Fob James
Encyclopedia
Forrest Hood James, Jr., known as Fob James (born September 15, 1934), is an American politician, a civil engineer, and an all-American half-back. He served two terms as the 48th Governor of Alabama
, from 1979 to 1983 as a Democrat
, and again from 1995 to 1999 as a Republican
.
, a private high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, James was a four-year letterman (1952–1955) and All-America
n halfback for the Auburn University
football
team playing for head coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan
. He received a civil engineering
degree in 1957. He played professional football in Canada as a member of the Montreal Alouettes
during the 1956 season and entered the Army to serve two years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
From 1958–59, James was a heavy construction engineer with Burford Tractor Company in Montgomery, AL. In 1959, his second born, Gregory Fleming James, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Needing money to pay Greg's medical bills, James left Montgomery in 1960 to take a job as construction superintendent with Laidlaw Contracting Company, a road-paving company in Mobile, AL. In 1961, the James decided that he could earn a living from the manufacture of plastic-coated barbells. In 1962, he founded Diversified Products Inc., a manufacturer of fitness equipment known for the plastic-disc barbells filled with "Orbatron," which DP patented. The company name had been changed to "Diversified Products Corporation" after originally being called Health-Disc Inc.In addition to physical fitness equipment, the company manufactured ballasts and counterweights for farms, industry and trucking. James founded DP in his basement and, over the next 15 years, the company ultimately grew to employ 1,500 people with plants in Opelika, AL, Los Angeles, and Toronto, with sales of about $1 billion annually. James served as the CEO of DP until it was bought by the Liggett Group in 1977.
James lost his 8-year-old son to cystic fibrosis. The Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, established in 1981, is named in his honor. James played an integral role in the establishment of the Center.
Additionally, from 1972 to 1974, James served as president of the Alabama Citizens for Transportation, a statewide committee which developed a twenty-year highway program subsequently adopted by the Alabama Legislature.
296,196 votes to 210,089 votes. In the second primary, James easily outdistanced Baxley and defeated the Republican candidate, Guy Hunt, in the November general election.
During James' first administration, the state faced considerable financial difficulties; however, James was reasonably successful in attaining his education reform package, improving the state's mental health system, rectifying some prison overcrowding problems and re-establishing the once financially strapped Medicaid system. Furthermore, James consolidated various state agencies to reduce state spending. Additionally, he implemented a ten percent State spending cut, instituted a hiring freeze and laid off a considerable number of the state employee workforce. He also chose to emphasize funding for k-12 education over that for Alabama's colleges and universities, a highly contested action. He also worked to acquire stiffer penalties for convicted drug traffickers and was quite instrumental in the improvement of the state's highways as a result of earmarking a substantial amount of money for such improvements from the state's oil windfall funds. However, James was unsuccessful in his attempts to: have a new state constitution drafted, levy a fuel tax, rectify the court-ordered desegregation of some of the state's post-secondary institutions and secure passage of his bill to eliminate income tax deductions for Social Security payments.
One of his greatest accomplishments was his success in integrating Alabama government. During his inauguration, he "claim(ed) for all Alabamians a New Beginning (his campaign theme) free from racism and discrimination." During his first term as governor, he named Oscar Adams
to fill a vacancy on the Alabama Supreme Court, the first African American chosen for such a position. In addition, he appointed other blacks to cabinet positions, including Gary Cooper as director of the Department of Pensions and Security, the first African American to be named to head a major state agency in Alabama in a century.
During his first term, James caused controversy by his religious beliefs, specifically, his signing into law a measure passed by the legislature allowing teachers to lead willing students in prayer. The law was declared unconstitutional in May 1983.
to return to office for a fourth and final term. Out of office, however, James began to yearn for a return to the governorship, and in both the 1986 and 1990 Democratic primaries was defeated in both races. Living a semi-retired life while out of office, he partnered with his sons in several businesses. He managed and partly owned Orange Beach Marina, served as the CEO of Coastal Erosion Control, a company that worked to prevent coastal erosion, and worked as the CEO of Escambia County Environmental Corporation, which develops landfills and waste incinerators. In the spring of 1994, James's desire to be governor led him to switch parties one more time, and he qualified at the last moment as a Republican candidate. James defeated Folsom by a narrow margin and won his second term as governor, this time as a Republican.
James stressed again what he called "fundamental American values" and pressed his consistent support for K-12 education. The legislature joined him in passing an educational reform package known as the James Educational Foundation Act. This important legislation required local school systems that were not already at a minimum level of support to raise local property taxes to 10 mills, and it increased the number of credit hours in academic subjects that students were required to have in order to graduate. This legislation also empowered the state superintendent of education to take control of schools that scored poorly on national achievement tests. Unfortunately, in his quest to improve K-12 education, he stripped funding from the state's colleges and universities and further strained relations between higher education and the governor's office.
James took a predictable "get tough" position on crime and criminals when he and his prison commissioner, Ronald Jones, reinstituted chain gangs for Alabama's prison inmates. The Governor approved other strict policies instituted by Jones but balked at the commissioner's suggestion that chain gangs be extended to include female prisoners, and James put an end to the chain gang shortly thereafter because of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of community human rights groups. Regarding crime issues, James also cited as one of his "major accomplishments" the revision of the Alabama Criminal Code, which made it one of the toughest in the U.S.
Unlike his moderate first term, however, James began to reflect an individualistic states' rights attitude. He refused to accept federal monies from the U.S. Department of Education's Goals 2000 program because he believed that accepting the money would lead to increased federal involvement and control over the state's schools. When Secretary of Education Richard Riley promised that the Department of Education would not interfere in the use of the funds, Alabama's state board of education ignored the governor's role and voted to accept the funding and use it to purchase computers for K–12 classrooms. In a similar act, James "seceded" from the National Governors' Association and was the only head of a state to refuse to attend this organization's meetings.
James was also criticized for his religious beliefs. At a 1995 Alabama State Board of Education meeting, James criticized the theory of evolution
in textbooks by imitating a "slump-shouldered ape turning into an upright human". He supported the adoption of a textbook warning sticker that stated, among other things, that "No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact."
James's longest and most publicized religious battle, however, came during the controversy surrounding the posting of the Ten Commandments and the offering of a daily prayer in the courtroom of Etowah County Judge Roy S. Moore. In a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. District Court Dudge Ira DeMent, an appointee of President George H. W. Bush
, ordered the removal of the commandment plaque and cessation of the prayers because they violated the First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state. Judge Moore appealed the decision, and James supported his position, threatening for a brief period to mobilize the Alabama National Guard and use force if necessary to prevent the removal of the Ten Commandments plaque from Moore's courtroom. In October 1997, Judge DeMent issued another sweeping and controversial order forbidding certain religious practices in DeKalb County's public schools. James verbally attacked DeMent's order as yet another illegitimate intrusion by federal courts into local affairs. The judge's order was, in part, reversed shortly after James left office, allowing students on their own to hold religious meetings on school grounds.
During his second term James, who firmly supported the death penalty, presided over seven executions
by electric chair
. (Alabama resumed executions in 1983.) However, in one of his last official acts as Governor, James commuted the death sentence of Judith Ann Neelley
to life in prison. This remains, , the only post-Furman
commutation of a death sentence by a Governor in Alabama. James explained that, in his view, executing Neelley would not have been just. His reason was that the Neelley case was the only time he had seen a judge overrule the jury in issuing a death penalty.
In his campaign for re-election to a second term, James faced strong opposition in the Republican party primary from Winton Blount III, a fellow conservative and a millionaire businessman, who sharply criticized religious right
influence on James. James struggled through the bitter Republican primary runoff and defeated Blount but had little money left to finance the general election campaign. Lieutenant Governor Don Siegelman
, on the other hand, easily won the Democratic primary on the sole issue of establishing a state lottery to provide college scholarships. James opposed the lottery and was soundly defeated by Siegelman in the general election in 1998. He returned to semi-retirement, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and grandchildren.
James helped arrange a State of Alabama-paid voluntary return of Lester Coleman
, a former journalist accused by the Federal Government of the United States
of committing perjury who was residing in Europe, to the United States. According to Redding Pitt, a federal government attorney from Montgomery, Alabama
, Coleman called James, an acquaintance of Coleman from the 1970s, for help in his case. Coleman promoted alternative theories regarding the Pan Am Flight 103
incident, and his perjury charges stemmed from his statements about Pan Am 103. Joe Boohaker, Coleman's attorney, said that James apparently knew Coleman from the time when Coleman worked at a Birmingham, Alabama
radio station.
In a widely reported incident, James remarked that he wished the state's government ran as well as the Waffle House Restaurants he enjoyed frequenting. Editorial observers responded by suggesting that running a state was significantly more complicated than running a restaurant.
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, from 1979 to 1983 as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, and again from 1995 to 1999 as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.
Education, football, and early career
After graduation in 1952 from Baylor SchoolBaylor School
Baylor School is a private, coeducational prep school on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The school was founded in 1893 and since 1915 has been located on the same hillside site by the Tennessee River. The school went through several incarnations: moving from an all-male military academy...
, a private high school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, James was a four-year letterman (1952–1955) and All-America
All-America
An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...
n halfback for the Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team playing for head coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan
Ralph Jordan
James Ralph "Shug" Jordan was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach of football and basketball. He served as the head football coach at Auburn from 1951 to 1975, where he compiled a record of 176–83–6. He is the winningest coach in Auburn Tigers football...
. He received a civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
degree in 1957. He played professional football in Canada as a member of the Montreal Alouettes
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions...
during the 1956 season and entered the Army to serve two years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
From 1958–59, James was a heavy construction engineer with Burford Tractor Company in Montgomery, AL. In 1959, his second born, Gregory Fleming James, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Needing money to pay Greg's medical bills, James left Montgomery in 1960 to take a job as construction superintendent with Laidlaw Contracting Company, a road-paving company in Mobile, AL. In 1961, the James decided that he could earn a living from the manufacture of plastic-coated barbells. In 1962, he founded Diversified Products Inc., a manufacturer of fitness equipment known for the plastic-disc barbells filled with "Orbatron," which DP patented. The company name had been changed to "Diversified Products Corporation" after originally being called Health-Disc Inc.In addition to physical fitness equipment, the company manufactured ballasts and counterweights for farms, industry and trucking. James founded DP in his basement and, over the next 15 years, the company ultimately grew to employ 1,500 people with plants in Opelika, AL, Los Angeles, and Toronto, with sales of about $1 billion annually. James served as the CEO of DP until it was bought by the Liggett Group in 1977.
James lost his 8-year-old son to cystic fibrosis. The Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, established in 1981, is named in his honor. James played an integral role in the establishment of the Center.
Additionally, from 1972 to 1974, James served as president of the Alabama Citizens for Transportation, a statewide committee which developed a twenty-year highway program subsequently adopted by the Alabama Legislature.
First term
During his 1978 campaign for Governor, James campaigned as a "born-again Democrat". James had left the Democratic Party in the early 1970s but returned to the party before the election. In the first primary, he defeated Bill BaxleyBill Baxley
William Joseph Baxley II is an American Democratic politician and attorney.He was born in Dothan, Alabama and attended law school at the University of Alabama, graduating in 1964. He served two terms as Attorney General of Alabama, from 1971–1979; at the age of 27, he was the youngest to hold that...
296,196 votes to 210,089 votes. In the second primary, James easily outdistanced Baxley and defeated the Republican candidate, Guy Hunt, in the November general election.
During James' first administration, the state faced considerable financial difficulties; however, James was reasonably successful in attaining his education reform package, improving the state's mental health system, rectifying some prison overcrowding problems and re-establishing the once financially strapped Medicaid system. Furthermore, James consolidated various state agencies to reduce state spending. Additionally, he implemented a ten percent State spending cut, instituted a hiring freeze and laid off a considerable number of the state employee workforce. He also chose to emphasize funding for k-12 education over that for Alabama's colleges and universities, a highly contested action. He also worked to acquire stiffer penalties for convicted drug traffickers and was quite instrumental in the improvement of the state's highways as a result of earmarking a substantial amount of money for such improvements from the state's oil windfall funds. However, James was unsuccessful in his attempts to: have a new state constitution drafted, levy a fuel tax, rectify the court-ordered desegregation of some of the state's post-secondary institutions and secure passage of his bill to eliminate income tax deductions for Social Security payments.
One of his greatest accomplishments was his success in integrating Alabama government. During his inauguration, he "claim(ed) for all Alabamians a New Beginning (his campaign theme) free from racism and discrimination." During his first term as governor, he named Oscar Adams
Oscar Adams
Oscar William Adams, Jr. was the first African-American Alabama Supreme Court justice and the first African American elected to statewide office in Alabama ....
to fill a vacancy on the Alabama Supreme Court, the first African American chosen for such a position. In addition, he appointed other blacks to cabinet positions, including Gary Cooper as director of the Department of Pensions and Security, the first African American to be named to head a major state agency in Alabama in a century.
During his first term, James caused controversy by his religious beliefs, specifically, his signing into law a measure passed by the legislature allowing teachers to lead willing students in prayer. The law was declared unconstitutional in May 1983.
Between terms
James's decision not to run again for governor in 1982 eased the way for George WallaceGeorge Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
to return to office for a fourth and final term. Out of office, however, James began to yearn for a return to the governorship, and in both the 1986 and 1990 Democratic primaries was defeated in both races. Living a semi-retired life while out of office, he partnered with his sons in several businesses. He managed and partly owned Orange Beach Marina, served as the CEO of Coastal Erosion Control, a company that worked to prevent coastal erosion, and worked as the CEO of Escambia County Environmental Corporation, which develops landfills and waste incinerators. In the spring of 1994, James's desire to be governor led him to switch parties one more time, and he qualified at the last moment as a Republican candidate. James defeated Folsom by a narrow margin and won his second term as governor, this time as a Republican.
Second term
During James's second term, the Governor appointed Aubrey Miller, a black Alabamian, to head the Alabama Tourism Department. He also appointed Beth Chapman, the first woman in Alabama’s history to serve as Appointments Secretary, to his Cabinet.James stressed again what he called "fundamental American values" and pressed his consistent support for K-12 education. The legislature joined him in passing an educational reform package known as the James Educational Foundation Act. This important legislation required local school systems that were not already at a minimum level of support to raise local property taxes to 10 mills, and it increased the number of credit hours in academic subjects that students were required to have in order to graduate. This legislation also empowered the state superintendent of education to take control of schools that scored poorly on national achievement tests. Unfortunately, in his quest to improve K-12 education, he stripped funding from the state's colleges and universities and further strained relations between higher education and the governor's office.
James took a predictable "get tough" position on crime and criminals when he and his prison commissioner, Ronald Jones, reinstituted chain gangs for Alabama's prison inmates. The Governor approved other strict policies instituted by Jones but balked at the commissioner's suggestion that chain gangs be extended to include female prisoners, and James put an end to the chain gang shortly thereafter because of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of community human rights groups. Regarding crime issues, James also cited as one of his "major accomplishments" the revision of the Alabama Criminal Code, which made it one of the toughest in the U.S.
Unlike his moderate first term, however, James began to reflect an individualistic states' rights attitude. He refused to accept federal monies from the U.S. Department of Education's Goals 2000 program because he believed that accepting the money would lead to increased federal involvement and control over the state's schools. When Secretary of Education Richard Riley promised that the Department of Education would not interfere in the use of the funds, Alabama's state board of education ignored the governor's role and voted to accept the funding and use it to purchase computers for K–12 classrooms. In a similar act, James "seceded" from the National Governors' Association and was the only head of a state to refuse to attend this organization's meetings.
James was also criticized for his religious beliefs. At a 1995 Alabama State Board of Education meeting, James criticized the theory of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
in textbooks by imitating a "slump-shouldered ape turning into an upright human". He supported the adoption of a textbook warning sticker that stated, among other things, that "No one was present when life first appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact."
James's longest and most publicized religious battle, however, came during the controversy surrounding the posting of the Ten Commandments and the offering of a daily prayer in the courtroom of Etowah County Judge Roy S. Moore. In a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. District Court Dudge Ira DeMent, an appointee of President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, ordered the removal of the commandment plaque and cessation of the prayers because they violated the First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state. Judge Moore appealed the decision, and James supported his position, threatening for a brief period to mobilize the Alabama National Guard and use force if necessary to prevent the removal of the Ten Commandments plaque from Moore's courtroom. In October 1997, Judge DeMent issued another sweeping and controversial order forbidding certain religious practices in DeKalb County's public schools. James verbally attacked DeMent's order as yet another illegitimate intrusion by federal courts into local affairs. The judge's order was, in part, reversed shortly after James left office, allowing students on their own to hold religious meetings on school grounds.
During his second term James, who firmly supported the death penalty, presided over seven executions
Capital punishment in Alabama
Capital punishment is legal in Alabama, as it is in most U.S. states. Capital punishment dates back to 1812, when present-day Alabama was still part of the Mississippi Territory....
by electric chair
Electric chair
Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body...
. (Alabama resumed executions in 1983.) However, in one of his last official acts as Governor, James commuted the death sentence of Judith Ann Neelley
Alvin and Judith Neelley
Alvin Howard Neelley, Jr. and Judith Ann Adams Neelley are an American couple responsible for two torture murders. They each were convicted of the kidnappings and murders of Lisa Ann Millican and Janice Chatman. Judy Neelley was sentenced to death by the state of Alabama in 1983, but her sentence...
to life in prison. This remains, , the only post-Furman
Furman v. Georgia
Furman v. Georgia, was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. The case led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States, which came to an end when Gregg v. Georgia was...
commutation of a death sentence by a Governor in Alabama. James explained that, in his view, executing Neelley would not have been just. His reason was that the Neelley case was the only time he had seen a judge overrule the jury in issuing a death penalty.
In his campaign for re-election to a second term, James faced strong opposition in the Republican party primary from Winton Blount III, a fellow conservative and a millionaire businessman, who sharply criticized religious right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
influence on James. James struggled through the bitter Republican primary runoff and defeated Blount but had little money left to finance the general election campaign. Lieutenant Governor Don Siegelman
Don Siegelman
Don Eugene Siegelman is an American Democratic Party politician who held numerous offices in Alabama. He was the 51st Governor of Alabama for one term from 1999 to 2003...
, on the other hand, easily won the Democratic primary on the sole issue of establishing a state lottery to provide college scholarships. James opposed the lottery and was soundly defeated by Siegelman in the general election in 1998. He returned to semi-retirement, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and grandchildren.
James helped arrange a State of Alabama-paid voluntary return of Lester Coleman
Lester Coleman
Lester Knox Coleman II is an American who was the co-author of the 1993 book Trail of the Octopus, The Untold Story of Pan Am 103, in which he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103...
, a former journalist accused by the Federal Government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
of committing perjury who was residing in Europe, to the United States. According to Redding Pitt, a federal government attorney from Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, Coleman called James, an acquaintance of Coleman from the 1970s, for help in his case. Coleman promoted alternative theories regarding the Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
incident, and his perjury charges stemmed from his statements about Pan Am 103. Joe Boohaker, Coleman's attorney, said that James apparently knew Coleman from the time when Coleman worked at a Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
radio station.
In a widely reported incident, James remarked that he wished the state's government ran as well as the Waffle House Restaurants he enjoyed frequenting. Editorial observers responded by suggesting that running a state was significantly more complicated than running a restaurant.