Absalom Willis Robertson | |
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| United States Senator fromVirginia | |
| In office November 6, 1946 – December 30, 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Thomas G. Burch |
| Succeeded by | William B. Spong Jr. |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives | |
| In office March 4, 1933 – November 5, 1946 | |
| Preceded by | John W. Fishburne |
| Succeeded by | Burr Harrison |
| Constituency | at-large district, 7th seat (1933–1935) 7th district (1935–1946) |
| Member of theVirginia Senate from the22nd district | |
| In office January 12, 1916 – January 9, 1924 | |
| Preceded by | William T. Paxton |
| Succeeded by | Robert Noell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Absalom Willis Robertson (1887-05-27)May 27, 1887 |
| Died | November 1, 1971(1971-11-01) (aged 84) Lexington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Gladys Churchill Willis |
| Children | 2, includingPat |
| Relatives | Gordon P. Robertson (grandson) |
| Education | University of Richmond (BA) |
Absalom Willis Robertson (May 27, 1887 – November 1, 1971) was an American politician from Virginia who served in public office for over 50 years. A member of theDemocratic Party and lukewarm ally of theByrd Organization led by fellow U.S. SenatorHarry F. Byrd,[1] Robertson representedVirginia in theU.S. House of Representatives (1933–1946) and theU.S. Senate (1946–1966), and had earlier served in theVirginia General Assembly. A member of theconservative coalition during his congressional career, Robertson was a vocal opponent ofcivil rights. Robertson was also the father oftelevangelist and political commentatorPat Robertson.
Robertson was born inMartinsburg, West Virginia, the son of Franklin Pierce Robertson and Josephine Ragland (née Willis), just two weeks before fellow Virginia SenatorHarry F. Byrd was born in the same community.[2] He graduated from theUniversity of Richmond in 1907.
Robertson established a private law practice following graduation, and soon embarked on a political career. He was elected to theVirginia State Senate as aDemocrat in 1915 to representBedford andRockbridge counties andBuena Vista, Virginia, in Senate district 22, replacingW. T. Paxton, who had replacedJ. Randolph Tucker in 1913. Robertson served from 1916 to 1922, when he resigned and was replaced by Samuel S. Lambeth Jr. in the February 1923 special session but Robert J. Noell won the election to succeed him later that year.[3] DuringWorld War I, Robertson enlisted and served in theUnited States Army, but was assigned stateside so he could continue that part-time elective office.
Robertson served as Commonwealth Attorney forRockbridge County, Virginia (an elective office per the Virginia constitution, which prohibited such officials from also serving as legislators or judges during their terms) from 1922 to 1928.
In 1932, Robertson was elected fromVirginia's 7th congressional district to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was reelected six times. In 1946, he won a special election for the right to complete the final two years of SenatorCarter Glass's term and took office on the day after the election. He won the seat in his own right in 1948 and was reelected two more times without serious opposition.
Among his legislation is thePittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act which creates the formula for federal sharing of ammunition tax revenues with states to establish wildlife areas. The program is still in effect and remains a primary financing source for wildlife areas.
Robertson was a typical member of theByrd Organization, though his opinions differed at times and eventually became independent from the machine.[1] He was chairman of theU.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from 1959 to 1966. In 1956, Robertson was one of the 19 senators who signed theSouthern Manifesto against theU.S. Supreme Court decision ofBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which mandated schools' desegregation.
When PresidentLyndon B. Johnson sent his wife,Lady Bird Johnson, on a train trip through the South to encourage support for theCivil Rights Act of 1964 and theVoting Rights Act of 1965, Robertson was one of four Southern Senators who refused to meet with her on the whistle-stop trip.
In retaliation, President Johnson personally recruitedVirginia State SenatorWilliam B. Spong Jr., a considerably more liberal Democrat, to run against Robertson in the 1966 Democratic primary. Even some Byrd Democrats had moved away from resistance to integration as espoused by Robertson and the Organization's patriarch,Harry F. Byrd. Meanwhile,the Twenty-Fourth Amendment andVoting Rights Act had combined to add black and lower-income voters. Spong defeated Robertson in the primary in one of the biggest upsets in Virginia political history. The Byrd Organization's long dominance of Virginia state politics had begun to end.[4]
Asked to comment "on his region's state of mind and any specific American attitudes he feels are necessary to avoid violence and bring healing in a deteriorating situation following the Supreme Court school desegregation order," Robertson stated:
Virginia recognizes the correctness of the1850 decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court and in the 155 subsequent decisions of State and Federal courts holding that the equal rights provision of a constitution could be properly satisfied by public schools for the white and colored races which are separate but equal.
During the last 10 years notable progress has been made in the Southern States in meeting that equality requirement. But that progress will be nullified by a program of rapid, enforced desegregation. In fact, public education for both races in some Southern States would be destroyed.
The worst feature of the current desegregation effort, however, is the resulting bitterness and racial animosities in areas where harmony heretofore prevailed. Southerners believe that the cherished constitutional right of every citizen to select his personal associates is being violated.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Congressional Record the weekly newsletter of my distinguished successor in the Seventh Congressional District of Virginia, Representative Burr P Harrison, in which he discussed theso-called civil rights bill now under consideration by the House. Representative Harrison's analysis is lucid and accurate, and I fully endorse the position he has taken in opposition to it.
Harrison had stated:
Even a casual reading of this bill, sponsored by the President, reveals it as one of the most drastic measures ever to receive consideration by the Congress.It would set up a Federal Commission with a staff of snoopers who could roam the length and breadth of the United States, armed with subpoenas, looking for civil-rights incidents. One of the objectives of this Commission would be to advance the idea of complete racial integration in private business.
In 1971, Robertson died inLexington, Virginia and is buried in Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery,[5] later renamedOak Grove Cemetery.
His papers are held at theSwem Library at theCollege of William and Mary.[6]
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