately. Vice Mayor
Joseph Boyle became Mayor until the next day, when the faithful City Commission met and elected Chandler.
Watkins Overton's term had ended at midnight, and thus Memphis had four mayors in less than twenty-four hours. In 1940, Crump initiated a campaign of political persecution against
J. B. Martin, a founder of the
Memphis Red Sox and the head of the
Negro American League. Martin, a longtime Republican Party activist, had become chair of the Shelby County Republican Party in October. After he staged a rally for Republican
Wendell Willkie later than month, Crump ordered officers to "police" or search all patrons of Martin's South Memphis Drugstore, including children. Because Crump threatened a possible term for him in prison workhouse on trumped up charges, Martin left the city. Republican leaders and civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP, urged the Roosevelt administration to bring charges against, or denounce, Crump, who benefited from a close alliance with President Roosevelt, but had no success. Although the head of the Civil Rights Section of the Department of Justice indicated a willingness to prosecute Crump for violation of Martin's civil rights, more senior officials in the Roosevelt administration refused to do so. When Martin briefly returned to Memphis in 1943 to attend a game at the Martin Stadium (which he had helped to build), police arrested him, put him in a holding cell, and ordered to leave Memphis. By this time, Martin had settled permanently in Chicago. Less than a month after this incident, Martin and
Robert Church Jr., another Black Republican leader who had also been driven out of the city by Crump, successfully urged labor leader
A. Philip Randolph to come to Memphis to speak out against Crump's suppression of free speech. Crump's subordinates responded by denying Randolph speaking venues by intimidating local Black leaders into withdrawing invitations and shunning him. When Randolph urged
Eleanor Roosevelt, who had friendly political ties with Crump, to do something to counter Crump's "fascist" denial of free speech, she refused. Her reply on December 18, 1943 to Randolph read in full: "I referred your letter to a friend of mine when I received it and I am sorry it has not been answered before. I was advised not to do anything, as it might do more harm than good." Crump's statewide influence began to wane in the late 1940s.
Edward J. Meeman, editor of the
Memphis Press-Scimitar, opposed Crump's initiatives and called for a
city manager government and abolition of the
poll tax to weaken the power of the machine. He also worked to unseat U. S. Senator
Tom Stewart, whom Crump supported in the 1948 Democratic primary against his intra-party challenger, U.S. Representative
Estes Kefauver.
Gordon Browning, a one-time protégé whom Crump had helped elect
governor in 1936, was elected governor again in 1948, this time over Crump's opposition. For the rest of his life, Crump's influence was largely limited to Memphis. In 1952, his longtime associate, Senator
Kenneth McKellar, was defeated in the Democratic primary — in those days with a practically powerless state Republican party, the real contest in Tennessee — by Congressman
Albert Gore Sr. A final triumph for Crump was the victory in 1952 of his chosen candidate,
Frank G. Clement in the gubernatorial primary over Browning. Crump died less than two years later. He is interred at
Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. ==Political machine==