Webb Franklin
William Webster Franklin is an American lawyer, politician, and jurist from Mississippi. As a Republican, he served in the U.S. Representative representing Mississippi's 2nd congressional district from 1983 to 1987.Biography
Born in Greenwood in Leflore County on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta, Franklin graduated from Greenwood High School. In 1963, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mississippi State University at Starkville. In 1966, he received his LL.B. and Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law at Oxford and was admitted to the bar. From 1963 to 1970, he was a major in the United States Army. In 1966, he was a member of the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps.
Franklin practiced law in Greenwood from 1970 to 1972, when he became as assistant district attorney for the state Fourth Circuit District Court. In 1978, he was elected circuit judge for the Fourth District and remained in that office until 1982, when he was elected to Congress. He was defeated in 1986 in his bid for a third term by the African-American Democrat Mike Espy. Upon leaving the U.S. House, Franklin returned to Greenwood to practice law.
