James G. Clark Jr.

James Clark served as the sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama from 1955-1966. As a young man he served in the U.S. Air Force before moving to Dallas County after the WWII to raise cattle. Before his time as sheriff he worked for the state of Alabama as an assistant revenue commissioner. Clark's time as sheriff was characterized by extreme violence towards people of color and especially towards voting rights protestors during the 1965 protests in Selma, Alabama. The most famous example of this is when Clark and his police officers attacked civil rights protestors on March 7, 1965 as they began their march from Selma to Montgomery in what would come to be known as "Bloody Sunday". This violence caused Clark to lose his bid for reelection as sheriff in 1966. After this he became active in the John Birch society and faced a variety of financial hardships taking many odd jobs.