Malcolm Buie Seawell (December 18, 1909 – January 19, 1977) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as North Carolina Attorney General from 1958 to 1960. Seawell was raised in Lee County, North Carolina. After law school, he moved to Lumberton and joined a law firm. From 1942 to 1945 he worked for the U.S. Department of War in Washington, D.C. He then returned to Lumberton and successfully ran for the office of mayor in 1947. He held the post until the following year when he was appointed 9th Solicitorial District Solicitor. While working as solicitor Seawell gained state-wide prominence for his aggressive efforts to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and was credited for ultimately pushing the organization out of Robeson County. Governor Luther H. Hodges later made him a judge before appointing him Attorney General of North Carolina in 1958 to fill a vacancy.
As attorney general, Seawell felt that the decision of the United States Supreme Court to desegregate schools in Brown v. Board of Education had to be respected and supported token integration efforts. His stance on Brown was controversial and cost him the support of conservative whites. He also opposed labor union activism and criticized the sit-in movement. In February 1960 Seawell resigned from the Attorney's General office to seek the Democratic nomination to become Governor of North Carolina. Though he had the quiet backing of Hodges and the support of many North Carolina businessmen, his moderate stance on racial issues deprived him of wide popular support as racial liberals supported Terry Sanford and racial conservatives supported I. Beverly Lake. He placed third in the Democratic primary election and subsequently withdrew his candidacy.
In 1965 Governor Dan K. Moore appointed Seawell Chairman of the State Board of Elections. The following year Moore made him chair of a Committee on Law and Order, tasked with investigating the activities of the KKK. Seawell resigned in protest after accusing the State Bureau of Investigation of withholding documents evidencing criminal activity that would allow North Carolina to revoke the KKK's state charter. He shortly thereafter resigned from the State Board of Elections and withdrew from politics. Seawell later served as an executive for the Leaf Tobacco Exporter's Association and Tobacco Association of the United States in Chapel Hill. He retired in April 1976 and moved back to Lumberton, where he died in 1977.
Early life
Malcolm Buie Seawell was born on December 18, 1909, in Jonesboro, Lee County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of jurist Aaron A. F. Seawell and Bertha ( Smith) Seawell. He graduated from Sanford High School in 1927. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1931. He went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1934, and worked at the school's Institute of Government from then until the following year, when he was admitted to the North Carolina State Bar. He then spent the next three years working for the North Carolina Commissioner of Paroles before moving to Lumberton in January 1938 and joining a law firm.
In April 1942, he became acting solicitor of the Lumberton district recorder's court. That December he was hired as an attorney by the Civilian Legal Personnel Committee of the U.S. Department of War in Washington, D.C. He worked there until 1945. Seawell married Frances Poole on June 9, 1936, and had a son, Malcolm Jr., and a daughter, Terrell.
Political career
Local offices
Seawell, a member of the Democratic Party, ran in 1947 to become Mayor of Lumberton. He campaigned on a broad platform of impartial administration, the hiring of experts to manage zoning, increased playgrounds for children, and the holding of a referendum to adopt a city manager system of government. He defeated the incumbent mayor in the April primary election, 787 to 780. He proceeded to win the May general election, securing 380 of the 415 total votes, and was sworn in on May 7. As mayor he implemented a city manager system of government.