James K. Vardaman

James Kimble Vardaman (* July 26, 1861 in Edna, Jackson County, Texas, † June 25, 1930 in Birmingham, Alabama ) was an American politician and 1904-1908 Governor of the State of Mississippi. Between 1913 and 1919 he represented his state in the U.S. Senate.

Early years

James Vardaman came in 1868 with his parents to Mississippi. The family settled in Yalobusha County. There, James attended the public schools. After studying law in Carrollton, he was admitted in 1881 as a lawyer. Then he started in Winona to work in his new profession. There he also began to be a journalist by ' published the newspaper " Winona Advance. After moving to Greenwood, he continued his legal practice and his journalistic work in this city. From 1890 to 1896 he published the newspaper " Greenwood Enterprise ".

Political rise

James Vardaman was a member of the Democratic Party. From 1890 to 1896 he was a delegate in the House of Representatives from Mississippi; in 1894 he was president of that body. 1895 and 1899 he applied unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for the office of governor of his state. During the Spanish- American War, he was first captain and then major of a volunteer unit. In the years 1892 and 1896 he was democratic each elector in the presidential elections. On November 3, 1903 Vardaman was elected governor of his state. This was the first gubernatorial election in Mississippi, which was carried out according to the prefix system.

Governor of Mississippi

Vardaman took up his new post on 19 January 1904. In his four-year tenure a Textbook Commission was established and revised the laws of the state. The system for awarding of convicts for forced labor was abolished. Governor Vardaman was on the other side a conservative segregationist. He would have liked the schools for African Americans closed and canceled all federal laws enacted after 1865 in this regard.

Vardaman as a U.S. Senator

After he had applied in 1907 and 1910 unsuccessfully seek a seat in the U.S. Senate, he finally succeeded in 1912, the jump in the Congress. There he represented as a Class 2 senator between 4 March 1913 and 3 March 1919, the interests of his state. Vardaman was chairman of the Committee on the conservation of natural resources and a member of several other committees, including the Craft Committee and the Committee to monitor the expenditure of the Post Ministry. In 1918, he missed his re-election.

Further CV

After the end of his time in Congress, he retired from politics. In 1922 he moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he died in 1930. With his wife Anna Burleson Robinson he had a child together.