John Bell Williams

John Bell Williams was born in 1918 in Raymond, the county seat of Hinds County, near the state capital of Jackson. He graduated in 1938 from Hinds Community College, then known as Hinds Junior College. 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. He retired from active service after losing the lower part of his left arm as a result of a bomber crash in 1944.[1]

In November 1946, Williams was elected at the age of 27 (he turned 28 in December) to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from the 7th congressional district. (It was eliminated in 1950 and he was later elected from the 4th and 3rd congressional districts. This was redefined in 2003.) 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 supported Strom Thurmond’s Dixiecrat presidential campaign, whose primary platform was racial segregation. Thurmond easily carried the electoral vote in Mississippi and three other Deep South 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',[2] and subsequently signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto. Williams supported the Democratic Stevenson-Sparkman campaign in 1952, but he favored unpledged Democratic electors in 1956 and 1960.

In 1964, Williams endorsed Republican Barry Goldwater in the general election against incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson and helped raise funds for Goldwater in Mississippi.[3] 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 a Democrat and retained his seat in 1966. Watson soon became a Republican.

Williams died in Rankin County on March 25, 1983,[6] being found dead in his apartment the following day; the cause was ruled to be a heart attack.[7] He was buried on March 28, 1983 and his funeral was held in the First Baptist Church in Jackson the following day.[8]

• United States Congress. "John Bell Williams (id: W000517)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• John Bell Williams at Find a Grave