James Allred

James Allred (center) with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) and then Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson (1937)

James V. Allred (born March 29, 1899 in Bowie , Montague County , Texas , † September 24, 1959 in Corpus Christi , Texas) was an American politician and governor of the state of Texas from 1935 to 1939 .

Early years and political advancement

James Allred attended Bowie High School until 1917 . He then worked for a short time at the US Immigration Service before participating in the First World War as a soldier in the US Navy . After the war he studied law. In 1921 he graduated from Cumberland University in Tennessee with a law degree. After his admission as a lawyer, he began to work in Wichita Falls in his new profession.

Allred became a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1923 and 1926 he was a district attorney for the 30th legal district of Texas. In this capacity he fought the Ku Klux Klan . From 1931 to 1933 Allred was Attorney General of his state. In 1934 he was elected the new governor, where he prevailed with 96.4 percent of the vote against three hopeless competitors. The actual election took place at this time, given the weakness of the other parties in the democratic primary . Here Allred previously won the runoff against Tom F. Hunter with a share of the vote of 52.1 percent.

Texas Governor

After a re-election in 1936, James Allred was able to exercise his office between January 15, 1935 and January 17, 1939. During these years, the state slowly recovered from the effects of the Great Depression , which had also left its mark on Texas in the early 1930s. The state also benefited from the New Deal program of the German government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt . The governor's government worked closely with federal agencies to enforce reforms. Some of the programs proposed by Governor Allred to create jobs or improve the school system failed due to a lack of funds or the refusal of the legislature to approve these funds.

Another résumé

After his governorship ended, Allred was appointed by President Roosevelt to serve as a judge in the federal district court for the southern district of Texas. In 1942 he resigned from this post and began an unsuccessful election campaign for a seat in the US Senate . In 1949, President Harry S. Truman reappointed him as a federal judge. Allred held this office until his death in September 1959. The ex-governor had three sons with his wife Joe Betsy Miller, with whom he had been married since 1927.

Web links

• James Allred in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• James Allred in the Handbook of Texas (English)
• James Allred in the database of Find a Grave (English)