James Allen (U.S. senator)

James Browning Allen (December 28, 1912 June 1, 1978) was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Alabama. Allen was born in Gadsden, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama Law School. While attending the University of Alabama he was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi. He practiced law in Gadsden from 1935 to 1968 and was a member of the Alabama State legislature from 1938 to 1942. He resigned from the state legislature to enter active duty in the United States Naval Reserve from 1943 to 1946. He again ran for office after World War II and was a member of the Alabama Senate from 1946 to 1950. He was the 17th and 20th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama from 1951 to 1955 and again from 1963 to 1967.

In 1968 he was elected as a member of the Democratic Party to the United States Senate and was reelected in 1974. A master of parliamentary procedure, Allen was known as one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate during his time there, more conservative even than many Republicans at that time. He was an active opponent of the Panama Canal Treaty.

He served until his death in Gulf Shores, Alabama, on June 1, 1978. He is interred in Forrest Cemetery in Gadsden. Governor George Wallace of Alabama, under whom Allen served previously as Lt. Governor, appointed Allen's widow, Maryon Pittman Allen, to succeed him in the Senate.

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