William David Upshaw

William David Upshaw (October 15, 1866 – November 21, 1952) served eight years in Congress (1919–1927), where he was such a strong proponent of the temperance movement that he became known as the "driest of the drys.".

He was born on October 15, 1866 and served as vice-president of the Georgia Anti-Saloon League in 1906 and played a major role in passage of statewide prohibition in that state in 1907, making it the first dry state in the South.

The defense of prohibition was a major factor in the establishment of the second Ku Klux Klan ("Klan of the 1920s") in 1915. However, Upshaw was not sympathetic with the Klan, and, on one occasion, ran against a Klan-supported candidate for public office.

Known as the "Billy Sunday of Congress," Upshaw was supported politically by the most powerful names in Southern Protestantism, including evangelist Bob Jones, Sr., the founder of what eventually became Bob Jones University. Upshaw served as a member of the Board of Trustees from the founding of Bob Jones College in Lynn Haven, Florida in 1927 until he was dropped from the Board in 1932 because of failure to attend the annual Board meetings or file his voting proxies. (See William David Upshaw Correspondence file, Bob Jones University Archives, Mack Library.)

In 1932, he was the Prohibition Party candidate for the President of the United States with Frank S. Regan as his running mate. The ticket came in fifth, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt (who favored repeal of prohibition), incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover, Socialist candidate Norman Thomas, and Communist candidate William Z. Foster.

For the remainder of his life he was a strong supporter of the prohibition of alcoholic beverages. He died on November 21, 1952.