Albert Watson (South Carolina politician)
Albert William Watson (August 30, 1922 – September 25, 1994) was an American politician, a Democrat-turned-Republican state and U.S. representative from South Carolina. He is best known for his losing 1970 campaign for governor of South Carolina, which has been described as the last high-profile, openly segregationist campaign in American politics.[1]
Albert W. Watson
Himself
Himself
August 30, 1922
Sumter, South Carolina, U.S.
September 25, 1994 (aged 72)
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Crescent Hill Memorial Gardens and Mausoleum
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Democratic (1955–1965)
Republican (1965–1994)
Background[edit]
Albert William Watson was born in 1922 to Claude Watson, Sr. and his wife in Sumter in central South Carolina.[2] His family moved and he was reared near the state capital of Columbia in Lexington County, where he attended public schools. He subsequently enrolled at the former North Greenville Junior College in Greenville, South Carolina. During World War II, Watson served as a weather specialist in the United States Army Air Forces.
In 1950, he graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law and thereafter opened his legal practice in Columbia. In 1954, he was elected from Richland County to the South Carolina House of Representatives, which he served from 1955 to 1959 and again from 1961 to 1963.[3]
In 1958, Watson lost the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor to Burnet Maybank, Jr., son of former U.S. Senator Burnet Maybank. In 1961, Watson returned to the state House for a final two-year term.[3]
In 1948, Watson married the former Lillian Audrey Williams (born 1926), and the couple had three children, Laura L. Watson, Albert Watson, Jr., and Clark P. Watson. A Southern Baptist deacon,[3][4] Watson had a twin brother, Allan R. Watson (1922–2001), who was a Baptist minister and served as the pastor of churches in Florida and Alabama. He preached at the White House in September 1969.[5] A second brother, Claude Watson Jr., of Columbia, died in 2003.
Later years[edit]
In 1971, Thurmond asked Nixon to appoint Albert Watson to the United States Court of Military Appeals, but Democratic U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota opposed him. The next year McGovern became Nixon's general election opponent.
Watson died in Columbia at the age of 72 in 1994. He is interred there at Crescent Hill Memorial Gardens and Mausoleum.