J. B. Stoner

Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr. (April 13, 1924 – April 23, 2005) was an American lawyer, white supremacist segregationist politician who perpetrated the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He was not convicted for the bombing of the church until 1980.<ref name=obit />

He was a founder and the long-time chairman of the National States' Rights Party; he published its newsletter, The Thunderbolt. Stoner campaigned for several political offices as a Southern Democrat in order to promote his white supremacist agenda.

Early life

Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr was born in LaFayette, Georgia. His family ran a sight-seeing company on Lookout Mountain, as well as in nearby Chattanooga. At age two, he contracted childhood polio, which impaired one of his legs and resulted in a lifelong limp. His father Jesse Benjamin Stoner Sr., died when he was five; his mother Minnie died when he was 17.<ref name=cancer>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

Stoner admired segregationist politician Theodore G. Bilbo. He became active in white supremacist groups and traveled to Washington, D.C. to support Bilbo. When Stoner was 17, he became a courier for the America First Committee.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Stoner rechartered a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Chattanooga in 1942, when he was 18 years old.<ref name=cancer/> Stoner once said that "being a Jew [should] be a crime punishable by death."<ref name=obit>Template:Cite news</ref> He ran the National States' Rights Party, founded by Ed Fields, an associate of Stoner's.Template:Citation needed

Stoner received a law degree from Atlanta Law School in 1952. He served as the attorney for James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suspected that Stoner was also involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as bombings of several synagogues and black churches during the 1950s and 1960s, such as the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He lived at 591 Cherokee Street in "Old" Marietta, Georgia.<ref name=cobb>Template:Cite web</ref>

As a "roving white supremacist", Stoner, along with Connie Lynch, was present in Bogalusa, Louisiana in 1965. He performed the same road show to inflame white mobs as he had done in St. Augustine, Florida during the summer of 1964.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Stoner ran for governor of Georgia in 1970.<ref name=obit /> During the campaign, in which he called himself the "candidate of love", he described Adolf Hitler as "too moderate"; described black people as an extension of the ape family; and said that Jews are "vipers of Hell."<ref name=obit/> The primary was won by Jimmy Carter, a civil rights movement supporter, and future president.

Stoner ran for the United States Senate in 1972, finishing fifth in the Democratic Party primary with just over 40,000 votes. The nomination and the election were both won by Sam Nunn.Template:Citation needed

During Stoner's Senate campaign, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that television stations had to play his offensive, racist ads because of the fairness doctrine.

Stoner continued his losing campaigns, running for lieutenant governor in 1974, and again for a seat in the US Senate in 1980. His best showing was 73,000 votes (10%) in his campaign for lieutenant governor in 1974, when he sought to succeed Lester G. Maddox in Georgia's second- highest constitutional office. That year, Maddox lost the gubernatorial nomination to former legislator George D. Busbee.Template:Citation needed

In 1978, Stoner ran in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and polled 37,654 votes (5.4%).Template:Citation needed

Bethel Baptist Church bombing

Stoner was a suspect in the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church, but he was not indicted for it until 1977. In 1980, a mostly white jury found him guilty and sentenced him to ten years in prison.<ref name=latimes>Template:Cite news</ref>

Prosecutors suspected that Stoner perpetrated as many as a dozen other bombings<ref name=obit/> attributed to the "Confederate Underground"; these included the attempted bombing of Temple Beth-El in Charlotte, North Carolina (1957); and the bombings or attempted bombing of Temple Emanuel in Gastonia, North Carolina (1958), the Nashville, Tennessee Jewish Community Center (1958), Temple Beth El in Miami, Florida (1958), the Jacksonville Jewish Center and a black elementary school (1958), Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, Alabama (1958), and The Temple in Atlanta (1958), and Congregation Anshai Emeth in Peoria, Illinois (1958).<ref>Historical Marker Set for Former JCC Site Where Bomb Exploded in 1958 Template:Webarchive, The Jewish Observer (May 1, 2019).</ref> He was not prosecuted for any of those cases.<ref name=obit/>

After being convicted for the Birmingham bombing, Stoner appealed his conviction for three years. When his appeals ran out,<ref>Associated Press (1982-08-14). "AROUND THE NATION; Conviction in Bombing In Alabama Is Upheld". New York Times.</ref> he lived in hiding as a fugitive for four months.<ref>UPI (1983-06-03)."AROUND THE NATION; Segregationist Gives Up To Serve Bombing Term". New York Times.</ref> In 1984, he was permanently removed from the roster of lawyers who may appear before the United States Supreme Court.<ref>UPI (1984-10-04). "High Court Bars J. B. Stoner". New York Times.</ref>

Stoner was released from prison for good behavior in 1986, having served Template:Frac years of his 10-year sentence.<ref name=latimes/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Later life

After his release from prison and until his death at the age of 81, Stoner lived at a nursing home in northwest Georgia, still defending his segregationist views. In one of his last interviews he stated, "A person isn't supposed to apologize for being right." His left side was partially paralyzed as the result of a stroke.<ref name=cancer/> Stoner is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Works

Published works

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Letters

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

Audiovisual recordings

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• Stoner, J.B. & Erwin Saul. Interview with Sarah Kessler. J.B. Stoner and Erwin Saul comment on recent violence by the National States' Rights Party and similar organizations. Date unknown. Template:OCLC.