Biography
Williams was born in Raymond in Hinds County near the state capital of Jackson. He graduated in 1938 from Hinds Community College, then Hinds Junior College. Thereafter, he attended the University of Mississippi at Oxford and graduated in 1940 from Mississippi College School of Law, then known simply as the Jackson Law School. In November 1941, he enlisted with the United States Army Air Corps and served as a pilot during World War II; however, he retired from active service after losing the lower part of his left arm as a result of a bomber crash in 1944. In 1946, Williams was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat. He was the youngest U.S. Representative to have been elected from Mississippi.
Williams advocated states' rights and segregation. He joined his state's delegation in a walkout of the 1948 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then supported Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat presidential campaign, whose primary platform was racial segregation and easily carried the electoral vote in Mississippi and three other southern states. After the Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education ruling on May 17, 1954, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools, Williams made a speech on the House floor branding the day 'Black Monday'. Williams supported the Democrat Stevenson-Sparkman campaign in 1952 but favored unpledged Democratic electors in 1956 and 1960. In 1964, Williams endorsed Republican Barry M. Goldwater in the general election against U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and helped raise funds for Goldwater in Mississippi. Because of his activities for Goldwater, the Democratic caucus (in the House of Representatives) stripped Williams and a colleague, Albert W. Watson of South Carolina, of their House seniority. Williams remained Democrat, but Watson soon defected to the GOP.
In 1967, Williams ran for governor. The field of candidates was large, including former Governor Ross Barnett and two future governors, William Winter and Bill Waller. In the primary, Williams claimed that former Governor Ross Barnett made a secret deal with the Kennedys 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, who made the second of his two losing campaigns for governor.
During Williams's term as governor, Mississippi experienced the desegregation of its school system through a federal court order. Despite his background as a strong segregationist, Williams did not defy the court.
After his term, Williams resumed his law practice. He endorsed Gerald Ford in 1976 and Ronald W. Reagan in 1980, rather than the Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
Read more about this topic: John Bell Williams
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