John A. Darden

John Austin Darden (1879 – June 7, 1942)[1][2][3] was an Alabama attorney and publisher who served in the state legislature.

Darden was "a prominent, very wealthy member of his community",[4] and served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1914 to 1919, and again from 1926 to 1933, and in the Alabama Senate from 1931 to 1933.[2][3] In addition, Darden practiced law in Goodwater, Alabama, for 40 years, and was the publisher of a newspaper called the Goodwater Enterprise, and "served as correspondent for the Birmingham News and Age-Herald and the Montgomery Advertiser".[2] In 1919, Darden established an annual homecoming at Poplar Springs Baptist Church, and in 1940 he established another one at the Flint Hill Methodist Church.[1]

In 2023, it was discovered that Darden was the biological grandfather of civil rights activist Angela Davis, through an extramarital relationship with Davis' grandmother, who was black.[4] Darden also had four sons and two daughters through his marriage to his white wife,[4] who survived him.[1] Darden died in Goodwater, Alabama, at the age of 63. A memorial was dedicated to him at his church the following month.[1]