Jim Clark (sheriff)
Encyclopedia
James Gardner Clark, Jr. (September 17, 1922, Elba, Coffee County, Alabama
- June 4, 2007) of Selma, Alabama
, was the sheriff
of Dallas County, Alabama
from 1955 to 1966. He was one of the officials responsible for the violent arrests of civil rights protestors during
the Selma to Montgomery marches
.
. He was a cattle
rancher when lifelong friend Governor of Alabama Jim Folsom
appointed him as sheriff in 1955.
engaged in a voters drive in Dallas County
, of which Selma is the seat. Clark was sheriff of Selma, and vocally opposed to racial integration
, wearing a button reading "Never" (integrate). Clark wore military style clothing, and carried a cattle prod
in addition to his pistol and club.
In response to the voters drive, Clark recruited a horse mounted posse
of Ku Klux Klan
members and supporters. Together with the Highway Patrolmen
of Albert J. Lingo
, the posse was intended to "operate ... as a mobile anti-civil rights force", and appeared at several Alabama towns outside of Clark's jurisdiction to assault and threaten civil rights workers.
In Selma, the SNCC campaign was met with violence and intimidation by Clark, who waited at the entrance to the county courthouse, beating and arresting registrants at the slightest provocation. At one point, Clark mass arrested
around 300 students who were holding a silent protest outside the courthouse, force marching them with cattle prods to a detention centre three miles away. By 1965, only 300 of the city's 15,000 potential black voters were registered.
These actions led to a widespread comparison of Clark to Eugene "Bull" Connor
, and to James Baldwin
saying of Clark,
, a peaceful protest march was met by Alabama state patrolmen, who beat the protesters after street lights suddenly went out. A young protester, Jimmie Lee Jackson
, attempted to protect his mother and octogenarian grandfather from police beating, and was shot in the stomach by Corporal James Bonard Fowler
of the highway patrol. Jackson died eight days later of his injuries. Jim Clark was present on the police side at Marion, despite it being outside his jurisdiction.
In response to the failed registration campaign, and as a direct response to the killing of
Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr.
's Southern Christian Leadership Conference
organized a protest march from Selma to Montgomery
. Selma was chosen by civil rights activists for protests because they believed that the volatile, short-tempered Clark would overreact. According to Wilson Baker, director of public safety, when Clark heard this on a surveillance tape made of the meeting, "He'd scream bloody murder that he'd never do it again, he wouldn't fall into that trap again and go out the next day and do the same thing".
On March 7, 1965, around 600 protesters left Selma. Jim Clark's officers and posse joined with Alabama state troopers in attacking the protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
on the outskirts of Selma in an event that came to be known as Bloody Sunday, resulting in the hospitalization of over 60 protesters. That evening, the American Broadcasting Company
interrupted the television premiere of Judgment at Nuremberg
, to show scenes of the violence to around 48 million Americans. Clark manhandled activists such as Amelia Boynton Robinson
, Rev. F.D. Reese and Rev. C.T. Vivian in front of news cameras gaining international coverage. This was a critical event in the United States Congress
passing the Voting Rights Act
.
In an obituary, the Washington Post noted:
and Wilson Baker wanted to blunt the force of the campaign by exercising restraint but the voter registration offices were Clark's responsibility. In the 1966 election, following the passage of the Voter Registration Act, Wilson Baker defeated Clark, in part because so many blacks had registered to vote. Clark attempted to have 1,600 ballots cast for his opponent suppressed due to "irregularities", but court orders placed the votes back on record and retired him from his job.
s and in 1978, during a period of financial hardship, served nine months in prison for conspiracy to import marijuana. In 2006, he told the Montgomery Advertiser
, "Basically, I'd do the same thing today if I had to do it all over again." He died in Elba, Alabama
in June 2007 from a stroke and heart conditions.
Coffee County, Alabama
Coffee County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of General John Coffee. As of 2010 the population was 49,948. Its county seats are Elba and Enterprise....
- June 4, 2007) of Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
, was the sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
of Dallas County, Alabama
Dallas County, Alabama
Dallas County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander J. Dallas. The county seat is Selma.- History :...
from 1955 to 1966. He was one of the officials responsible for the violent arrests of civil rights protestors during
the Selma to Montgomery marches
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
.
Early life
Clark served with the U.S. Army Air Force in the Aleutian Islands during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was a cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
rancher when lifelong friend Governor of Alabama Jim Folsom
Jim Folsom
James Elisha Folsom, Sr. , commonly known as Jim Folsom or "Big Jim", was the 42nd Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1947 to 1951, and again from 1955 to 1959. Born in Coffee County, Alabama, Folsom is perhaps best remembered as being among the first Southern governors to embrace...
appointed him as sheriff in 1955.
Sheriff of Selma
In 1964 and 1965, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
engaged in a voters drive in Dallas County
Dallas County
Dallas County may refer to:Places in the USA:* Dallas County, Alabama* Dallas County, Arkansas* Dallas County, Iowa* Dallas County, Missouri* Dallas County, Texas, the ninth most populous county in the United StatesOther uses:...
, of which Selma is the seat. Clark was sheriff of Selma, and vocally opposed to racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
, wearing a button reading "Never" (integrate). Clark wore military style clothing, and carried a cattle prod
Cattle prod
A cattle prod, also called a stock prod, is a handheld device commonly used to make cattle or other livestock move by striking or poking them, or in the case of a Hot-Shot-type prod, through a relatively high-voltage, low-current electric shock...
in addition to his pistol and club.
In response to the voters drive, Clark recruited a horse mounted posse
Posse comitatus (common law)
Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...
of Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
members and supporters. Together with the Highway Patrolmen
Alabama Highway Patrol
The Alabama Highway Patrol is a division of the Alabama Department of Public Safety and is the highway patrol agency for Alabama, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state. It was created to protect the lives, property and constitutional rights of people in Alabama.In 1971, the Alabama Highway...
of Albert J. Lingo
Albert J. Lingo
Colonel Albert J. Lingo, also known as Al Lingo was a career Alabama Highway Patrolman who served as Director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety from 1963 to 1965, including the turbulent early 1960s years marked by marches and demonstrations that characterized the civil rights movement in...
, the posse was intended to "operate ... as a mobile anti-civil rights force", and appeared at several Alabama towns outside of Clark's jurisdiction to assault and threaten civil rights workers.
In Selma, the SNCC campaign was met with violence and intimidation by Clark, who waited at the entrance to the county courthouse, beating and arresting registrants at the slightest provocation. At one point, Clark mass arrested
Mass arrest
A mass arrest occurs when the police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at illegal protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result...
around 300 students who were holding a silent protest outside the courthouse, force marching them with cattle prods to a detention centre three miles away. By 1965, only 300 of the city's 15,000 potential black voters were registered.
These actions led to a widespread comparison of Clark to Eugene "Bull" Connor
Bull Connor
Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor was the Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, during the American Civil Rights Movement...
, and to James Baldwin
James Baldwin
James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist and civil rights activist.James Baldwin may also refer to:-Writers:*James Baldwin , American educator, writer and administrator...
saying of Clark,
I suggest that what has happened to the white Southerner is in some ways much worse than what has happened to the Negroes there ... One has to assume that he is a man like me, but he does not know what drives him to use the club, to menace with a gun, and to use a cattle prod against a woman's breasts ... Their moral lives have been destroyed by a plague called color.
Bloody Sunday
On February 18, 1965, in Marion, AlabamaMarion, Alabama
Marion is the county seat of Perry County, Alabama. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 3,511. First called Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed after a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.-Geography:...
, a peaceful protest march was met by Alabama state patrolmen, who beat the protesters after street lights suddenly went out. A young protester, Jimmie Lee Jackson
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Jimmie Lee Jackson was a civil rights protestor who was shot and killed by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler in 1965. Jackson was unarmed. His death inspired the Selma to Montgomery marches, an important event in the American Civil Rights movement. He was 26 years old.-Personal...
, attempted to protect his mother and octogenarian grandfather from police beating, and was shot in the stomach by Corporal James Bonard Fowler
James Bonard Fowler
James Bonard Fowler became a significant player in escalating the acute racial conflict that led to the Selma to Montgomery marches in the American Civil Rights Movement...
of the highway patrol. Jackson died eight days later of his injuries. Jim Clark was present on the police side at Marion, despite it being outside his jurisdiction.
In response to the failed registration campaign, and as a direct response to the killing of
Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
's Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
organized a protest march from Selma to Montgomery
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...
. Selma was chosen by civil rights activists for protests because they believed that the volatile, short-tempered Clark would overreact. According to Wilson Baker, director of public safety, when Clark heard this on a surveillance tape made of the meeting, "He'd scream bloody murder that he'd never do it again, he wouldn't fall into that trap again and go out the next day and do the same thing".
On March 7, 1965, around 600 protesters left Selma. Jim Clark's officers and posse joined with Alabama state troopers in attacking the protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Edmund Pettus Bridge
The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a bridge that carries U.S. Highway 80 across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general and U.S. Senator from Alabama. The bridge is a steel through arch bridge with a central span of...
on the outskirts of Selma in an event that came to be known as Bloody Sunday, resulting in the hospitalization of over 60 protesters. That evening, the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
interrupted the television premiere of Judgment at Nuremberg
Judgment at Nuremberg
Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 American drama film dealing with the Holocaust and the Post-World War II Nuremberg Trials. It was written by Abby Mann, directed by Stanley Kramer, and starred Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy...
, to show scenes of the violence to around 48 million Americans. Clark manhandled activists such as Amelia Boynton Robinson
Amelia Boynton Robinson
Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. A key figure in the 1965 march that became known as Bloody Sunday, she later became vice-president of the Schiller Institute affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche. She was awarded the Martin Luther King,...
, Rev. F.D. Reese and Rev. C.T. Vivian in front of news cameras gaining international coverage. This was a critical event in the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
passing the Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
.
In an obituary, the Washington Post noted:
Mr. Clark's most visible moment came March 7, 1965, at the start of a peaceful voting rights march from Selma to the capital city of Montgomery.
Mr. Clark and his men were stationed near Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. Alabama State Trooper John Cloud ordered the hundreds of marchers to disperse. When they did not, Mr. Clark commanded his mounted "posse" to charge into the crowd. Tear gas heightened the chaos, and protesters were beaten....
Captured on national television, the Bloody Sunday incident spurred widespread revulsion. Even Gov. George C. Wallace, who had earlier sparked a national showdown over a refusal to integrate public schools, reprimanded the state troopers and Mr. Clark.
Loss of sheriff's office
The Mayor of Selma Joseph SmithermanJoseph Smitherman
Joseph T. "Joe" Smitherman was an American politician who served more than 35 years as mayor of Selma, Alabama. He was in office during the Selma to Montgomery marches of the African-American Civil Rights Movement....
and Wilson Baker wanted to blunt the force of the campaign by exercising restraint but the voter registration offices were Clark's responsibility. In the 1966 election, following the passage of the Voter Registration Act, Wilson Baker defeated Clark, in part because so many blacks had registered to vote. Clark attempted to have 1,600 ballots cast for his opponent suppressed due to "irregularities", but court orders placed the votes back on record and retired him from his job.
Later life and death
Following his defeat, Clark sold mobile homeMobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...
s and in 1978, during a period of financial hardship, served nine months in prison for conspiracy to import marijuana. In 2006, he told the Montgomery Advertiser
Montgomery Advertiser
The Montgomery Advertiser is a daily newspaper located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.- History:The newspaper began publication in 1829 as The Planter's Gazette. It became the Montgomery Advertiser in 1833. In 1903, R.F. Hudson, a young Alabama newspaperman, joined the staff of the...
, "Basically, I'd do the same thing today if I had to do it all over again." He died in Elba, Alabama
Elba, Alabama
Elba is a city in Coffee County, Alabama. At the time of the 2000 U.S. census, its population was 4,185.Elba is the official county seat of Coffee County, though Coffee County has two County Courthouses, with the other one being located in the town of Enterprise...
in June 2007 from a stroke and heart conditions.
External links
- History of the Selma actions
- Obituary of Jim Clark (economist.com)
- Movie