Jim Bennett, twice elected as Alabama's secretary of state, is a former newspaper reporter with a bent for history.
In 2000, he wrote a definitive account of Alabama's iron industry, Tannehill and the Growth of the Alabama Iron Industry, which was selected as the best local history of the year by the Alabama Historical Association. The AHA awarded him the C. J. Cooley Book Award.
He is also the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Jefferson County Historical Commission and the Jefferson Davis Medal from the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
During his long political career, Bennett was elected to two terms in the State House of Representatives and three terms in the State Senate serving in the Alabama Legislature from 1979 to 1993.
In 1999, he was elected president of the National Association of Secretaries of State and in 2003, was appointed state labor commissioner, a member of the governor's cabinet.
The author holds degrees from Jacksonville State University, where in 2007 he served as chairman of its board of trustees, and the University of Alabama.
While a reporter for the Birmingham Post-Herald, he received national recognition in 1969 for reporting of government affairs from the American Political Science Association.
