Bill Waller

William Lowe Waller Sr. (October 21, 1926 – November 30, 2011) was an American politician and attorney.

Waller was born on October 21, 1926, near Oxford in Lafayette County, Mississippi, to Percy A. Waller and Myrtle Gatewood.

He and his two siblings worked on their parents' 300 acre farm in their youth.

The family was not affluent, but fared better than many of their neighbors during the Great Depression.

Waller's father was involved in local politics and a friend of politician Ross Barnett, who later became governor of the state.

He attended public schools in the Black Jack community of Panola County before graduating from University High School in Oxford in 1944.

He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Memphis State University and a bachelor of laws from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Born near Oxford, Mississippi to a farming family, Waller went to law school and in 1950 established a law practice in Jackson.

Nine years later, he was elected District Attorney of Hinds County, Mississippi.

Waller attempted to reform the position and provoked the ire of local law enforcement for aggressively prosecuting several cases.

In 1950, Waller established a legal practice in Jackson, Mississippi.

He served in the United States Army as an intelligence officer during the Korean War, attaining the rank of sergeant.

He married Carroll Waller on November 11, 1950 and had four sons and a daughter with her.

He was offered a commission in the intelligence corps, but he declined, being discharged on November 30, 1953.

He returned to Jackson to active Army Reserve duty and resumed his legal career.

Waller was elected District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial District of Mississippi (Hinds County) in 1959 and was reelected in 1963.

He was sworn in on January 2, 1960.

At the time he took office, the district attorney in Hinds County was a part-time job with little expected of its incumbent.

Many previous attorneys had used the office to promote their own private legal services.

Waller attempted to reform the position, and provoked the ire of local law enforcement for aggressively prosecuting several cases, including a white man who had murdered a black man and a wealthy woman who had murdered her husband.

Despite this, his legal practice expanded during his tenure with several new partners.

He also befriended Mississippi political columnist Bill Minor.

In 1964, he twice prosecuted Byron de la Beckwith for the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, with both trials resulting in deadlocked juries.

As the district attorney, Waller prosecuted Byron de la Beckwith in the murder of civil rights advocate Medgar Evers in two trials in 1964, both of which resulted in mistrials due to deadlocked juries.

Waller did not approve of Evers' activism and did not view the trials as a means to denounce Jim Crow racial segregation, but saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate that laws would be upheld in the state.

Most observers agreed Waller ably presented his case against Beckwith, establishing his rifle as the murder weapon and using witnesses to establish his presence in the vicinity of the killing on the night it had occurred.

Though worried that it might backfire among the white jury members, Waller also attempted to establish a motive for the murder by getting Beckwith to testify to his support for white supremacy and staunch opposition to racial integration.

Fears among white Mississippians that Waller was a "liberal" for trying De Le Beckwith led his firm to lose clients.

Numerous observers speculated that the trials would damage his political prospects, with The New York Times writing in February 1964 that "He may have put his career on the block by his tireless prosecution of the case".

Despite this, he won some national acclaim for convincing several white jurors to vote for conviction and ingratiated himself to Mississippi's black population.

In 1967, he launched an unsuccessful campaign for governor, finishing fifth in the Democratic primary.

Waller ran for governor again in 1971, denouncing state establishment leaders and winning in the primary and in the general election.

A Democrat, Waller served as the 56th governor of Mississippi from 1972 to 1976.

Taking office in January 1972, he associated himself with the New South governors, his moderate contemporaries in other Southern states.

Though unsuccessful in reconciling racial differences within the Mississippi Democratic Party, he brought blacks into state government and successfully shut down the State Sovereignty Commission.

His tenure was also marked by his significant disagreement with the Mississippi State Legislature.

After leaving gubernatorial office in 1976, Waller returned to practicing law in Jackson.

He ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 1978 and for governor again in 1987, losing both races.

He released his memoirs in 2007 and died four years later.

One of his sons, Bill Waller Jr.., later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi and made an unsuccessful bid for gubernatorial office in 2019.