Jim Martin, a WWII veteran and one of the first prominent post-reconstruction Republicans in Alabama, is the subject of a new documentary from Jacksonville’s State University’s Longleaf Studios that will be broadcast Monday, November 9, on Alabama Public Television.
Officially titled Forever Wild – The James D. Martin Story, the film documents the life story of a man who went from guiding General Dwight Eisenhower through a Nazi concentration camp to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives to fighting for the state to get its fair share of the oil being pumped off its coastal shores.
“What Jim did then is paying today, and will continue to pay far into the future,” radio host J. Holland said of Martin in a statement.
APT advises that in “the early 1960s, Martin was one of the first Republicans to seriously challenge the lock on Alabama politics held by the Democratic Party, nearly defeating incumbent J. Lister Hill in the race for the U.S. Senate in 1962.”
Martin, who died in 2017, served one term in the United States House of Representatives as a Republican from 1965-1967 after being swept into Washington on the strength of Barry Goldwater’s victory in Alabama in the 1964 presidential election.
Alabama Governor Guy Hunt, the state’s first Republican governor in modern history, appointed Martin to lead the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources after Hunt surprised many with his gubernatorial win in 1986.
A heavy emphasis of the film appears to be Martin’s time at the helm of ADCNR. The movie’s title refers to the Forever Wild program that Martin established to preserve public lands for enjoyment by citizens.
Other notable aspects of Martin’s time at ADCNR were his fight with oil companies of the state’s share of royalties from oil pumped off Alabama’s cost and his fight to officially canonize Alabama’s coastal boundaries.
“This is an incredible opportunity for JSU to tell one of the many stories that have shaped the state of Alabama,” said J. Seth Johnson, department head and professor at JSU and director of Longleaf Studios, in a release provided by Alabama Public Television.
Longleaf Studios is wholly housed within JSU’s School of Arts and Humanities. It allows students to get hands-on experience producing films and other media while in college. Prodigi Arts, a production studio based in Memphis, partnered with Longleaf on the documentary.
The documentary premieres at 9:00 p.m. on Monday, November 9, on Alabama Public Television stations. Residents of Alabama can find their station here.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
