James Brooks Ayres Robertson (15 March 1871 – 7 March 1938) was the Democratic Governor of Oklahoma from 13 January 1919 to 8 January 1923, succeeding Robert L. Williams and preceding Jack C. Walton.
Biography[]
James Brooks Ayres Robertson was born in Keokuk, Iowa in 1871, and he was raised in a progressive family. He became a lawyer in Chandler, Oklahoma in 1893, and he served as county attorney before being appointed a state district court judge in 1908 and serving as Governor from 1919 to 1923. He ratified the Prohibition amendment and women's suffrage, and he also declared martial law to restore order after white mobs burned down Oklahoma's "Black Wall Street" in the Tulsa race massacre of 1921; he condemned actions by the city and sheriff's office and ordered a grand jury to investigate. Robertson was left with a divided legislature after 1920, and he was investigated for improper paroles and pardons. He left office in 1923 and returned to his legal practice, and he was later charged with bribery in a bank scandal, only to be acquitted. He lost all of his ensuing bids for political office, and he died in Oklahoma City in 1938.