Albertis Sydney Harrison Jr. (January 11, 1907 – January 23, 1995) was an

American politician In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches share powers: Congress, which forms the legislative branch, a bicameral legis ...

and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

. A member of the Democratic Party associated with Virginia's

Byrd Organization The Byrd machine, or Byrd Organization, was a political machine of the Democratic Party led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. From the 1890s until the ...

, he served as the

59th The 59th Quartermaster Company is a bulk petroleum company designed to provide semi-portable storage for of fuel and to provide distribution of fuel to military units within a specified geographic area while deployed overseas. Its secondary missi ...

governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...

from 1962 to 1966. Harrison is the first governor of Virginia to have been born in the 20th century.

Early life and education

Harrison was born in

Alberta, Virginia Alberta is a town in Brunswick County, Virginia, United States. The population was 302 at the 2020 census. History For much of the 20th century, Alberta marked the junction of two railroad mainlines. The Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railro ...

, the son of Albertis Sydney Harrison and Lizzie, (née Goodrich). He has been widely reported as related to

Benjamin Harrison V Benjamin Harrison V (April 5, 1726April 24, 1791) was an American planter, merchant, and politician who served as a legislator in colonial Virginia, following his namesakes' tradition of public service. He was a signer of the Continental Asso ...

who signed the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

and two United States presidents,

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...

and

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a ...

, the 9th and 23rd Presidents, however before his death, he found this to be false. He received an LL.B degree from the

University of Virginia Law School The University of Virginia School of Law (Virginia Law) is the law school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 as part of his "academical village", and now ...

in 1928. Harrison married Lacey Virginia Barkley c.1940. 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.

Legal and political career

Harrison went into legal practice in

Lawrenceville, Virginia Lawrenceville is a town in Brunswick County, Virginia, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 1,014. Located by the Meherrin River, it is the county seat of Brunswick County. In colonial times, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotsw ...

, where he became town attorney, before being elected

commonwealth's attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

of Brunswick County. He was elected to the

Senate of Virginia The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Vir ...

in 1947. He served there for ten years, before being elected

Attorney General of Virginia The attorney general of Virginia is an elected constitutional position that holds an Executive (government), executive office in the government of Virginia. Attorneys general are elected for a four-year term in the year following a United State ...

in 1957. Harrison resigned as attorney general in April 1961 to run for governor, winning election that November with 63.84% of the vote, defeating Republican H. 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. He sat on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, later renamed the

Supreme Court of Virginia The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrativ ...

, from 1968 to 1981. In 1968 he chaired the Commission on Constitutional Revision that drafted the 1971

Constitution of Virginia The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme ...

Massive Resistance

As Attorney General, Harrison was responsible for defending the state's resistance to school integration, as part of the Massive Resistance strategy endorsed and led by the state's political leader, United States Senator Harry 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 to ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...

'' (1954), but the Supreme Court had left enforcement to the local federal district judge. Moreover, the Gray 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, Governor J. Lindsay Almond (previously attorney general) and Harrison decided not to defy those courts and allowed schools in

Arlington Arlington most often refers to: *Arlington, Virginia **Arlington National Cemetery, a United States military cemetery *Arlington, Texas Arlington may also refer to: Places Australia *Arlington light rail station, on the Inner West Light Rail in S ...

and

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

to reopen. However the schools in Prince Edward County closed in 1958 and did not reopen until 1963, as white students used tuition grants to attend a private

segregation academy Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend Racial segregation in the United States, desegregated public schools. They ...

at state expense, while black students were left to volunteer efforts. Other problematic school closures, ultimately opened pursuant to federal court orders included those in Albemarle, Warren County and later

New Kent County New Kent County is a county in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 22,945. Its county seat is New Kent. New Kent County is located east of the Greater Richmond Region ...

(the subject of the 1968 Supreme Court decision in ''

Green v. County School Board of New Kent County ''Green v. County School Board of New Kent County'', 391 U.S. 430 (1968), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case involving school desegregation. Specifically, the Court dealt with the freedom of choice plans created to avoid compliance w ...

'' (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. Another aspect of Massive Resistance involved new laws regulating attorney ethics, designed to attack practices of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

, 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 in ''

Harrison v. NAACP ''Harrison v. NAACP'', 360 U.S. 167 (1959), is a 6-to-3 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States which held that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia should have abstained from deciding the constitutionali ...

'' (1959), but the case came before it twice more in '' NAACP v. Button'' (1963) (which was reargued after Harrison resigned as attorney general to run for governor, and which Virginia lost under attorney general Robert Young Button.

Death

Harrison died of a heart attack at his home in Lawrenceville on January 23, 1995. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Lawrenceville, Virginia. The

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

in Lawrenceville is named in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Albertis 1907 births 1995 deaths Democratic Party governors of Virginia Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia Virginia attorneys general Democratic Party Virginia state senators County and city commonwealth's attorneys in Virginia Virginia lawyers University of Virginia School of Law alumni Albertis American Episcopalians American segregationists 20th-century American lawyers People from Lawrenceville, Virginia 20th-century Virginia state court judges 20th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly