Larry Paul Langford (March 18, 1946 – January 8, 2019) was an American politician who had a one-term tenure as the mayor of the city of Birmingham, Alabama. At the time of his death, Langford was hospitalized on compassionate release from serving a 15-year federal felony sentence. Biography Education Langford was born in Birmingham on March 18, 1946. He graduated from A. H. Parker High School before entering the United States Air Force. He graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science degree in social and behavioral sciences. Early career Langford was a reporter for WBRC-6, which at the time was the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, during the mid 1970s. He was the community's first African-American TV news reporter. He was later a public relations director for a Birmingham Budweiser distributor. Prior to entering politics, Langford was a well-known television personality, having worked for then-local ABC television affiliate, Political career Langford, a Democrat, was elected to the county commission in 2002 and elected president despite the fact that he was one of only two Democrats (along with former WBRC television reporter Shelia Smoot) on the five-member commission. He served four years as the first African-American commission president.Gary White, the Republican who crossed party lines and voted for Langford for president, lost his seat by a landslide in the 2006 election, as voters from his heavily Republican district replaced him with Jim Carns. Republicans campaigned heavily on a "No Democrat, No Dome, No Debt" platform during their primary and that they would not support the election of a Democrat to the County Commission. When Carns took his seat, the three GOP members replaced Langford with Bettye Fine Collins as president. In 2010 the entire commission, including the three Republicans, were either voted out of office or decided not to run for another term. He also served as mayor of Fairfield, Alabama, and served one term on the Birmingham City Council. Langford raised money and generated public interest and support for Visionland Theme Park (now known as Alabama Splash Adventure), located near Bessemer. The park was built largely by bond issues backed by a consortium of municipalities in the western part of the county, as well as the city of Birmingham and the county government. The park later declared bankruptcy, and was sold to Southland Entertainment Group for just over $5 million at auction. As