Byrd Organization
Encyclopedia
The Byrd Organization was a political machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...

 led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr.
Harry F. Byrd
Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. of Berryville in Clarke County, Virginia, was an American newspaper publisher, farmer and politician. He was a descendant of one of the First Families of Virginia...

 (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 for much of the middle portion of the 20th century. From the mid 1920s until the late 1960s, the Byrd Organization effectively controlled the politics of the state through a network of courthouse cliques of local constitutional officers in most of the state's counties.

"The Organization" had its greatest strength in rural areas. It was never able to gain a significant foothold in the growing urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

s of Virginia's many independent cities
Independent city
An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...

, which are not located within counties, nor with the emerging suburban middle-class of Virginians after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Byrd's vehement opposition to racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...

 of the state's public schools including a policy of massive resistance
Massive resistance
Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision...

 which ultimately failed in 1960 after rulings it was unconstitutional by both state and federal courts could be described as its "last stand," although the remnants of the Organization continued to wield power for a few years longer.

When the Senator resigned in 1965, he was replaced by his son Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
Harry Flood Byrd, Jr. is a retired American politician. He represented Virginia in the United States Senate from 1965 to 1983. He is most notable for leaving the Democratic Party in 1970 and becoming an Independent, although he continued to caucus with the Democrats. He is the son of Harry F....

 in the U.S. Senate. However, the heyday of the Byrd Organization was clearly in the past, ending 80 years of domination of Virginia politics by conservative Democrat
Conservative Democrat
In American politics, a conservative Democrat is a Democratic Party member with conservative political views, or with views relatively conservative with respect to those of the national party...

s with the election of a Republican governor in 1969 for the first time in the 20th century.

Background

After the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Virginia's politics were chaotic. Initially, former Confederates were not allowed to vote, and factions of newly enfranchised black voters joined the picture. In the late 1870s, a coalition of blacks, Republicans, and populist Democrats formed the Readjuster Party
Readjuster Party
The Readjuster Party was a political coalition formed in Virginia in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following the American Civil War. Readjusters aspired "to break the power of wealth and established privilege" and to promote public education, a program which attracted biracial support....

. Readjusters aspired "to break the power of wealth and established privilege" and to promote public education. It was led by Harrison H. Riddleberger
Harrison H. Riddleberger
Harrison Holt Riddleberger was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, and politician from Woodstock, Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate, and was U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1883 to 1889....

 (1844–1890) of Woodstock
Woodstock, Virginia
Woodstock is a town in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. It has a population of 5,097 according to the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Shenandoah County....

, an attorney, and William Mahone
William Mahone
William Mahone was a civil engineer, teacher, soldier, railroad executive, and a member of the Virginia General Assembly and U.S. Congress. Small of stature, he was nicknamed "Little Billy"....

 (1827–1895), of Petersburg, a former Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 general who was president of several railroads.

The Readjuster Party's power was overturned in the late 1880s, when John S. Barbour, Jr.
John S. Barbour, Jr.
John Strode Barbour, Jr. was a Representative and a Senator from Virginia. He is best remembered for taking power in Virginia from the short-lived Readjuster Party in the late 1880s, forming the first political machine of "Conservative Democrats", whose power was to last 80 years until the demise...

 (1820–1892) led the first Conservative Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 political machine
Political machine
A political machine is a political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses , who receive rewards for their efforts...

 in Virginia. U.S. Senator Thomas Staples Martin (1847–1919) took over after Barbour died, but Senator Martin's political control was thin by the time he died in office in 1919. By this time, as a young state senator from Winchester
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...

, Harry F. Byrd
Harry F. Byrd
Harry Flood Byrd, Sr. of Berryville in Clarke County, Virginia, was an American newspaper publisher, farmer and politician. He was a descendant of one of the First Families of Virginia...

, was a rising star in state politics and the Democratic Party. He had served the Wilson Administration
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...

 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 helping with gasoline rationing as a volunteer.

In 1922, with 7 years of experience in the Virginia State Senate, Byrd gained statewide prominence by confronting Virginia's powerful lobby of highway builders. Byrd had gained a lot of related experience when earlier managing the Valley Turnpike. In the Virginia General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...

, he led a fight against using bonded indebtedness as a method to pay for new roads. He feared the state would sacrifice future flexibility by committing too many resources to paying off construction debt.

In 1923, Byrd was sued for libel by the Virginia Highway Contractors Association because he said their activities "by combination and agreements may be very detrimental" to the State. The court dismissed the suit, stating the criticism was legal, imposing all costs upon the association. The publicity figuratively paved the way for Harry Byrd to statewide office and the creation of the Byrd Organization.

Structure

The broad lines of what would become the Byrd Organization formed in 1925, when Byrd ran for governor
Governor of Virginia
The governor of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The position is currently held by Republican Bob McDonnell, who was inaugurated on January 16, 2010, as the 71st governor of Virginia....

. He served until 1930, then was appointed to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 in 1933, serving until his retirement in 1965.

Over 40 years, Byrd built up relationships with the "courthouse cliques," consisting of the constitutional officers in every county. The five (elected) constitutional officers in each county were the sheriff, Commonwealth's attorney, clerk of the court, county treasurer, and commissioner of revenue. http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/byrdorg.html

Perhaps contrary to first appearances, the low public profile "clerk of the court" position held the greatest power in most counties within the Byrd Organization. These courthouse cliques made recommendations for suitable candidates, and Byrd only decided on candidates after careful consultation. Without Byrd's "nod," no candidate had a chance at statewide office in Virginia.

Fiscally conservative

Byrd's fiscal policy was principled conservativism, restructuring state government to streamline operations and use tax dollars more effectively. He made property taxes solely a county and city responsibility. He also had a keen interest in improving roads, dramatically increasing funding for secondary roads. When that wasn't enough, he pushed through the Byrd Road Act
Byrd Road Act
Byrd Road Act was an Act of Assembly passed in February, 1932 by the Virginia General Assembly. Named for former Governor Harry F. Byrd, the legislation was originally presented as measure to relieve the financial pressures of the Great Depression upon the counties, as the state offered to take...

 of 1932, a law that created the state's Virginia Secondary Roads System and gave the state responsibility for maintaining county roads, but didn't include similar assistance for Virginia's independent cities
Independent city
An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...

.

His primary support was among rural voters in his native Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...

 and Southside Virginia regions, who had less interest in improved state services (other than roads) than in low taxes and limited government
Limited government
Limited government is a government which anything more than minimal governmental intervention in personal liberties and the economy is generally disallowed by law, usually in a written constitution. It is written in the United States Constitution in Article 1, Section 8...

. Byrd initiated a "pay as you go" approach to spending, in which no state money was spent until enough taxes and fees were available. While this freed Virginia from having to pay off road construction debt, it also kept support for higher education and other state services at low levels. Byrd, who never graduated from high school himself, recognized that his rural constituency was less interested in state-supplied services than in lower taxes. http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/byrdorg.html Rural areas were heavily overrepresented in the General Assembly
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,...

, ensuring that support for education and social welfare remained very low for decades.

Poll taxes

He also reduced the number of statewide offices to just three—governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general—eliminating potential bases for opposition. Several measures that had been in place well before Byrd's time also ensured his dominance. A poll tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...

 enacted in 1902 effectively disenfranchised blacks and poor whites. The courthouse cliques of the Byrd machine strove to ensure that "reliable" voters' poll taxes were paid on time (often as early as three years before an election). The General Assembly, through circuit court judges, controlled the electoral commissions that ruled on voter eligibility. While the Organization never was able to establish a foothold in urban areas, blatant malapportionment in favor of rural areas ensured statewide dominance.

George Mason University
George Mason University
George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...

 professor William Grymes has noted that "Byrd's political power was based on the ability of the appointed and elected officials to restrict the number of voters, and ensure those few voters were supporters of the Byrd Organization." Professor Grymes illustrates that "a landslide election would have 7% of the potential electorate voting for candidates supported by Byrd, and 4% voting for the opposition... a total of less than 15% of theoretically-possible voters actually participating in the process." http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/museum2party.html

Opposing federal laws

With this structure in place, Byrd's Organization practically selected every governor from 1930 until 1970, even as Virginia became friendlier to Republicans. Many Virginia Democrats drifted away from the national party due to its strong support of organized labor during the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...

. This only accelerated during the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

, when Byrd drafted the Southern Manifesto
Southern Manifesto
The Southern Manifesto was a document written February–March 1956 by Adisen and Charles in the United States Congress opposed to racial integration in public places. The manifesto was signed by 101 politicians from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South...

 in opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...

.
As a result, well before the 1960s, ticket-splitting was a common practice in Virginia, with many conservative Democrats supporting Republicans at the national level.

Some Byrd Democrats, such as Governors John S. Battle
John S. Battle
John Stewart Battle was an American politician and the 56th Governor of Virginia from 1950 to 1954.Battle was born in 1890 in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. He earned an associate's degree from Mars Hill College , in North Carolina...

 and Thomas B. Stanley, were willing to take cautious steps toward racial integration. However, their efforts were short-circuited in 1956, when Byrd decreed a policy of "massive resistance
Massive resistance
Massive resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956, to unite other white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to prevent public school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision...

" to integrating the state's public schools. He was joined by Virginia's other Senator, A. Willis Robertson, and most other members of the organization. Byrd had a powerful ally in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

, where the powerful chairman of the House Rules Committee, Howard W. Smith
Howard W. Smith
Howard Worth Smith , Democratic U.S. Representative from Virginia, was a leader of the conservative coalition who supported both racial segregation and women's rights.-Early life and education:...

, kept many civil rights bills from even coming to a vote on the floor. In time, Governor Stanley joined with Byrd to draft and pass a series of laws, known as the Stanley plan
Stanley plan
The Stanley plan was a package of 13 statutes adopted in September 1956 by the U.S. state of Virginia designed to ensure racial segregation in that state's public schools despite the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483 ....

, to implement the "massive resistance" program.

State and federal courts struck down most of the "massive resistance" laws in 1960. The failure of "massive resistance" caused some of its leaders, such as future governor Mills Godwin, to moderate their views and even make some efforts to reach out to black voters. However, Byrd, Robertson, Smith and a few others continued to oppose any form of integration.

Demise

Harry F. Byrd Sr. retired from the U.S. Senate in 1965, and his eldest son, Harry, Jr.
Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
Harry Flood Byrd, Jr. is a retired American politician. He represented Virginia in the United States Senate from 1965 to 1983. He is most notable for leaving the Democratic Party in 1970 and becoming an Independent, although he continued to caucus with the Democrats. He is the son of Harry F....

, a State Senator, was appointed to succeed him.

Harry, Sr. died in 1966. A short time before his death, the Byrd Organization showed its first cracks when two of Harry, Sr.'s longtime allies were ousted in the Democratic primary by more liberal challengers. Senator Robertson was defeated by State Senator William B. Spong, Jr.
William B. Spong, Jr.
William Belser Spong, Jr. was a Democratic Party politician and a United States Senator who represented the state of Virginia from 1966 to 1973....

, whom President Lyndon Johnson had personally recruited. Also, Congressman Smith was defeated by State Delegate George Rawlings
George Rawlings
George Chancellor Rawlings, Jr. was an American politician and Attorney at law from the U.S. state of Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1963 to 1969....

. While Spong went on to victory in November, Rawlings was defeated by conservative Republican William L. Scott
William L. Scott
William Lloyd Scott was a Republican politician from Virginia.Scott was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. He received a law degree from George Washington University, and was employed by the federal government 1934–1961, principally as trial attorney with Department of Justice...

, who gained the support of many conservative Democrats.

The Byrd Organization finally broke down in 1969, when a split in the Democratic Party allowed A. Linwood Holton Jr.
A. Linwood Holton Jr.
Abner Linwood Holton, Jr. was the 61st Governor of Virginia, and the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. He was governor from 1970 to 1974...

 to become the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction. A year later, Republicans won six of the state's 10 congressional districts—the first time Republicans had held a majority of the state's congressional delegation since Reconstruction. Ironically, one of the districts that turned Republican was the 7th District, the Byrds' home district. Holton was succeeded in 1974 by Mills Godwin, a former Byrd Organization Democrat who had turned Republican. Meanwhile, despite the end of the Organization, Harry Byrd Jr remained in the US Senate until his retirement in 1983.
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