Richmond Flowers Sr.
Richmond Flowers Sr. | |
---|---|
Alabama State Senator from Houston County (Dothan) | |
In office 1955–1963 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Richmond McDavid Flowers November 11, 1918 Richmond M. Flowers Jr. |
Residence(s) | Dothan, Alabama |
Alma mater | Auburn University University of Alabama Law School |
Occupation | Attorney |
Military service | |
Allegiance | United States |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1942–1946 |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Richmond McDavid Flowers Sr. (November 11, 1918 – August 9, 2007) was the
.Early life, education, and military service
Flowers was born on November 11, 1918 (
Flowers entered the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa in 1941, but interrupted his law school studies in 1942 when drafted into the United States Army.[5] He graduated from Officer Candidate School in Camp Barkeley, Texas.[6] He was assigned to Fort Oglethorpe, then Fort McPherson, and then to Manila and Tokyo, where he was a hospital administrator assigned to General Headquarters, Far East Command during the occupation of Japan.[7] He was honorably discharged in 1946.[8]
After being discharged from the military, Flowers returned to Dothan, where he worked for the Dothan Bank and Trust Company, which his family owned.[9] Flowers returned to the University of Alabama School of Law.[10] He later co-founded Flowers Insurance Agency.[11]
Political career
Flowers was elected to the
As an intraparty opponent of Wallace, Flowers was invited to speak at the
During his tenure as attorney general, Flowers won two landmark voting rights cases, Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims, before the United States Supreme Court. He also was instrumental in allowing women to serve on juries in Alabama.
In 1966, Flowers ran in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in an effort to succeed the term-limited George Wallace. He faced former
Flowers prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan and fought for school desegregation. He reported that crosses were burned in his yard, and bricks were thrown through his windows.[14]
Conviction
In 1968, Flowers and two others were indicted on federal charges of a conspiracy to extort payments from life insurance companies that sought licenses to conduct business in Alabama.[15][16] The three were convicted the following year, and Flowers was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was paroled in 1973 after serving 16 months. Flowers maintained that the prosecution was politically motivated by opponents of his anti-segregation stance, but the appeals courts affirmed the conviction.[15][16] The portion of the Hobbs Act under which Flowers was convicted was later struck down as unconstitutionally vague.[17] President Jimmy Carter granted him a pardon in 1978,[15][16] after which Flowers' license to practice law was restored.[18]
Family
Because of the trouble in Alabama, his son
The third generation Richmond Flowers, III, is a former wide receiver at
Later years
In his later years, Flowers taught criminal justice and U.S. history at
Flowers Jr. is the subject of a 1989 CBS television docudrama titled Unconquered, with screenplay by Pat Conroy.[19]
References
- ^ a b David, Darrell (2007-06-08). "It hasn't always been rosy for Flowers family". The Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan) (Newspaper). Southam Publications. p. C1.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 16–20.
- ^ Hayman, p. 37.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 41, 50.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 52–54.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 54–61.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Hayman, p. 64.
- ^ Hayman, pp. 65–67.
- ^ Hayman, p. 118.
- OCLC 32739924.
- ^ Billy Hathorn, "A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978", Gulf Coast Historical Review, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 1994), pp. 22, 28
- ^ Carr, A.J. (1998-10-22). "Trials and triumphs times III". News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) (Newspaper). News and Observer Publishing Company. p. C1.
- ^ a b c Dennis Hevesi, Richmond Flowers Is Dead at 88; Challenged Segregation and Klan, New York Times (August 11, 2018).
- ^ a b c Phillip Rawls, [1] Richmond Flowers; Ala. Attorney General Opposed Segregation, Associated Press (August 12, 2007).
- ^ Hayman, p. 5.
- ^ Hayman, 'pp. 5 and 287.
- ^ Collins, Monica (1989-01-13). "An Unconquered civil rights drama". USA Today (newspaper). Gannett Company, Inc. p. 3D.
Works cited
- John Hayman, Bitter Harvest: Richmond Flowers and the Civil Rights Revolution (NewSouth Books, 2016).
External links
- Alabama's Attorneys General: Richmond Flowers – Official State Biography