Under the state constitution, Alabama governors could not serve consecutive terms at the time, so Sparks left office without seeking reelection.

In 1911, Sparks was appointed judge of the inferior court of Barbour County by Democratic Governor Emmet O'Neal, a position he held until 1915.

In 1942, Sparks defeated James E. Folsom and Chris Sherlock to win the governor's seat, in the process proving himself "an adaptable 'born-aginner' candidate: against organized labor, against social welfare of any kind, against progressive taxation, against anything that smacked of the hated 'collectivist' New Deal.

Sparks achieved noteworthy educational gains by doubling state appropriations and lengthening the seven-month school term to eight months.

This included increased appropriations and the establishment of several new farm experiment stations under the auspices of Alabama Polytechnic Institute's Agricultural College.

The legislature continued to be dominated by rural counties and was not reapportioned to acknowledge changes in the state and movement of population to urban centers until the mid-century.

Alabama, like other Southern states, had established legal racial segregation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; it excluded blacks from voting by a variety of devices and had Jim Crow as the custom.

[6] In response to nationwide protests over the kidnapping and gang rape of Recy Taylor, an African American woman from Abbeville, Sparks "reluctantly agreed to launch an investigation" to keep the Federal government from becoming involved.