The son of sharecroppers, Boykin became the wealthiest man in Mobile, although his entrepreneurial practices led to several criminal investigations and prosecutions—both before his legislative service and as it ended.

[2] Through hard work and perseverance, Boykin became a successful businessman with interests in lumber, turpentine, commissaries and real estate.

He later related that when 12 years old, he rose from water boy of a Washington County railroad construction crew, to dispatcher and conductor.

In 1915, Boykin moved to the nearest city, Mobile, and he and Everett continued to invest in real estate, sawmills and commissary stores.

Although his seniority allowed him to steer millions of federal dollars to his district, he was known for missing roll call votes more often than any other member of the state's congressional delegation.

Having been a signatory to the 1956 Southern Manifesto that opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, in 1957 Boykin voted against the Civil Rights Act.

[5] Boykin lost his seat in 1962, when Alabama's congressional delegation was cut from nine to eight members after the 1960 United States Census.

[8] In 1969, Boykin died of heart failure in Washington, D.C. but his remains returned to Mobile, Alabama, where he was interred in Pine Crest Cemetery.

[9] Several locations in his former district are named after him, including a public housing complex, an elementary school in McIntosh and a highway.