Porter Hardy Jr. | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's2nd district | |
| In office January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1969 | |
| Preceded by | Ralph Hunter Daughton |
| Succeeded by | G. William Whitehurst |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1903-06-01)June 1, 1903 |
| Died | April 19, 1995(1995-04-19) (aged 91) Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Virginia Beach, Virginia |
| Party | Democratic |
| Children | Lynn Yeakel |
| Alma mater | Randolph-Macon College (BA) Harvard University (MBA) |
| Profession | businessman |
Porter Hardy Jr. (June 1, 1903 – April 19, 1995) was a farmer, businessman andDemocrat politician who representedVirginia's 2nd congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives for more than two decades, including supporting theByrd Organization duringMassive Resistance.
Born inBon Air, Virginia, Hardy attended public schools andRandolph-Macon Academy inBedford, Virginia. He graduated from Boykins High School in 1918, and fromRandolph-Macon College,Ashland, Virginia, in 1922, then attended the Graduate School of Business Administration atHarvard University in 1923 and 1924.
Hardy worked as an accountant and warehouse manager in New York City andNorfolk, Virginia from 1924 to 1927. He then became a wholesaler of electrical equipment inSalisbury, Maryland from 1927 to 1932, before moving toChurchland, Virginia, in 1932, to farm.
Although the Byrd Organization controlled much of the state, the Congressional District that included the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk and Norfolk, Nansemond, Suffolk, Isle of Hardy and Princess Anne Counties had elected five different congressmen in the previous decade, a national record that Hardy ended. He won election to the Eightieth and ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1947 – January 3, 1969) before announcing his retirement after 22 years. Hardy investigated waste in federal operations as chairman of the House Armed Services Sub-committee.[1]
As did other Byrd Organization members, Hardy signed the 1956Southern Manifesto that opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court inBrown v. Board of Education. He also voted against theCivil Rights Act of 1964,[2] but unlike any other Byrd Organization member voted for theTwenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[3] After his legislative retirement as the Byrd Organization collapsed, Hardy continued to serve as a director of Dominion Bankshares Corporation and other Virginia financial institutions.
He died April 19, 1995, and was interred at Eastern Shore Chapel Cemetery, inVirginia Beach, Virginia.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's 2nd congressional district 1947–1969 | Succeeded by |
| People | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
 | This article about a United States representative from Virginia is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
