John Bell Williams

John Bell Williams ( born December 4, 1918 in Raymond, Hinds County, Mississippi, † 25 March 1983 in Brandon, Mississippi ) was an American politician, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Governor of Mississippi.

Career

John Bell Williams graduated in 1936 at Hinds Junior College. He then attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he received his doctorate in 1938, then in 1940 the Jackson Law School. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and opened a practice in Raymond. During the Second World War, he undertook in November 1941 at the United States Army Air Corps, where he served as a pilot. However, he had to retire from active service in 1944, after he had lost the lower part of his left arm in a bomber crash.

Williams was elected as a Democrat to the 80th and the ten succeeding Congresses. He was the youngest member of the Mississippi, which was until then ever elected. His term came from 3 January 1947 until his resignation on 16 January 1968 when he was elected governor of Mississippi.

Williams was an advocate of state rights and racial segregation. He left the 1948 Democratic National Convention and supported current Thurmond's presidential campaign, which was mainly a platform for racial segregation. After the Supreme Court, the Brown v. Board of Education ruling May 1954 precipitated, which prohibited racial segregation in schools, Williams held in the House of Representatives a lecture on the introduction of the 'Black Monday'. Furthermore, Williams supported the Democratic Party in the presidential campaign in 1952 and did not participate in the democratic elections in 1956 and 1960.

During his tenure in Congress, he participated at the 1956 Constitution of the Southern Manifesto, which spoke out against racial integration in public institutions.

Williams supported the 1964 Republican Barry Goldwater in his presidential candidacy and helped him raise funds in Mississippi. During this time, the Democratic party, Williams has released from his employment.

1967 Williams returned back to Mississippi and ran for the office of governor. The field of candidates was large, including a former governor ( Ross Barnett ) and two future governors ( William Winter and Bill Waller ). In the prefix Williams claimed that the former Governor Barnett had made a secret agreement with the Kennedys. It came to the runoff election against winter, he gained prominence with 61,000 votes. Thereafter, Williams defeated in the actual election the Republican Rubel Phillips with nearly 182,000 votes difference.

During his tenure as governor of Mississippi experienced a desegregation in its school system as a result of a federal court judgment. The convinced segregationist Williams refrained to oppose the verdict. After his tenure, Williams returned to his old job as a lawyer, which he held until his retirement on 1 January 1981. Furthermore, he supported Gerald Ford in 1976 and 1980, Ronald Reagan in the presidential campaigns.

John Bell Williams died on March 25, 1983 in Brandon and was buried in Raymond.