Albertis Harrison | |
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| Justice of theSupreme Court of Virginia | |
| In office October 23, 1968 – December 31, 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Claude V. Spratley |
| Succeeded by | Charles S. Russell |
| 59th Governor of Virginia | |
| In office January 13, 1962 – January 15, 1966 | |
| Lieutenant | Mills Godwin |
| Preceded by | J. Lindsay Almond |
| Succeeded by | Mills Godwin |
| 28th Attorney General of Virginia | |
| In office January 13, 1958 – April 20, 1961 | |
| Governor | J. Lindsay Almond |
| Preceded by | Kenneth Patty |
| Succeeded by | Frederick T. Gray |
| Member of theVirginia Senate from the7th district | |
| In office January 14, 1948 – January 8, 1958 | |
| Preceded by | Y. Melvin Hodges |
| Succeeded by | Joseph C. Hutcheson |
| Commonwealth's Attorney forBrunswick County | |
| In office January 1, 1932 – December 31, 1947 | |
| Preceded by | B. W. Lewis |
| Succeeded by | Joseph C. Hutcheson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Albertis Sydney Harrison Jr. ( 1907 -01-11)January 11, 1907 Alberta, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | January 23, 1995(1995-01-23) (aged 88) Lawrenceville, Virginia, U.S. |
| Resting place | Oakwood Cemetery, Lawrenceville |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of Virginia (LLB) |
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| Battles/wars | |
Albertis Sydney Harrison Jr. (January 11, 1907 – January 23, 1995) was anAmerican politician andjurist. A member of theDemocratic Party associated with Virginia'sByrd Organization, he served as the59thgovernor of Virginia from 1962 to 1966.
Harrison is the first governor of Virginia to have been born in the 20th century.[1]
Harrison was born inAlberta, Virginia, the son of Albertis Sydney Harrison and Lizzie, (née Goodrich).[2] He has been widely reported as related toBenjamin Harrison V who signed theDeclaration of Independence and two United States presidents,William Henry Harrison andBenjamin Harrison, the 9th and 23rd Presidents, however before his death, he found this to be false.[1][3]
He received aBachelor of Laws degree from theUniversity of Virginia Law School in 1928.[4] Harrison married Lacey Virginia Barkley in 1930.[5] They had two children: Antoinette H Jamison and Albertis S. Harrison III; and 6 grandchildren: Joseph D. Goodrich Harrison, Monica Harrison Kopf, Virginia Lacey Jamison, and James Carper Jamison II.[4][1]
Harrison went into legal practice inLawrenceville, Virginia, where he became town attorney, before being electedcommonwealth's attorney ofBrunswick County.[4]
He was elected to theSenate of Virginia in 1947. He served there for ten years, before being electedAttorney General of Virginia in 1957.[4][1]
Harrison resigned as attorney general in April 1961 to run for governor,winning election that November with 63.84% of the vote, defeating RepublicanH. Clyde Pearson. His administration increased educational financing for new schools and laboratories and raised teachers' pay. He promoted the development of state-supported colleges and technical schools as well as improved vocational training. He helped to modernize state banking laws to attract investment and accelerated highway construction.[1]
He sat on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, later renamed theSupreme Court of Virginia, from 1968 to 1981. In 1968 he chaired the Commission on Constitutional Revision that drafted the 1971Constitution of Virginia.
As Attorney General, Harrison was responsible for defending the state's resistance to school integration, as part of theMassive Resistance strategy endorsed and led by the state's political leader, United States SenatorHarry F. Byrd.
Part of Massive Resistance involved the closing of public schools in various Virginia cities and counties to prevent racially integrated classrooms.Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (1952) was one of the companion cases toBrown v. Board of Education (1954), but the Supreme Court had left enforcement to the local federal district judge. Moreover, theGray Commission of Byrd loyalists had recommended passage of various laws to avoid or delay integration. After opinions by the Virginia Supreme Court on January 19, 1959, as well as a three-judge federal panel overturned much of the new Virginia legislation, GovernorJ. Lindsay Almond (previously attorney general) and Harrison decided not to defy those courts and allowed schools inArlington andNorfolk to reopen. However the schools inPrince Edward County closed in 1958 and did not reopen until 1963, as white students used tuition grants to attend a privatesegregation academy at state expense, while black students were left to volunteer efforts. Other problematic school closures, ultimately opened pursuant to federal court orders included those inAlbemarle,Warren County and laterNew Kent County (the subject of the 1968 Supreme Court decision inGreen v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968). Harrison told the board to comply unless they were willing to risk prosecution. By this time, he, like a number of other Byrd Democrats, had concluded that obstinate resistance to integration could not continue.[1]
Another aspect of Massive Resistance involved new laws regulating attorney ethics, designed to attack practices of theNAACP, which was pursuing the desegregation actions. Initially, the U.S. Supreme Court deferred to an upcoming decision of the Virginia Supreme Court about those new ethics rules inHarrison v. NAACP (1959), but the case came before it twice more inNAACP v. Button (1963) (which was reargued after Harrison resigned as attorney general to run for governor, and which Virginia lost under attorney generalRobert Young Button.
Harrison died of a heart attack at his home in Lawrenceville on January 23, 1995.[1] He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Virginia.[2]
Thecourthouse in Lawrenceville is named in his honor.
| Senate of Virginia | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theVirginia Senate from the7th district 1948–1958 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forAttorney General of Virginia 1957 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forGovernor of Virginia 1961 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Attorney General of Virginia 1958–1961 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Governor of Virginia 1962–1966 | Succeeded by |
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