Representative Oscar Lee Gray

Oscar Lee Gray (July 2, 1865 – January 2, 1936) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Alabama who served in the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses during the World War I era. Over the course of a long public career, he held positions in education, local and circuit law enforcement, national politics, and the state judiciary, and remained active in public life in Alabama until shortly before his death.

Gray was born on July 2, 1865, in Marion, Lauderdale County, Mississippi, in the closing months of the Civil War. While still a youth he moved with his family to neighboring Alabama, where he attended the public schools of Choctaw County. His early years in this rural border region of Mississippi and Alabama shaped his later interest in public education and local governance.

Pursuing higher education in law, Gray enrolled at the University of Alabama, where he studied legal subjects in preparation for a professional career. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1885 and, later that year, was admitted to the Alabama bar. Following his admission to practice, he began his legal career in Alabama while also engaging in educational work. He taught school and subsequently served as Superintendent of Education for Choctaw County, Alabama, combining his legal training with a commitment to improving local schools and administration.

Gray’s public service expanded from education into the judicial system and party politics in the early twentieth century. He was appointed and served as solicitor for the First Judicial Circuit of Alabama from 1904 to 1910, a role in which he acted as the chief prosecuting attorney for the circuit and gained prominence in legal and political circles. His growing stature within the Democratic Party led to his selection as a delegate to the 1912 Democratic National Convention, where Woodrow Wilson was nominated for the presidency. This association with Wilson and national Democratic politics would later become a central theme of Gray’s congressional career and campaigns.

In 1914, Gray was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-fourth Congress and was subsequently reelected to the Sixty-fifth Congress, serving from March 4, 1915, to March 3, 1919, as a Representative from Alabama. During his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, he served on the Rivers and Harbors Committee, which oversaw legislation related to internal improvements and navigation, matters of particular importance to a largely rural and river-dependent state such as Alabama. When the United States entered World War I, Gray was noted as the first Congressman to sign the World War I Declaration of War, underscoring his strong support for President Woodrow Wilson’s wartime policies. His 1918 reelection campaign materials emphasized this loyalty, proclaiming: “He Stood by the President All the Time / Let’s all Stand by Him this Time,” highlighting his alignment with Wilson’s administration and its conduct of the war.

After leaving Congress at the conclusion of his second term in March 1919, Gray returned to private life in Choctaw County. He resumed the practice of law and managed his agricultural interests at the family property known as the Gray Plantation in Butler, Alabama. From this base he remained a respected figure in local affairs and continued to be identified with the legal profession and Democratic politics in the region.

Gray’s public career culminated in a return to the judiciary. In November 1934 he was elected Judge of the Alabama First Judicial Circuit Court, the same circuit in which he had earlier served as solicitor. His election to the bench reflected both his long legal experience and the esteem in which he was held by his community and party. He served in this judicial capacity until his death.

Oscar Lee Gray died on January 2, 1936, in Shreveport, Louisiana, at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Bess Gray Garrett and Dr. Broox Cleveland Garrett, where he was visiting and spending time with his grandchildren, Betty Gray Garrett and Broox C. Garrett, Jr. He was interred at Forest Park Cemetery in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he was buried next to his widow, Laura Lee Gray. His family’s tradition of public service continued into later generations; his great-granddaughter, Dr. Betsy Vogel Boze, became president of The College of The Bahamas, extending the Gray family’s influence in education and public life beyond Alabama and the continental United States.