J. Thomas Heflin
| James Thomas Heflin | |
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United States Senator from Alabama |
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In office November 3, 1920 – March 3, 1931 |
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| Preceded by | B. B. Comer |
| Succeeded by | John H. Bankhead II |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 5th district |
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In office May 19, 1904 – November 1, 1920 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Winston Thompson |
| Succeeded by | William B. Bowling |
| 25th Secretary of State of Alabama | |
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In office 1903–1904 |
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| Governor | William D. Jelks |
| Preceded by | Robert P. McDavid |
| Succeeded by | Edmund R. McDavid |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 9, 1869 Louina, Alabama |
| Died | April 22, 1951 (aged 82) LaFayette, Alabama |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College |
James Thomas Heflin (April 9, 1869 – April 22, 1951), nicknamed "Cotton Tom," was a leading proponent of white supremacy who served as a Democratic Congressman and United States Senator from Alabama.
Born in Louina, Alabama, he attended the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Alabama (now Auburn University). He never graduated but independently read law and was admitted to the bar in 1893, practicing law in LaFayette, Alabama.
Heflin first rose to political prominence as a delegate who helped to draft the 1901 Alabama state constitution. Heflin argued, successfully, for completely excluding Black Alabamians from voting, stating that he truly believed that "God Almighty intended the negro to be the servant of the white man." As Secretary of State in 1903, Heflin was an outspoken supporter of men put on trial for enslaving African American laborers through fraudulent convict leasing. As detailed in Douglas A. Blackmon's book, Slavery by Another Name, these practices were a brutal, post-emancipation form of slavery in which African Americans were often illegally convicted of crimes and then sold to farmers or industrialists. Heflin explicitly used white supremacist rhetoric to mobilize support for the defendants. He argued before a group of Confederate veterans that forcing African Americans to labor was a means to hold them in their proper social position.
In 1904, Heflin was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat to fill the vacancy left by the death of Charles Winston Thompson. Four years later, while a member of the House, he shot and seriously wounded a black man who confronted him on a Washington streetcar. Heflin threw the victim Lewis Lundy, off the streetcar and shot at him through the streetcar window. Lundy received a wound to the head, reports vary on whether it was due to pistol-whipping by Heflin, by the fall from the streetcar, or by a bullet wound. A white bystander, Thomas McCreary, was wounded by a stray bullet fired by Helflin. Although indicted, Heflin had the charges dismissed. In subsequent campaigns, he bragged of the shooting as one of his major career accomplishments.
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