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Bill Baxley
24th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
In office January 17, 1983 – January 19, 1987
Governor
George Wallace
Preceded by
George McMillan
Succeeded by
Jim Folsom, Jr.
41st Attorney General of Alabama
In office January 18, 1971 – January 15, 1979
Governor
George Wallace
Preceded by
MacDonald Gallion
Succeeded by
Charles Graddick
District Attorney Houston County
In office 1969–1971
Personal details
Born
William Joseph Baxley II
(1941-06-27) June 27, 1941 (age 82) Dothan, Alabama, U.S.
Political party
Democratic
Spouses
Lucy Bruner
(m. 1974; div. 1987)
Marie Prat
(m. 1990)
Children
5
Residence
Birmingham, Alabama
Military service
Allegiance
United States
Branch/service
United States Army Alabama Army National Guard
Years of service
1962–2001
Rank
Colonel
William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama.
In 1964, Baxley graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa. Having previously served as district attorney in Houston County, he was elected to the first of two consecutive terms as Attorney General of Alabama in 1970, and 1974 respectively, holding the post from 1971 to 1979. At the age of twenty-eight, he won the Democratic nomination for attorney general in 1970, in an upset over incumbent McDonald Gallion. Baxley, incorrectly, was perceived as the candidate closer politically to George Wallace, an impression he did not dispute throughout the election contest. At the time of his swearing-in, he was the youngest person in U.S. history to hold a state attorney generalship. At the end of his attorney generalship, he lost the 1978 Democratic primary for governor in an upset contest. Although widely expected to seek the post again in 1982, after former governor George C. Wallace entered the contest, Baxley said he would not run against him and sought the office of lieutenant governor, to which he was elected. From 1983 to 1987, he served a single term as the 24th lieutenant governor of Alabama. He ran unsuccessfully in the primary for governor in 1986. During his time as state attorney general, Baxley aggressively prosecuted industrial polluters, strip miners, and corrupt elected officials. He appointed the state's first African-American assistant attorney general, Myron Thompson, who later became a U.S. District Judge.
Baxley reopened the cold case of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In a letter, the Ku Klux Klan threatened him, comparing him to John F. Kennedy, and called him an "honorary nigger." Baxley responded, on official state letterhead: "My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is—kiss my ass."[1][2][3]
^"Kiss my ass". Letters of Note. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-26. (image of Baxley's actual letter)
^Sikora, Frank (1991). Until justice rolls down: the Birmingham church bombing case. U of Alabama P. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-8173-0520-8.
^Sims, Patsy (1996). The Klan. Lexington: UP of Kentucky. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-8131-0887-2.
William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama. In 1964, Baxley graduated from...
Affordable College Tuition Program. In 1998, Baxley was re-elected to that post. In 2002, Baxley defeated Bill Armistead in the election as elected lieutenant...
gubernatorial election saw the election of Republican H. Guy Hunt over Democrat BillBaxley. In state politics, this election is largely seen as a realigning election...
Democrat", won the Democratic primary in an upset over Attorney General BillBaxley. He went on to defeat Guy Hunt in a landslide in the general election...
1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried by Attorney General of Alabama BillBaxley and convicted of the first-degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old...
Louisiana Governors and State Constitutional officers Lieutenant Governor BillBaxley of Alabama Governor Chuck Robb of Virginia Current and former state and...
September 17, 1964, that the office-holding supporters of a civil rights bill would politically "bite the dust" by 1966 and 1968. The Encyclopædia Britannica...
Attorney General Graddick in a heated runoff with then Lieutenant Governor BillBaxley. Graddick won by almost ten thousand votes, but the state Democratic...
investigation in 1968. The files were used by Alabama attorney general BillBaxley to reopen the case in 1971. In 1977, Chambliss was convicted of first...
involved in the civil rights movement such as Viola Liuzzo, James Groppi, BillBaxley, and Jonathan Daniels. The term "white niggers" was uttered twice by...
determine the cause of his death. In 1976, then State Attorney General BillBaxley re-opened the Edwards case. Four people were arrested and charged with...
months in jail for possession of the dynamite. He was tried again when BillBaxley, the state attorney general of Alabama, realized that much of the evidence...
bombing in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama's attorney general, BillBaxley, had reopened the case in 1976 and a grand jury returned the indictment...
Dennis K. Baxley (born August 22, 1952) is a state legislator in Florida who has served in the Florida Senate since 2016. A Republican, he represents the...
defeated Alabama Attorney General BillBaxley, 296,196 votes to 210,089 votes. In the run-off, James easily outdistanced Baxley. In the November general election...
Turnout Unpredictable". The Dothan Eagle. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-06. "BillBaxley". Alabama Department of Archives and History. August 20, 2009. Retrieved...
Governor Lucy Baxley, former wife of the controversial 1986 gubernatorial nominee, former attorney general and lieutenant governor BillBaxley. In large part...
Monkton, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Scotland 1941 – BillBaxley, American lawyer and politician, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama...
lost re-nomination in 1970 to BillBaxley, then the Houston County District Attorney. In the primary campaign, Baxley had successfully created a widely...
removed from being insane." In 1976, following Alabama Attorney General BillBaxley's opening of prosecution against Robert Edward Chambliss, who was one...
(1930–2016) Shorty Price, perennial candidate for Governor of Alabama BillBaxley, former Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, and Civil...
Safe Humane Chicago and the Court Case Dog Program BillBaxley, lieutenant governor (Dothan) Lucy Baxley, lieutenant governor (2003–2007) (Vestavia Hills)...
the 1986 Democratic primary. The then-incumbent lieutenant governor, BillBaxley, lost the Democratic nomination for governor by approximately 8,000 votes...
series title in the Mets franchise. It is also remembered for Game 6, when Bill Buckner lets an easy ground ball hit by Mookie Wilson roll through his legs...
Democratic party. Charles Graddick defeated BillBaxley in the Democratic runoff by about 8,000 votes. Baxley appealed his primary loss to the State Democratic...
Global Information
Colonel