John Hulett (November 19, 1927 – August 21, 2006) was an American civil rights activist, sheriff and judge. He was a leader in the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
in
Lowndes County, Alabama
Lowndes County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 10,311. Its county seat is Hayneville. The county is named in honor of William Lowndes, a member of the United States Con ...
, United States, and the founder of the Lowndes County Christian Movement for Human Rights.
He was also the first chairperson of
Lowndes County Freedom Organization
The Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO), also known as the Lowndes County Freedom Party (LCFP) or Black Panther party, was an American political party founded during 1965 in Lowndes County, Alabama. The independent third party was formed ...
(LCFO) in 1966,
known as the original Black Panther Party.
Civil rights activist
In 1948, Hulett left his family farm in
Gordonville, Lowndes County, and began to work in the furnace rooms at the Birmingham Stove and Range Company. Workplace discrimination such as unequal pay for African American workers prompted Hulett to join Local 1489 of the foundry workers' union. Hulett also joined the Alabama
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
. Following the directions of its president, W. C. Patton, Hulett worked to expand NAACP and encouraged African Americans to register to vote. When NAACP was outlawed in Alabama, Hulett joined Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, a new organization founded by
Fred Shuttlesworth
Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth (born Fred Lee Robinson, March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011) was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder o ...
.
In 1959, when returning home to help his sick father with the family farm, Hulett also brought the civil rights movement to Lowndes County. In the county where 81 percent of people were black but without any black voters, Hulett organized meetings and discussed voting registration with his black neighbors. In March 1965, Hulett and John C. Lawson, a preacher, became the first two black voters in Lowndes County in more than six decades. By the time the Voting Rights Act was enacted in the summer of 1965, at least 50 blacks were registered to vote.
After the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...
(SNCC) arrived in Lowndes County in the summer of 1965, Hulett became a supporter and later worked full-time for SNCC. Hulett was instrumental in the founding of LCFO. Hulett would serve as LCFO's chairperson and was also one of the first of two African American voters whose registration was successfully processed in Lowndes County. According to Hulett, LCFO's symbol – the snarling black panther – represents the "strength and dignity of black demands today". Hulett also explained that the black panther is "an animal that when it is pressured it moves back until it is cornered, then it comes out fighting for life or death," and that the symbol was fitting for the oppressed black community to take back power. In Lowndes County, the black panther was an emblem for democracy. However, the symbol obtained a different meaning of black power and militancy after the black panther symbol was adopted by
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
in Oakland, one that Hulett and his colleagues did not fully agree.
Political career
As an independent political party, LCFO joined the November 1966 county government election with a slate of twelve candidates. By then, LCFO had been able to get 2,758 of the 13,000 blacks in Lowndes County registered to vote. Hulett himself was running for county sheriff but none of the LCFO candidates won. Hulett was later elected as the county sheriff on a
National Democratic Party of Alabama ticket in 1970.
This electoral win was one of the most tangible changes brought about by the voting rights movement, as local residents no longer had to worry about arbitrary use of force against them. Hulett promised he would treat whites and blacks with equal respect as a sheriff, and try to heal the past wound of the county. He became not only a civil rights activist fighting against racial segregation but a symbol of reconciliation.
Hulett would continue to serve as county sheriff for 22 years. He then served as a probate judge of Lowndes County for three terms.
He was the first black person to serve the two positions in Lowndes County.
Other activities
Hulett considered the black people's economic dependence on whites a significant barrier to their free and equal political participation in Alabama.
Hulett worked closely with the
war on poverty
The war on poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national p ...
program, which empowered the local black residents. He had served on the board of the Lowndes County Office of Equal Opportunity health program, then the only biracial board in the county.
[
Although Hulett had found the ]Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
an untrustworthy ally and advocated for forming a separate black people's political group, he became a Democrat in late 1972 and endorsed George Wallace
George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...
for reelection as governor. According to Hulett, the main reason for this reluctant change in political affiliation was to secure aid for local programs, as social welfare program funding for Lowndes had been cut under Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
.
Personal life
Hulett's second marriage was to Eddie Mae Aaron. They had two daughters and one son. One of his sons from a previous marriage, John Hulett Jr., also served as probate judge of Lowndes County. Hulett's son-in-law's uncle the late John "Big John" Williams was also sheriff until his untimely death on November 23, 2019.
See also
*List of African-American jurists
This list includes individuals self-identified as African Americans who have made prominent contributions to the field of law in the United States, especially as eminent judges or legal scholars. Individuals who may have obtained law degrees or ...
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulett, John
1927 births
2006 deaths
African-American activists
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Birmingham, Alabama
Alabama Democrats
Alabama sheriffs
Alabama state court judges
Civil rights movement
People from Lowndes County, Alabama
20th-century American judges
21st-century African-American people