caption governor predecessor successor religion birth_place children party office birth_date order residence term_start spouse article_title term_end name
-lrb- -rrb- photo courtesy alabama department of archives and history george wallace george mcmillan macdonald gallion jim folsom , jr. . charles graddick united methodist dothan , houston county , alabama , u.s. five children democratic lieutenant attorney houston county governor of alabama attorney general of alabama district 27 june 1941 24th 41st birmingham , alabama 1983 1971 1969 -lrb- 1 -rrb- lucy baxley bill baxley
 1987 1979 1971 bill baxley
bill baxley

william joseph baxley , ii -lrb- born june 27 , 1941 -rrb- , is an american democratic politician and attorney originally from dothan , alabama .
in 1964 , baxley graduated from the university of alabama school of law in tuscaloosa .
he served two terms from 1971 to 1979 as attorney general of alabama .
at the age of twenty-eight , he was at that time the youngest person in u.s. history to hold a state attorney generalship .
from 1983 to 1987 , he served a single term as the 24th lieutenant governor of alabama .
during his time in politics , baxley aggressively prosecuted industrial polluters , strip miners , and corrupt elected officials .
he appointed the state 's first african american assistant attorney general , myron thompson , who later became a u.s. district judge .
baxley incurred the wrath of the ku klux klan when he reopened the case of the 16th street baptist church bombing .
in a letter , the klan threatened him , compared him to john f. kennedy , and made him an `` honorary nigger , '' but baxley responded , on official state letterhead : `` my response to your letter of february 19 , 1976 , is -- kiss my ass . ''
