Bill Baxley
| 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 1971–1979 |
|
| Preceded by | MacDonald Gallion |
| Succeeded by | Charles Graddick |
| District Attorney Houston County | |
|
In office 1969–1971 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
William Joseph Baxley II June 27, 1941 Dothan, Houston County, Alabama, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
(1) Lucy Baxley |
| Children | Five children |
| Residence | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Religion | United Methodist |
(1) Lucy Baxley
William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic politician and attorney originally 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, quite 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 himself. He was widely expected to seek the post again in 1982. However, when former Governor George C. Wallace entered the contest, Baxley made it clear he would not run against him and instead 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 before running another unsuccessful campaign for Governor in 1986. During his time in public office, 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 incurred the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan when he reopened the case of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In a letter, the Klan threatened him, compared him to John F. Kennedy, and made him an "honorary nigger," but Baxley responded, on official state letterhead: "My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is—kiss my ass."
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