William Calvin Oates

William Calvin Oates (1833-1910) was governor of Alabama from 1894-96 and served in the U.S. Congress. A Democrat and member of the Big Mule-Black Belt coalition, he worked to disenfranchise African Americans and thwart the Alabama Populist movement of the late nineteenth century.

Portrait of Alabama Governor and Civil War general William Calvin Oates
Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History
Portrait of Alabama Governor and Civil War general William Calvin Oates