J. B. Stoner
J. B. Stoner (April 13th, 1924 - April 23rd, 2005) was an American segregationist, politician, and Ku Klux Klan member who was convicted in 1980 of the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He also served as the Chairman of the National States' Rights Party, a white supremacist political party.
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| “ | Jews are the vipers of Hell, they should all die in Hell. Being a Jew should be punishable by death. The nigger is a species lower than the apes. Hitler has been the greatest, but still was too moderate. Jesus laughs at their death. | „ |
| ~ J.B Stoner |
Villainy edit
Stoner earned a law degree, and served as the attorney for James Earl Ray. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also considered Stoner to be a suspect in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and in several bombings of synagogues and black churches during the 1950s and 1960s, 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 President Jimmy Carter. Stoner then ran for the United States Senate in 1972, finishing fifth in the Democratic Party primary with just 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. 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 Maddox in Georgia's second highest constitutional office. Maddox lost the gubernatorial nomination that year to former legislator George D. Busbee.
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.
In 1978, Stoner ran in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and polled 37,654 votes (5.4 percent).
After his conviction for the church bombing in 1980, Stoner appealed for three years, and when his appeals ran out, he was a fugitive for four months. In 1984, he was permanently removed from the roster of lawyers who may appear before the United States Supreme Court. After his release from prison in 1986. Stoner ran for lieutenant governor in 1990.
When he died on April 23rd, 2005 he still was defending his segregationist views, but acknowledging that his side had lost.