Word: virginias
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Exactly four men served Virginia in the United States Senate from 1920 until Harry Flood Byrd retired last week. That fact measures the continuity and power of the Virginia political organization most recently known as the Byrd Machine. But now the Machine is no longer Byrd's. In the last few years of the Senator's tenure, it has moved away from the ideological rigidity that has been its trademark for 70 years...
...Virginia Democratic Machine, since the 1890's, has unswervingly stood for white supremacy, a restricted suffrage, balanced budgets, and regressive taxation. Ever since the Constitution of 1901-1902 barred more than half the electorate from the polls, the Machine has had little trouble winning most Virginia elections. Its gentleman-politicians have governed honestly, efficiently, and as little as possible. Virginia's per capita expenditures on education, for example, have consistently ranked slightly above Mississippi...
Godwin, 50, who as a state senator in 1959 led Virginia's "massive resistance" to school integration, has modified his segregationist views since he was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1961. Nonetheless, on racial issues he still stood to the right of his Republican opponent, A. Linwood Holton, 42, a Roanoke lawyer. Holton campaigned energetically against the poll tax, on which Godwin refused to commit himself, and promised to recruit Negroes for appointment to high office. But the Negro voters broke with their tradition of supporting G.O.P. candidates in state elections. Richmond's almost solidly Negro First Precinct reflected...
...helluva thing to overcome." The "Goldwater thing," of course, is the residue of resentment with which most Negroes still regard Barry Goldwater's stand on civil rights in the 1964 campaign. While Holton loyally supported Goldwater last year, Godwin whistle-stopped through Virginia with Mrs. Lyndon Johnson on her Lady Bird Special. To many Negroes and liberals, a vote for Godwin was simply a vote of confidence for the Great Society, whose goals he endorsed. Diehard white supremacists from both parties bolted to the conservative candidate, William Story, a Birchite, and to George Rockwell of the American Nazi Party...
Despite the defeat, the Republicans were left with some hopes for the future -and some guideposts. Their moderate, articulate candidate fought the most vigorous campaign of any G.O.P. candidate in Virginia's history, won more votes than any other Republican nominee for state office since Reconstruction...