Background
Born in Coffee County in southeastern Alabama, Folsom was among the first southern governors to embrace integration and civil rights for African Americans. In his Christmas message on December 25, 1949, he said: "As long as the Negroes are held down by deprivation and lack of opportunity, the other poor people will be held down alongside them".
After service in the United States Merchant Marine in the early 1930s, Folsom became an insurance salesman. He attended the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Samford University in Birmingham, and George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; however he never obtained a college degree.
Before his gubernatorial campaigns he won a race only once: delegate to the 1944 Democratic National Convention. He was a strong supporter of keeping Vice President Henry A. Wallace on the ticket, rather than replacing him with Harry S Truman of Missouri, as it so developed.
Read more about this topic: Jim Folsom
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