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John Bell Williams (view source)
Revision as of 15:05, September 28, 2021
, 15:05, September 28, 2021Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=John Bell Williams, Sr. |image=John Bell Williams of MS.jpg |office=54th Governor of Mississippi |term_start=January 16, 1968 |term_end=Ja..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=John Bell Williams, Sr.
|image=John Bell Williams of MS.jpg
|office=54th [[Governor]] of [[Mississippi]]
|term_start=January 16, 1968
|term_end=January 18, 1972
|preceded=Paul Burney Johnson, Jr.
|succeeded=William Lowe Waller, Sr.
|office2=[[U.S. Representative]] for Mississippi's since disbanded district 7
| preceded2=Daniel Rayford "Dan" McGehee
| succeeded2=District eliminated after 1950 census
| term_start2=January 3, 1947
| term_end2=January 3, 1953
| office3=U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 4th congressional district
| preceded3=Thomas Abernethy
| succeeded3=William Arthur Winstead
| |term_start3=January 3, 1953
| term_end3=January 3, 1963
| office4=U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 3rd congressional district
| preceded4=Frank E. Smith
| succeeded4=Charles Hudson Griffin
| term_start4=January 3, 1963
| term_start4=January 16, 1968
|birth_date=December 4, 1918
|birth_place=Raymond, Hinds County,<br>Mississippi
|death_date=March 25, 1983 (aged 64)
|death_place=Brandon, Rankin County,<br>Mississippi
|death_cause=Heart attack
|resting_place=Raymond Cemetery in Hinds County
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|religion=[[Southern Baptists]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]
|alma_mater=Hinds Community College<br>
[[University of Mississippi]]<br>
Mississippi College School of Law
|spouse=Elizabeth Ann Wells Williams<br>(1921-2010; divorced in 1970s)<br>
|children=John Bell Williams, Jr.<br>
Kelly Williams<br>
Marcia Elizabeth (last name unavailable)<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Graves Kelly and Maud Elizabeth Bedwell Williams
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Corps
|battles=[[World War II]]
|rank=Pilot (lost part of left arm in bomber crash)
|service_years=1941-1944}}
'''John Bell Williams, Sr.''' (December 4, 1918 – March 25, 1983), was the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] [[Governor]] of his native [[Mississippi]] from 1968 to 1972. He was first elected to Congress in 1946 at the age of twenty-seven, the youngest man to be elected to that position from Mississippi. In what then one-party Democrat Mississippi, he was reelected to the House through 1966 from three different districts because of redistricting.<ref>John Bell Williams (1918-1983) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed September 27, 2021.</ref>
==Background==
Williams was born to Graves Kelly Williams (1890-1953) and the former Maud Elizabeth Bedwell (1893-1972) in Raymond in Hinds County near the state capital of [[Jackson]]. The three are interred at Raymond Cemetery in Hinds County.<ref name=findagrave/> He graduated in 1936 from Hinds Community College, then known as Hinds Junior College and in 1938 from the [[University of Mississippi]] at Oxford and in 1940 from the Mississippi College School of Law, then known as the Jackson Law School.<ref name=digital/>
In November 1941, he enlisted with the [[United States Army]] Air Corps and served as a pilot during [[World War II]]. He left active service in 1944 after he lost the lower portion of his left arm in a bomber crash.<ref name=digital>{{cite web |url=http://crdl.usg.edu/people/w/williams_john_bell_1918_1983/|title=John Bell Williams, 1918–1983 |accessdate=September 28, 2021|publisher=Civil Rights Digital Library of ''Georgia] }}</ref>
==Political career==
In November 1946, Williams was elected to the U.S. House from Mississippi's 7th congressional district, since disbanded because of population loss. His incoming colleagues included [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Richard Nixon]]. Beginning in 1953, he represented the 4th district and starting in 1963, he was the representative for the 3rd district.<ref>WILLIAMS, John Bell | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, accessed September 28, 2021.</ref>
An advocate of [[states' rights]], Williams was a member of his state's delegation to the 1948 [[Democratic National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]. He rejected the nomination of President [[Harry Truman]] and vice-presidential nominee [[Alben Barkley]] of [[Kentucky]]. Williams then supported [[South Carolina]] Governor [[Strom Thurmond]]'s [[Dixiecrat]] presidential campaign. Thurmond easily carried the electoral vote in Mississippi, [[Louisiana]], [[Alabama]], and South Carolina as the official Democratic nominee in those states.
After the [[United States Supreme Court]] issued its ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' opinion on May 17, 1954, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools, Williams made a speech on the House floor branding the day as "Black Monday."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html |title=With an Even Hand": Brown v. Board at Fifty|accessdate=September 24, 2008|publisher=Library of Congress }}</ref> Along with the entire Mississippi House delegation, Williams signed the [[Southern Manifesto]] in 1956. In 1952, Williams had supported the Democratic [[Adlai Stevenson|Stevenson]]-[[John Sparkman|Sparkman]] campaign against [[Dwight D. Eisenhower and Nixon, but he favored unpledged Democratic electors in 1956 against Stevenson and [[Estes Kefauver]] and in 1960 against Kennedy and Nixon. In the latter year, Mississippi did vote for an unpledged elector slate.<ref name=nyt/>
In 1964, Williams helped to raise funds in Mississippi for [[Republican Party|Republican]] U.S. Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]] in the presidential [[general election]] against [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Goldwater carried Mississippi with 87 percent of the vote. The Democratic Caucus then stripped the House seniority of Williams and a colleague, [[Albert Watson]] of South Carolina.<ref name=nyt/>Williams remained a Democrat and retained his seat in 1966, when the [[Republican Party|GOP]] gained forty-seven U.S. House seats. Watson defected in 1965 to the Republicans and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1970 in a hard-fought race against the Democrat [[John C. West]].
In 1967, Williams faced a formidable field in the Democratic gubernatorial [[primary]], including former Governor Ross Robert Barnett, Sr. (1893-1987), and two future governors, William Forrest Winter (1923-2020) and William Lowe "Bill" Waller, Sr. (1926-2011). In the campaign, Williams argued that former Governor Barnett made a secret deal with President Kennedy and then [[United States Attorney General]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]] during the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi. In the first round of balloting, Williams finished second to the moderate candidate, William Winter.In the runoff, Williams defeated Winter by 61,000 votes. In the general election, Williams handily defeated Democrat-turned-Republican [[Rubel Phillips]], in Phillips' second unsuccessful campaign for governor. Phillips' running mate for lieutenant governor in 1963, state Senator [[Stanford Morse]], a state senator from Gulfport from 1956 to 1964, endorsed Williams in the 1967 race, rather than the Republican Phillips. Williams in the campaign joked that when the returns are tabulated the Republicans "won't be able to find a Rubel in the rubble."<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo: Rubel Lex Phillips and the Mississippi Republican Party (1963-1967)." ''The Journal of Mississippi History'' XLVII, November 1985, No. 4, pp. 258, 261.</ref>
During Williams' term as governor, a federal court ordered the state to desegregate its public schools by the fall of 1970. Despite his segregationist past, Williams did not defy the court. Instead, he said that he would use his gubernatorial power to establish a statewide private-school system.<ref name=nyt/> He was chairman of the Southern Governors Conference in 1970-1971.<ref name=digital/>
After his term, Williams resumed his law practice. He endorsed Republicans [[Gerald Ford]] in 1976 and served as tge co-chairman of the [[Ronald W. Reagan]] in 1980, rather than the Democratic nominee both years, [[Jimmy Carter]] of [[Georgia]].<ref name=nyt>EX-MISSISSIPPI GOV. WILLIAMS, STAUNCH SEGREGATIONIST, DIES - The New York Times (nytimes.com), accessed September 28, 2021.</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, John Bell}}
[[Category:Mississippi]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Former Governors]]
[[Category:Democratic Governors]]
[[Category:[[Governors of Mississippi]]
[[Category:Former United States Representatives]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Governors of Mississippi]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
|name=John Bell Williams, Sr.
|image=John Bell Williams of MS.jpg
|office=54th [[Governor]] of [[Mississippi]]
|term_start=January 16, 1968
|term_end=January 18, 1972
|preceded=Paul Burney Johnson, Jr.
|succeeded=William Lowe Waller, Sr.
|office2=[[U.S. Representative]] for Mississippi's since disbanded district 7
| preceded2=Daniel Rayford "Dan" McGehee
| succeeded2=District eliminated after 1950 census
| term_start2=January 3, 1947
| term_end2=January 3, 1953
| office3=U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 4th congressional district
| preceded3=Thomas Abernethy
| succeeded3=William Arthur Winstead
| |term_start3=January 3, 1953
| term_end3=January 3, 1963
| office4=U.S. Representative for Mississippi's 3rd congressional district
| preceded4=Frank E. Smith
| succeeded4=Charles Hudson Griffin
| term_start4=January 3, 1963
| term_start4=January 16, 1968
|birth_date=December 4, 1918
|birth_place=Raymond, Hinds County,<br>Mississippi
|death_date=March 25, 1983 (aged 64)
|death_place=Brandon, Rankin County,<br>Mississippi
|death_cause=Heart attack
|resting_place=Raymond Cemetery in Hinds County
|party=[[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|religion=[[Southern Baptists]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]
|alma_mater=Hinds Community College<br>
[[University of Mississippi]]<br>
Mississippi College School of Law
|spouse=Elizabeth Ann Wells Williams<br>(1921-2010; divorced in 1970s)<br>
|children=John Bell Williams, Jr.<br>
Kelly Williams<br>
Marcia Elizabeth (last name unavailable)<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Graves Kelly and Maud Elizabeth Bedwell Williams
|branch=[[United States Army]] Air Corps
|battles=[[World War II]]
|rank=Pilot (lost part of left arm in bomber crash)
|service_years=1941-1944}}
'''John Bell Williams, Sr.''' (December 4, 1918 – March 25, 1983), was the [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] [[Governor]] of his native [[Mississippi]] from 1968 to 1972. He was first elected to Congress in 1946 at the age of twenty-seven, the youngest man to be elected to that position from Mississippi. In what then one-party Democrat Mississippi, he was reelected to the House through 1966 from three different districts because of redistricting.<ref>John Bell Williams (1918-1983) - Find A Grave Memorial, accessed September 27, 2021.</ref>
==Background==
Williams was born to Graves Kelly Williams (1890-1953) and the former Maud Elizabeth Bedwell (1893-1972) in Raymond in Hinds County near the state capital of [[Jackson]]. The three are interred at Raymond Cemetery in Hinds County.<ref name=findagrave/> He graduated in 1936 from Hinds Community College, then known as Hinds Junior College and in 1938 from the [[University of Mississippi]] at Oxford and in 1940 from the Mississippi College School of Law, then known as the Jackson Law School.<ref name=digital/>
In November 1941, he enlisted with the [[United States Army]] Air Corps and served as a pilot during [[World War II]]. He left active service in 1944 after he lost the lower portion of his left arm in a bomber crash.<ref name=digital>{{cite web |url=http://crdl.usg.edu/people/w/williams_john_bell_1918_1983/|title=John Bell Williams, 1918–1983 |accessdate=September 28, 2021|publisher=Civil Rights Digital Library of ''Georgia] }}</ref>
==Political career==
In November 1946, Williams was elected to the U.S. House from Mississippi's 7th congressional district, since disbanded because of population loss. His incoming colleagues included [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Richard Nixon]]. Beginning in 1953, he represented the 4th district and starting in 1963, he was the representative for the 3rd district.<ref>WILLIAMS, John Bell | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives, accessed September 28, 2021.</ref>
An advocate of [[states' rights]], Williams was a member of his state's delegation to the 1948 [[Democratic National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]. He rejected the nomination of President [[Harry Truman]] and vice-presidential nominee [[Alben Barkley]] of [[Kentucky]]. Williams then supported [[South Carolina]] Governor [[Strom Thurmond]]'s [[Dixiecrat]] presidential campaign. Thurmond easily carried the electoral vote in Mississippi, [[Louisiana]], [[Alabama]], and South Carolina as the official Democratic nominee in those states.
After the [[United States Supreme Court]] issued its ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' opinion on May 17, 1954, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools, Williams made a speech on the House floor branding the day as "Black Monday."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html |title=With an Even Hand": Brown v. Board at Fifty|accessdate=September 24, 2008|publisher=Library of Congress }}</ref> Along with the entire Mississippi House delegation, Williams signed the [[Southern Manifesto]] in 1956. In 1952, Williams had supported the Democratic [[Adlai Stevenson|Stevenson]]-[[John Sparkman|Sparkman]] campaign against [[Dwight D. Eisenhower and Nixon, but he favored unpledged Democratic electors in 1956 against Stevenson and [[Estes Kefauver]] and in 1960 against Kennedy and Nixon. In the latter year, Mississippi did vote for an unpledged elector slate.<ref name=nyt/>
In 1964, Williams helped to raise funds in Mississippi for [[Republican Party|Republican]] U.S. Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] of [[Arizona]] in the presidential [[general election]] against [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Goldwater carried Mississippi with 87 percent of the vote. The Democratic Caucus then stripped the House seniority of Williams and a colleague, [[Albert Watson]] of South Carolina.<ref name=nyt/>Williams remained a Democrat and retained his seat in 1966, when the [[Republican Party|GOP]] gained forty-seven U.S. House seats. Watson defected in 1965 to the Republicans and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1970 in a hard-fought race against the Democrat [[John C. West]].
In 1967, Williams faced a formidable field in the Democratic gubernatorial [[primary]], including former Governor Ross Robert Barnett, Sr. (1893-1987), and two future governors, William Forrest Winter (1923-2020) and William Lowe "Bill" Waller, Sr. (1926-2011). In the campaign, Williams argued that former Governor Barnett made a secret deal with President Kennedy and then [[United States Attorney General]] [[Robert F. Kennedy]] during the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi. In the first round of balloting, Williams finished second to the moderate candidate, William Winter.In the runoff, Williams defeated Winter by 61,000 votes. In the general election, Williams handily defeated Democrat-turned-Republican [[Rubel Phillips]], in Phillips' second unsuccessful campaign for governor. Phillips' running mate for lieutenant governor in 1963, state Senator [[Stanford Morse]], a state senator from Gulfport from 1956 to 1964, endorsed Williams in the 1967 race, rather than the Republican Phillips. Williams in the campaign joked that when the returns are tabulated the Republicans "won't be able to find a Rubel in the rubble."<ref>Billy Hathorn, "Challenging the Status Quo: Rubel Lex Phillips and the Mississippi Republican Party (1963-1967)." ''The Journal of Mississippi History'' XLVII, November 1985, No. 4, pp. 258, 261.</ref>
During Williams' term as governor, a federal court ordered the state to desegregate its public schools by the fall of 1970. Despite his segregationist past, Williams did not defy the court. Instead, he said that he would use his gubernatorial power to establish a statewide private-school system.<ref name=nyt/> He was chairman of the Southern Governors Conference in 1970-1971.<ref name=digital/>
After his term, Williams resumed his law practice. He endorsed Republicans [[Gerald Ford]] in 1976 and served as tge co-chairman of the [[Ronald W. Reagan]] in 1980, rather than the Democratic nominee both years, [[Jimmy Carter]] of [[Georgia]].<ref name=nyt>EX-MISSISSIPPI GOV. WILLIAMS, STAUNCH SEGREGATIONIST, DIES - The New York Times (nytimes.com), accessed September 28, 2021.</ref>
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, John Bell}}
[[Category:Mississippi]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Former Governors]]
[[Category:Democratic Governors]]
[[Category:[[Governors of Mississippi]]
[[Category:Former United States Representatives]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:Governors of Mississippi]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army]]