J. B. Stoner

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J. B. Stoner in front of the NSRP Thunderbolt enblem

Jesse Benjamin "J.B." Stoner Jr. (April 13, 1924 - April 23, 2005) was an American White activist and attorney who was convicted of the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He was also a suspect in the Atlanta Jewish Temple bombing. Stoner was a long-time chairman of the National States Rights Party who ran unsuccessfully for several political offices to promote his pro-white views.

Biography

Early life

Stoner was born Walker County, Georgia, and came from a family which ran a sight-seeing company on Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Stoner's father Jesse Benjamin Sr. died when J.B. was five and his mother Minnie died when J.B. was seventeen. At a young age, Stoner admired segregationist politician Theodore Bilbo. Stoner was active in American pro-white groups and traveled to Washington, D.C., to support Bilbo.

Education and career

A case of childhood polio, which impaired a leg, kept Stoner from serving during World War II. In 1941, at age seventeen, Stoner was a local organizer for the America First Committee. The next year he joined the Associated Klans of America in Chattanooga and became a Klan organizer. After the war he continued his Klan activities and supported The Columbians. He started his Stoner Anti-Jewish Party in 1946 which was largely a clearing house for anti-Semitic and racist literature. In 1952 he changed the name of the party to the Christian Anti-Jewish Party and moved to Atlanta where he earned a law degree from Atlanta Law School. Here he meet Edward Fields who would become a future associate in the nationalist movement.

In 1958 Stoner was employed by State Farm Insurance as an automobile insurance adjuster.

On February 24, 1966 Stoner testified before the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities.

After the Martin Luther King assassination Stoner was one of the attorneys for James Earl Ray.

Stoner ran for governor of Georgia in 1970 and in 1972 for the United States Senate, but was not elected. In the 1972 campaign The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) ruled that television stations had to play his advertisements including his use of the word “nigger” in reference to Blacks. In 1974, he ran for lieutenant governor of Georgia and received 73,000 votes.

In 1977, Stoner was indicted for the 1958 bombing of an empty church in Birmingham, Alabama, and was convicted in 1980. Stoner appealed the ruling for three years, until his appeals ran out, and he became a fugitive for several months. In 1984, he was permanently removed from the roster of lawyers who may appear before the United States Supreme Court. After his release from prison in 1986, Stoner attempted a final effort to assume public office as lieutenant governor in 1990.

Death and afterward

Until his death at eighty-one, Stoner lived in northwest Georgia at a nursing home. His left side was partially paralyzed from a stroke.Stoner remained unapologetic, saying: "A person isn't supposed to apologise for being right." Stoner is buried at Forrest Hills Cemetery at the foot of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga.

Pamphlets and articles

• Gospel of Jesus Christ Versus the Jews, Stoner Anti-Jewish Party, 58 pages, (1946)
• "Who Dynamited The Jewish Synagogue? Only The Jews Had A Motive!"

See also

• Lineage of American Nationalist organizations and individuals
• James Venable

External links

• FBI interview of J. B. Stoner concerning the Bombing of the Atlanta Temple
• Racist convicted of bombing black church in 1958 dies

Part of this article consists of modified text from Wikipedia, and the article is therefore licensed under GFDL.