James D. Black

James Dixon Black ( * September 24, 1849 in Knox County, Kentucky; † August 4, 1938 in Barbourville, Kentucky ) was an American politician and governor of the state of Kentucky.

Early youth and ascent

James Black was educated at Tusculum College in Tennessee, where he graduated in 1872. After studying law he was admitted to the bar in 1874, after which he practiced in Barboursville. In 1876 he made ​​his first political experiences as an MP in the House of Representatives from Kentucky. Then he left the political scene for a long time. He devoted himself to the school system and was in the 1884 School Board ( Superintendent ) in Knox County. To ensure that all public schools were under him in this district. In between, he also devoted himself to his law career again and he took care of that with which he founded Union College.

Political career

It was only in 1912, Black returned as a member of the Democratic Party back to politics. In that year he became Deputy Attorney General of Kentucky. Two years later he ran for the office of Lieutenant Governor. On the side of Augustus Stanley, the 1915 also chosen Governor of Kentucky, he joined in December of the same year to that Office. In May 1919, Stanley resigned as governor to take his seat in the U.S. Senate. This Black fell to the governorship. He had to Stanley's term, which would have gone to end in December 1919. In essence, he continued the policy of his predecessor. The Parliament was not in session during these six months and so there was also no parliamentary debate. Soon to Black but had to deal with allegations of corruption, the harm to his reputation.

Nevertheless, he sought the nomination of his party for Governor elections at the end of 1919. He finally succeeded, but in the actual election, he defeated Republican Edwin Morrow with 45.3 % of the vote against 53.8 % Morrow. The defeat was partly a result of allegations of corruption against him and his government, but also a national trend in the U.S., who then saw the Republicans in the ascendant, who opposed the policies of President Woodrow Wilson and especially not the he initiated the League of Nations Join wanted. Near the end of his term of office on 9 December 1919, he pardoned the last remaining detainees conspirators of the assassination of the former Governor William Goebel. After the end of his six -month term Black was appointed in 1920 as Prohibition inspector for the monitoring of these laws in Kentucky. After that, he was active as a lawyer again and was president of the National Bank in Barboursville.

Black died in August 1938. He was married to Mary Jeanette Pitzer, with whom he had three children.