George W. Grider - Public Service and Later Life

Public Service and Later Life

In 1956 and 1957, Grider served on the Memphis Planning Commission, and from 1959 to 1964, the Shelby County Quarterly Court (in reality a legislative rather than a judicial body, it was the predecessor to the body today serving as the Shelby County Commission). It was from this office that Grider launched a successful campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Memphis-based 9th Congressional District seat in the August 1964 Democratic primary, defeating 13-term incumbent Clifford Davis, a holdover from the era of E. H. "Boss" Crump's domination of Memphis politics. Grider did not have an easy time in the November election, however. Republican influence was on the rise in the Memphis area, largely due to a massive crossover of white voters from the Democrats. Grider won by only five percentage points. He likely would not have won had it not been for Lyndon Johnson's gigantic landslide in that year's presidential election. He was one of two naval veterans elected to the House from western Tennessee in that election, the other being William Anderson.

However, Grider was to serve only one term in the House; in November 1966 he was defeated for reelection by Shelby County Republican Party chairman Dan Kuykendall, in what was a very good year for Republicans in Tennessee (Howard Baker was elected to the first of three Senate terms) and nationally (where the huge Democratic advantages in both houses of Congress and in governorships were considerably reduced). Kuykendall had specific advantages: he had done surprisingly well as the Republican nominee in the United States Senate race against Albert Gore, Sr. two years earlier, and there was no Republican gubernatorial nominee in Tennessee that year. Kuykendall also took advantage of the large number of white Memphis-area Democrats switching to the Republicans. Ordinarily, the lack of a gubernatorial race would probably be considered a political disadvantage, but in fact it allowed Tennessee Republicans to concentrate their resources on winnable races, such as those faced by Kuykendall and Baker. Grider was the last white Democrat to represent a significant portion of Memphis until State Senator Steve Cohen was elected to Congress in 2006.

Following his defeat, Grider moved to Niagara Falls, New York where he served for eight years as vice president and general counsel for the Carborundum Corporation, an abrasives manufacturer.

In 1975 Grider returned to Memphis and resumed the practice of law there, and was still living in the city of his birth at the time of his death in 1991.