J. B. Stoner

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J. B. Stoner

Born April 13, 1924(1924-04-13)
Flag of the United StatesWalker County, Georgia
Died April 23, 2005 (aged 81)
Flag of the United States La Fayette, Georgia
Occupation Attorney
Parents Jesse Benjamin Stoner Sr.
Minnie Stoner

Jesse Benjamin "J.B." Stoner (April 13, 1924 - April 23, 2005) was an American segregationist who in 1958 bombed the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a long-time chairman of the National States' Rights Party and publisher of its newsletter, The Thunderbolt. Stoner ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for several political offices to promote a white supremacist agenda.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Stoner came from a family which had a sight-seeing company in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and in nearby Chattanooga. Stoner's father Jesse Benjamin Sr. died when J.B. was five and his mother Minnie died when J.B. was seventeen.

At a young age, Stoner admired segregationist politician Theodore Bilbo. Stoner was active in white supremacist groups and traveled to Washington D.C., to support Bilbo.

[edit] Education and career

A case of childhood polio, which impaired a leg, kept Stoner from serving during World War II. After the war, Stoner rechartered a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Chattanooga. Stoner once said that "being a Jew [should] be a crime punishable by death". He ran the National States' Rights Party, which attracted such fringe political figures as A. Roswell Thompson, a perennial Democratic candidate for governor of Louisiana and mayor of New Orleans.

Stoner earned a law degree, and served as the attorney for James Earl Ray. The FBI also investigated Stoner in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and for bombings of black churches, such as the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

Stoner ran for governor of Georgia in 1970. During this campaign, where he called himself the "candidate of love," he described Hitler as "too moderate", black people as an extension of the ape family, and Jews as "vipers of hell." The primary was won by civil rights supporter and future U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He then ran for the United States Senate in 1972, finishing fifth in the Democratic Party primary with over 40,000 votes. The nomination and election went to Sam Nunn.

During his Senate campaign, the FCC ruled that television stations had to play his ads due to the fairness doctrine. His ads included the word "nigger" and claims by Stoner that "The main reason why the niggers want integration is because niggers want our white women". Stoner also ran for lieutenant governor in 1974 and the United States Senate in 1980. His best showing was 73,000 votes (10 percent) in his campaign for lieutenant governor in 1974, when he sought to succeed Lester G. Maddox in Georgia's second highest constitutional office. Maddox lost the gubernatorial nomination that year to former legislator George D. Busbee, who then overwhelmed the Republican candidate, Ronnie Thompson, the mayor of Macon, in the general election.

In his 1974 lieutenant governor campaign, Stoner placed signs on the Macon Transit Company buses, which Mayor Thompson ordered removed. Stoner promptly went to federal court to secure the return of his paid signs under his First Amendment protection. He even, tongue-in-cheek, urged Georgia blacks to support his nemesis Thompson for governor. Stoner polled more votes for lieutenant governor than were cast for all four candidates in the Republican gubernatorial primary, which Thompson had only barely won. The lieutenant governor's position went to Zell Miller, a former chief-of-staff to Maddox who later became governor and U.S. senator.

In 1978, Stoner ran in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and polled 37,654 votes (5.4 percent) against Busbee, who went on to secure a second term against the Republican Rodney M. Cook of Atlanta.

Stoner was indicted for the 1958 bombing of an empty church in Birmingham, Alabama. He was then convicted in 1980. Stoner appealed for three years, and when his appeals ran out,[1] he was a fugitive for four months.[2] In 1984, he was permanently removed from the roster of lawyers who may appear before the United States Supreme Court.[3] After his release from prison in 1986,[4] Stoner ran for lieutenant governor in 1990.

[edit] Death and afterward

Until his death at eighty-one, Stoner lived in northwest Georgia at a nursing home. His left side was partially paralyzed from a stroke.[5] Stoner is buried at Forrest Hills Cemetery at the foot of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga.

[edit] Works

[edit] Published works

  • Stoner, J.B. [1946]. The gospel of Jesus Christ versus the Jews : Christianity's attitude toward the Jews as explained from the Holy Bible. Chattanooga, Tenn: Stoner Anti-Jewish Party, 58. OCLC 17628735. 
  • Stoner, J.B. [1974]. Christ not a Jew and Jews not God's chosen people. Marietta, Ga.: Thunderbolt, 11. OCLC 1674734. 

[edit] Letters

Ephemeral materials, 198-- by J B Stoner; Crusade Against Corruption. Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements, University of Kansas.

[edit] Audiovisual recordings

[edit] References

  1. ^ Associated Press (1982-08-14). "AROUND THE NATION; Conviction in Bombing In Alabama Is Upheld". New York Times.
  2. ^ UPI (1983-06-03)."AROUND THE NATION; Segregationist Gives Up To Serve Bombing Term". New York Times.
  3. ^ UPI (1984-10-04). "High Court Bars J. B. Stoner". New York Times.
  4. ^ UPI (1986-11-06). "Bomber Gets Prison Release." New York Times.
  5. ^ Holley, Joe (2005-04-28). "Virulent Segregationist J.B. Stoner Dies". Washington Post: B06.