[1] His paternal grandfather was Major Edward Bushrod Stahlman, a German-born railroad executive and the owner of the Nashville Banner,[1][2] whose brother-in-law, Marcus Toney, was a Klansman and Masonic leader.
[6] Stahlman sold the newspaper to the Gannett Company in 1972,[5] and he donated $5 million to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1972-1973.
[1] In 1960, he used the newspaper to publish misleading stories about Civil Rights leader James Lawson, which suggested Lawson had incited others to "violate the law" and led to his expulsion from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School.
[9] Stahlman blamed Chancellor G. Alexander Heard for letting students invite Carmichael on campus.
He is the namesake of the James G. Stahlman Professorship of American History at Vanderbilt University, currently held by Jefferson Cowie.