John Ford

Who is John Ford?

John N. Ford, is a former Democratic member of the Tennessee State Senate and a member of Tennessee's most prominent African American political family. The older brother of former U.S. Representative Harold Ford, Sr. and hence the uncle of former Tennessee U.S. Representative and 2006 United States Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. In April 2007 he was convicted on Federal bribery charges. As of 2010 he is serving a sentence in U.S. federal prison.

Ford resigned from the Tennessee State Senate on May 28, 2005, in a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee, John S. Wilder, and was placed under FBI house arrest. He stated in his letter of resignation that "I plan to spend the rest of my time with my family clearing my name".

The Fords' involvement in politics is generally thought to have been linked to the connection between N. J. Ford, father of John and Harold Sr., and prominent political boss E. H. Crump. Crump, who died in 1954, is widely believed to have been responsible for directing the business of the families of black persons who died unattended in the former John Gaston Hospital to N. J. Ford's funeral home.