John Ford (Tennessee politician)

John Ford
Member of the Tennessee Senate from the 29 district
In office 1974 – May 28, 2005

John N. Ford (born May 3, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee), is a former Democratic member of the Tennessee State Senate and a member of Tennessee's most prominent African-American political family. He is the older brother of former U.S. Representative Harold Ford, Sr. and the uncle of former Tennessee U.S. Representative and 2006 United States Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. He is a member of the Ford political family from Memphis.

In April 2007, Ford was convicted on Federal bribery charges as part of the Operation Tennessee Waltz scandal. He served a four-year sentence in U.S. federal prison from April 2008 to August 2012. Ford resigned from the Tennessee State Senate on May 28, 2005, in a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee, John S. Wilder; he was placed under FBI house arrest. He stated in his letter of resignation that "I plan to spend the rest of my time with my family clearing my name."

The Fords' involvement in politics is generally thought to have begun with the connection between N. J. Ford, father of John and Harold Sr., and prominent political boss E. H. Crump, who had great power in Memphis and the state. Crump, who died in 1954, is widely believed to have directed the business of families of black persons who died unattended in the former John Gaston Hospital to N. J. Ford's funeral home (still operated under the name N. J. Ford and Sons Funeral Home, although N. J. Ford himself is now deceased).

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