Constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; a response to the Attorney General of the United States...
This booklet was distributed by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government (VCCG) in opposition to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Commission began in 1958 and existed until the late 1960s. Led by David J. Mays, a prominent lawyer and advisor to Virginia’s commission on the response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, it advocated nationally for states’ rights and conservatism, and eventually distributed over 2 million published pamphlets, brochures and speeches. The Constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 argues against the Voting Rights Act. Robert Y. Button (Virginia’s Attorney General at the time) made a typical VCCG argument in stating that the Act “attempted to erode the basic concepts of constitutional government in which the individual States are acknowledged to be sovereign” and is “patently unconstitutional.” Excerpts: pp. 8-9 "the Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly declared that a State is free to conduct its elections and limit its electorate as it may deem wise, except as its actions may be affected by the prohibitions of the Federal Constitution, and that the power of Congress to legistlate at all the subject of racial discrimination in voting rests upon the Fifteenth Amendment and extends only to the prevention by appropriate legistlation of the discriminatiion forbidden by that Amendment..." p. 14 "I do believe, however, -- as Mr. Justice Harlan made clear...that the Framers of the Constitution: 'staked their faith that liberty would proper in the new Nation not primarily upon declarations of individual rights but upon the kind of government the Union was to have. And they determined that in a government of divided powers lay the best promise for realizing the free society it was their object to achieve.' (Italics supplied [by Button]. One aspect of this governmental edifice which the Framers sought to erect, and which H. R. 6400 would manifestly subvert, was the distribution of power between the Nation and the States, each supreme within its sphere, thus forming an indestructible Union of indestructible States." Other VCCG publications in the Image Portal
General collection, Call Number JK1861.V82 B8, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government
Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
NO COPYRIGHT – UNITED STATES The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
Learn more: Controlling the Vote -- Rights. Registration. Representation. Social Welfare History Image Portal Voting Rights Act of 1965. An Introduction. Social Welfare History Project Hayter, J. M. (2017). The dream is lost. Voting rights and the politics of race in Richmond, Virginia. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky Moeser, J. V. & Dennis, R. M. (2020). The politics of annexation. Oligarchic power in a southern city. Open Access Edition. Digital publisher: VCU Libraries. Original (1982) edition Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing Company Hershman, J. H. Jr. Massive Resistance. (2011, June 29). Encyclopedia Virginia
Laws of Virginia with Regard to Women Contrasted with Laws Where Women Vote [Equal Suffrage League handbill]
This sheet compares Virginia laws pertaining to women with those of states where female suffrage already had been approved. Arranged in two contrasting columns, the sheet presents twelve points and includes an Equal Suffrage League of Virginia enrollment form on the second page. Laws covered include those relating to property rights, inheritance, and parental guardianship. The League was founded in 1909 and included prominent women such as Adèle Clark, Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston, Mary-Cooke Munford, Nora Houston, and Lila Meade Valentine (the league’s first president). After a decade of failure to convince Virginia’s representatives that women should have the vote, the League switched focus to winning Congressional passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Rare Books, Call Number JK1901 .L42 1910z, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Equal Suffrage and the Negro Vote [broadside]
This broadside was issued by the Equal Suffrage League in about 1916. Southern suffragists were forced to respond to anti-suffrage groups who argued that if African American women gained the right to vote, white supremacy would be threatened. Although some prominent suffragists claimed that their response was borne only out of expedience, and not principle, they nonetheless employed Jim Crow arguments by emphasizing the power of the literacy test and the poll tax.
Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
Broadside Collection, Call Number 1916:1, Library of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ Acknowledgement of the Virginia Historical Society as a source is requested.
Learn more: The Negro Vote in the South. A Southern Woman's Viewpoint, Social Welfare History Image Portal
Voting Status of Negroes in Virginia and Procedures and Requirements for Voting in Virginia
This 1944 booklet is the Virginia Voters League’s fifth annual report. The League began in 1941 and worked with the NAACP in advocating for increased African American participation at the polls. It was led by Luther P. Jackson, an historian and civil rights advocate who formed the Petersburg League of Negro Voters in 1935, which developed into the Virginia Voters League. The booklet details African American voting strength and includes instructions for voter registration. At this time in Virginia, the payment of a poll tax for three consequtive years was a requirement for voting. The booklet notes that in 1943, the number of blacks who met the poll tax requirement was 32,504. That number increased to 41,579 in 1944. Nevertheless, those numbers represent only 9 to 11 per cent of Virginia blacks of voting age, or expressed another way, about 89 per cent of blacks were disqualified from voting in 1944. Excerpts: Title page: "With grant-in-aid of publication by the Virginia State Teachers Association, Virginia branches of the N.A.A.C.P., Virginia lodges of Elks, the Eureka Lodge of Norfolk, Virginia chapters of Greek letter fraternities and sororities, and the Virginia Negro Organization Society." p. 4 Foreward This fifth annual report of the Virginia Voters League defines the voting status of Negroes in Virginia as of May 7, 1944, the last day for paying the poll tax in order to have voted in the ensuing August primary and the November election. In order to satisfy the demand for a statement of voting requirements in Virginia and other states this handbook devotes a section to this topic also. To all persons who seek to advance the political status of Negroes and to observe racial trends on suffrage in Virginia this publication may serve as a guide. The compiler of this report is again deeply indebted to the 124 county and city court clerks in Virginia for furnishing the data on poll tax paying either by letter or by sending the poll tax list itself. Every county and city is included in this report because every clerk cooperated. SLOGAN Pay the poll tax in order to abolish the poll tax.
Jackson, Luther P. Virginia Voters League
General collection, JK1929.V8 V8 1944, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: Controlling the Vote -- Rights. Registration. Representation. Discovery Set, Social Welfare History Image Portal Dennis, M. Luther Porter Jackson (1892–1950). Encyclopedia Virginia "Va. highway marker honors creators of Virginia Voters League in Petersburg" The Progress-Index Poll tax, Social Welfare History Image Portal
Bond, issued in 1917 in return for a donationof $1.00 toward the construction of Piedmont Sanatorium. The Piedmont Sanatorium was established in Burkeville, Virginia, in June, 1918. At that time, tuberculosis was one of the leading causes of death for African Americans, but segregated health care in Virginia dictated that blacks could receive treatment in only two facilities—Central State Hospital (a mental health facility) and the state penitentiary. The Negro Organization Society initiated discussions with the State Board of Health, particularly Agnes D. Randolph, the Director of the Bureau of Tuberculosis Education. Randolph was instrumental in convincing the state government to establish a facility for African Americans. The Negro Organization Society continued to be heavily involved with the issue, from raising public awareness to donating funds to improve the facility. Piedmont Sanatorium had closed by 1965, when black patients began to be sent to Blue Ridge Sanatorium, near Charlottesville. Excerpt: "This Bond is issued for the purpose of cooperation with the Negro Organization Society to erect and to equip one Building to be used for the patients and to include rooms for visiting Doctors who shall from time to time be invited for study to the Sanatorium. The purchaser hereby receives a share in the benefit and happiness to be derived."
Manuscripts, Call Number Mss4 P5957 a 1, Library of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Discovery Set, Social Welfare History Image Portal Tuberculosis, Social Welfare History Project Tuberculosis, Social Welfare History Image Portal Tuberculosis Sanatoriums in Virginia: Catawba, Piedmont, and Blue Ridge, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia France J. J. (1920). A Post-Graduate Course in Tuberculosis at the Piedmont Sanatorium, Burkeville, Va. Journal of the National Medical Association, 12(2), 16–21. (link to PDF) The Rules of Good Health and Directions for Spring Cleaning. Prepared and Issued at the Request of the Negro Organization Society of Virginia (1917 April 5). Virginia Public Health Bulletin, IX(2) Extra.
Support Rally for Gay & Lesbian Rights [broadside]
This broadside advertises a support rally for gay and lesbian civil rights that was held October 8, 1977. Activists organized the rally in Monroe Park to protest a concert given at the University of Richmond by Anita Bryant, the popular entertainer who evolved into a prominent anti-gay rights crusader in the 1970s. The rally’s primary speaker, Karla Jay (b. 1947), is the prominent professor, activist and author who published Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation (1972), with Allen Young. Image at bottom shows silhouettes and outlined figures with the caption, "We are your children."
Richmond Citizens for Gay and Lesbian Rights
Broadside Collection, Call Number 1977:9, Library of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: Anita Bryant at UR, 1970s, LGBTQ History at UR, Common Ground, University of Richmond A Guide to the Richmond Gay Documents Collection, 1974-1988, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU
This newsletter is a publication of the anti-busing Save Our Neighborhood Schools, Inc., (SONS) organization. A subscription form listing the Board of Directors for SONS is also shown. In the 1970 case, Bradley v. Richmond School Board, Judge Robert Merhige, Jr., ordered limited citywide busing in order to integrate Richmond, Virginia, schools, resulting in further white flight. Opposition from white parents was fierce and organized, as evidenced by groups such as SONS. Merhige's decision was overturned on June 6, 1972 by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was affirmed a year later in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court subsequently invalidated most busing across city-county boundaries and, unable to counteract white flight, many city schools again became overwhelmingly black. The trend continued through the late-twentieth century, and Richmond neighborhoods were more racially segregated in 1980 than in 1960. From the Subscription Form: "Dedicated to the preservation of the neighborhood school concept in the education of our young people." Board of Directors William F. Haskins, President Board Members J. Hunter Ames James W. Meador, Jr. Jaqueline Gary Kenneth A. Huhn J. Earl Gerringer Ernestine Gilpin Jerome Hake Herbert Thornton
General collection, Call Number L11 .N5, and General collection, Call Number L11 .S5, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: Hayter, J. (2017). The Dream is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia. Busing, Social Welfare History Image Portal 3,300 Autos Driven To Capital in Protest, The New York Times, February 18, 1972. Pratt, Robert A. The Color of Their Skin: Education and Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1954-89. The Conscience of Virginia: Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr., and the Politics of School Desegregation Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia, 338 F. Supp. 67 (E.D. Va. 1972)
National Busing Report, Vol. 1, No. 11, October 1972
This is a publication of the anti-busing Save Our Neighborhood Schools, Inc., (SONS) organization. In the 1970 case, Bradley v. Richmond School Board, Judge Robert Merhige, Jr., ordered limited citywide busing in order to integrate Richmond, Virginia, schools, resulting in further white flight. Opposition from white parents was fierce and organized, as evidenced by groups such as SONS. Merhige's decision was overturned on June 6, 1972 by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was affirmed a year later in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court subsequently invalidated most busing across city-county boundaries and, unable to counteract white flight, many city schools again became overwhelmingly black. The trend continued through the late-twentieth century, and Richmond neighborhoods were more racially segregated in 1980 than in 1960. Detail from page 3: editorial cartoon by Jack Knox, reprinted from the Nashville Banner
Learn more: Busing, Social Welfare History Image Portal 3,300 Autos Driven To Capital in Protest, The New York Times, February 18, 1972. Pratt, Robert A. The Color of Their Skin: Education and Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1954-89. The Conscience of Virginia: Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr., and the Politics of School Desegregation Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, Virginia, 338 F. Supp. 67 (E.D. Va. 1972)
In 1944, military leaders struggled to maintain troop levels as casualties mounted in World War II. The Navy Women’s Reserve Act, signed into law in 1942, authorized women to become part of the group called Women Accepted for Volunteer Service—commonly known as WAVES. By 1945, some 86,000 reservists were on duty. Women served in myriad roles during the war, running the gamut from clerks and drivers to machinists and radio operators, as well as doctors, engineers, and attorneys. This Richmond broadside encourages women to volunteer to become part of the “all-Virginia WAVES group.” Text: V is for VIRGINIA, the Old Dominion State which has given so generously of her men and women in every cause of justice, righteousness, and democracy. V is for VICTORY, which requires the energy and effort of every man and woman to bring the war to a quick and sure end. V is for VOLUNTEER, as in Virginia Victory Volunteers, the all-Virginia WAVES group in which Virginia women are enlisting during August and September 1944 to achieve the Victory we all desire. Investigate YOUR opportunity today! Volunteer at any U.S. Navy Recruiting Station or Office of Naval Officer Procurement; (5th & Cary Sts., Richmond 19, Va.)
Broadside Collection, Call Number 1944:4, Library of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Classroom Desegregation Will Never Work [broadside]
This broadside asserts “there is a basic, inherent mental difference between the races,” citing IQ tests and a booklet by Henry E. Garrett, How Classroom Desegregation Will Work (1966). Henry Garrett was at the forefront of a resurgence of racial pseudoscience in the mid-twentieth century. He argued for segregation in Davis v. County School Board (one of the cases in Brown v. Board), compiled a pamphlet of his essays for the white supremacist Citizens’ Council, and his views were used to forward the work of other eugenicists. Excerpts: That is why Classroom Desegregation will never work: There is a basic, inherent mental difference between the races. If you mix the classrooms and gear the standards to Negroes, you deny White children their optimum chance. If you gear the standards to White mentality, you develop frustrations on the part of Negroes, with subsequent antagonisms, drop-outs, and "delinquencies...." Race differences, as an issue, is the overriding problem of our time. These differences are something too few of us know about. Now is the time to learn, before it is too late. If you know what you are talking about, you can help defeat Black Power. Only the truth will keep us free.
General collection, Call Number LC214.2 .C614 196-?, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
The Patrick Henry Press, Richmond, Virginia
Learn more: Door, Gregory Michael (2008). Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia Shuey, Audrey M. (1966). The Testing of Negro Intelligence, second edition. Campbell, A. W. (2018). Influence and Controversy. The Races of Mankind and The Brotherhood of Man. Social Welfare History Project.
Notice! The Coloured People of the City of Richmond… [broadside]
This 1866 broadside, issued by members of the African American community in Richmond, intended to clarify their plans to celebrate not the fall of the Confederacy, but rather the first anniversary of emancipation. When Richmond fell into the hands of Union troops, on 3 April 1865, enslaved individuals there effectively were emancipated. The text noted that the black community would commemorate “the day on which GOD was pleased to liberate their long-oppressed race”—emphasizing that their freedom came about as a result of God’s will. In the immediate aftermath of the war, racialized confrontations in Richmond’s streets frequently led to violence, and near-riots. The African American community, while determined to carry out their celebration, clearly intended to preempt potentially violent repercussions. Text: "NOTICE! The coloured people of the City of Richmond would most respectfully inform the public, that THEY DO NOT INTEND to celebrate THE FAILURE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, as it has been stated in the papers of this City, but simply as the day on which GOD was pleased to Liberate their long-oppressed race. C. Harris, J. Cocks, J. Edmunds, F. J. Smith, N. Williams, Committee. Richmond, Va., April 2, 1866"
Unknown, although presumed authors are the “Committee” listed on the broadside: C. Harris, J. Cocks, J. Edmunds, F. J. Smith, N. Williams.
Broadside Collection, Call Number 1866:13, Library of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: The Evacuation of Richmond. (1933). The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 41(3), 215-222. Richmond during the Civil War, Encyclopedia Virginia Ruane, M.E. (2015). War's End. The Washington Post. Linking to Our Past, Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
Jefferson Ward: List of Qualified Voters, Election Tuesday, November 7, 1933
This 1933 booklet provides “a list of persons in Jefferson Ward in the City of Richmond, who have paid their State Poll Taxes.” Poll taxes were enacted by many southern states after Reconstruction to suppress African American voting. Such taxes were a precondition for voting and thus disenfranchised those who could not pay the fee. Use of the poll tax in federal elections was abolished with the passage of the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964, and in state-level elections by the 1966 Supreme Court decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. The booklet is divided into “WHITE” voters, listed in the first 274 pages, and “COLORED” voters, listed on pages 275 to 304.
Unknown, but presumably “H. L. Hulce, Treasurer of the City of Richmond, Virginia,” who swore “that the foregoing is a true list,” as described on page 305.
General collection, Call Number F233.69 .J3, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: Controlling the Vote -- Rights. Registration. Representation. Discovery Set, Social Welfare History Image Portal Poll tax materials, Social Welfare History Image Portal Tarter, B. Poll Tax, Encyclopedia Virginia
Virginia Federation of Labor Convention Badge. Bristol, Va., April 3, 4, 5, 1922
Virginia Federation of Labor delegate's convention badge. Delegates represented local unions at the state gathering. The Virginia Federation of Labor was aligned with the American Federation of Labor, the powerful organization of unions led by Samuel Gompers. Although southern workers struggled to organize successfully in large numbers, unions nonetheless became a force. Between 1885 and 1890, according to one historian, twenty-three national or international unions organized locals in Virginia. Another scholar estimates that by the turn of the twentieth century, about 10% of Richmond’s industrial workers were represented by unions. That success was tempered, however, by the pervasive racism of the period. When the Knights of Labor held a national convention in Richmond in 1886, the New York delegation was refused accommodations because one of their members was an African American. By 1919 progress in racial cooperation had been made at the national level. That progress was reflected at the Virginia State Federation of Labor’s annual convention, in the same year, in Alexandria. W.H. Page, of Newport News, became the first African American to be appointed to the Virginia group’s executive council. Black labor leaders, and black newspapers, praised the move, but it also prompted angry backlash. Some two thousand white unionists, of Richmond, left the Federation of Labor in protest of Page’s appointment. Those episodes evoke the racial tensions of the Jim Crow South. Image Description: This round badge has blue lettering on a white background with a multi-color coat of arms of Virginia in the center. Inscribed in blue: "27TH ANNUAL CONVENTION / VA. FEDERATION OF LABOR" above the seal and "APRIL 3.4.5, 1922, BRISTOL, VA." below. Suspended from oval badge inscribed : "DELEGATE". The back of the badge reads "The Whitehead and Hoag Co. Buttons, Badges, Novelties and Signs. Newark, N.J."
2002.148.6, Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Virginia Historical Society
NO COPYRIGHT - NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY This Work has been digitized in a public-private partnership. As part of this partnership, the partners have agreed to limit commercial uses of this digital representation of the Work by third parties. You can, without permission, copy, modify, distribute, display, or perform the Item, for non-commercial uses. For any other permissible uses, please review the terms and conditions of the organization that has made the Item available. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/
Learn more: Love, R. Labor in Virginia during the twentieth century. Encyclopedia Virginia Virginia Federation of Labor proceedings of the 27th annual session held at Bristol, Virginia, April Third and Fourth, 1922. HathiTrust.org Harold, C. N. (2016). New Negro politics in the Jim Crow south. (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press). Kimball, G. (1991, April). The working people of Richmond: life and labor in an industrial city, 1865-1920. Labor's Heritage, 3(2). Woman's Work. Sixteenth Annual Session of the Virginia Federation of Labor, Richmond, Virginia. June 6-7-8, 1911, 25-26. Note of Thanks to Miss Johnston. The Times Dispatch. (Richmond, Va.), 10 June 1911, p. 5. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.
Richmond Exchange for Woman's Work, 309 East Franklin Street [pamphlet]
This ephemera pertains to the Richmond Exchange for Woman’s Work, founded in 1883, part of the Woman’s Exchange movement started in Philadelphia in 1832. Exchanges were popular places for women in hardship to sell goods on consignment without working publicly, a social taboo at the time. Some Exchanges still operate, and while the Richmond Exchange closed in 1955, it launched several female-owned businesses including Sally Bell’s Kitchen, still in business. Its founders—Elizabeth Lee Milton and Sarah Cabell Jones—met through the Richmond Woman’s Exchange. A handwritten note at the document's end records "From March 1st 1883 to March 1st 1884 $2430.80 was paid to consigners -" Printed text excerpts: The Association has been organized to aid ladies whose pecuniary circumstances require them to make their own handiwork a means of their support, and also to afford an opportunity by which work may be sold for charitable purposes. The rooms of the Exchange are located in a convenient part of the city, and there useful and domestic, fancy and artistic articles are exhibited and sold. Orders for work of all descriptions may be given, and purchasers of tasteful and useful articles may relieve the wants of others while gratifying their own taste.
Manuscripts, Call Number Mss1 M3855 c 4024, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: Sander, K. W. (1998). The Business of charity: The woman's exchange movement, 1832-1900. Urbana: University of Illinois Jones, D. G. (2001). A box lunch. Richmond, Va.: D. Jones. Federation of Woman's Exchanges Richmond Exchange for Woman's Work, Social Welfare History Image Portal
Rules of the Richmond Woman's Work Exchange [broadside]
This broadside pertains to the Richmond Exchange for Woman’s Work, founded in 1883, part of the Woman’s Exchange movement started in Philadelphia in 1832. Exchanges were popular places for women in hardship to sell goods on consignment without working publicly, a social taboo at the time. Some Exchanges still operate, and while the Richmond Exchange closed in 1955, it launched several female-owned businesses including Sally Bell’s Kitchen, still in business. Its founders—Elizabeth Lee Milton and Sarah Cabell Jones—met through the Richmond Woman’s Exchange. Excerpts: 1. The annual membership fee is $2. This membership will entitle each subscriber to enter the work of three persons for one year.... 10. Articles of personal property, which ladies are compelled by necessity to dispose of, are received under the rules applied to all other consignments. 11. Work is not received from ladies whose circumstances do not make it necessary for them to dispose of their handiwork, except when the proceeds are to be devoted to charitable purposes.
Manuscripts, Call Number Mss1 K2588 a 117-123, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Richmond Exchange for Woman's Work [correspondence and ephemera]
This correspondence and ephemera pertain to the Richmond Exchange for Woman’s Work, founded in 1883, part of the Woman’s Exchange movement started in Philadelphia in 1832. Exchanges were popular places for women in hardship to sell goods on consignment without working publicly, a social taboo at the time. Some Exchanges still operate, and while the Richmond Exchange closed in 1955, it launched several female-owned businesses including Sally Bell’s Kitchen, still in business. Its founders—Elizabeth Lee Milton and Sarah Cabell Jones—met through the Richmond Woman’s Exchange.
Manuscripts, Call Number Mss1 K2588 a 117-123 and Manuscripts, Call Number Mss1 M3855 c 4024, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Richmond Exchange for Woman's Work [card]
Card describing the mission of the Richmond Exchange for Woman's Work. The Exchange for Woman’s Work, founded in 1883, was part of the Woman’s Exchange movement started in Philadelphia in 1832. Exchanges were popular places for women in hardship to sell goods on consignment without working publicly, a social taboo at the time. Some Exchanges still operate, and while the Richmond Exchange closed in 1955, it launched several female-owned businesses including Sally Bell’s Kitchen, still in business. Its founders—Elizabeth Lee Milton and Sarah Cabell Jones—met through the Richmond Woman’s Exchange. Card text: This depot for the exhibition and sale of the handiwork of needy women has always on hand an assortment of dainty crochetted and knitted goods, toilet sets, fancy and plain needle-work and painting, besides delicious home-made biscuit, cake, jellies, pickles, beef-tea, and delicacies for the sick. Strangers in the city may here find suitable souvenirs of their visit, and at the same time assist a deserving class of workers.
Every Man His Own Law [cover title: In those days there was no king in Israel...]
This booklet was distributed by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government (VCCG) . Led by David J. Mays, a prominent lawyer and advisor to Virginia’s commission on the response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, it advocated nationally for states’ rights and conservatism, and eventually distributed over 2 million published pamphlets, brochures and speeches. This booklet argues against the Voting Rights Act and describes demonstrations as looting and mobbery. Excerpts: EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAW. A commentary by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government concerning the unparalleled lawlessness in the streets of the Nation today. The Appendix contains excerpts from the Constitution of the United States; the Virginia Bill of Rights; and excerpts from the Code of Virginia. Specifically covered are several sections of the Code of Virginia dealing with suppression of and punishment for riotous acts. In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. --JUDGES 21:25 Forward: It seems necessary and appropriate, however, to devote one pamphlet to a protest against the current unparalleled lawlessness that has plagued many of our cities, and which, if continued, would destroy those very liberties which the rioters profess to cherish but seek to gain through lawless acts. p.6 The ballot box is secret and is made accessible to those who have no property qualifications whatsoever and pay no taxes of any kind; and to those who cannot even read the comics. The most ignorant now has the same voice as the philosopher--often much greater because of the weight of minorities in key states in presidential elections. p.8 The American people are long-suffering and will tolerate repeated abuses; but a time comes when they rise in wrath to stamp them out. When they do, no minority group can resiste them, no matter what means it employs. p.9 They are insurrections against government. And it is no longer a matter of race, because some white hoodlums join in the loot, and the property taken and destroyed belongs to Negroes as well as to whites. It is the attack of the lowest of our citizens against any who may have achieved some measure of economic success.... It is to our shame that police officers have been ordered to shoot only in self-defense while mobs run wild, committing every excess. p.10 If they [police] are inadequate to quell insurrection, and if National Guard units may be too thin to put down several mobs at the same time, then we must organize, arm, and train home guard units in all our cities, composed of law-abiding citizens of both races. Mobbery has no place in free America. It must be destroyed. Other VCCG publications in the Image Portal
General collection. Call number K 49 V75 E8. Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society
Learn more: Controlling the Vote -- Rights. Registration. Representation. Social Welfare History Image Portal Voting Rights Act of 1965. An Introduction. Social Welfare History Project Hershman, J. H. Jr. Massive Resistance. (2011, June 29). Encyclopedia Virginia
Voting Rights and Legal Wrongs. A Commentary on S. 1564, the proposed "Voting Rights Act of 1965..."
This booklet was distributed by the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government (VCCG) in opposition to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Commission began in 1958 and existed until the late 1960s. Led by David J. Mays, a prominent lawyer and advisor to Virginia’s commission on the response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, it advocated nationally for states’ rights and conservatism, and eventually distributed over 2 million published pamphlets, brochures and speeches. Excerpts: FOREWORD During the first eight weeks of 1965, demonstrations of increasing size and intensity in Selma, Ala., and later in Montgomery, attracted nationwide attention to the efforts of Alabama Negroes to secure their right to vote. The demonstrations reached a political climax on the evening of March 15, when the President asked a joint session of the Congress for the immediate adoption of a "Voting Rights Act of 1965." Remarkably, members of the United States Supreme Court, in their judical robes, sat in the front row applauding. Three days later, on March 18, identical bills were introduced in the House (HR 6400) and in the Senate (S. 1564) to carry out the President's recommendations. The Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government believes fervently in the right to vote....At the same time, the Commission adheres just as fervently to a conviction that the power to fix qualifications for voting, uniformly applied to all persons, is a power plainly reserved to the States under Article I of the Constitution.... The proposed "Voting Rights Act of 1965," in the Commission's view, transcends the authority vested in Congress. Its key provisions are triggered not by discrimination on account of race or color, but by arbitrarily defined statistical phenomena.... In our view, the President is proposing to deal unconstitutionally with unconstitutional acts, thus piling a large subversion on a small one. He is proposing to go far beyond the limits of discrimination "on account of" race or color, in order to spread upon the statute books a harsh and punitive measure of general application, more drastic than any voting legislation proposed since Reconstruction days. The bill would grievously undermine our federal system; it would open the door to the obliteration of all State powers in the field of State and local elections. We do not oppose the President's aim. Surely the indefensible conditions that provoked the Alabama demonstrations must be remedied. But we are convinced the job can be done by a carefully drawn bill, strictly confined to denials and abridgments by reason of race or color. Such a bill would have this Commission's support...." James J. Kilpatrick, Chairman, Committee on Publications Richmond, April, 1965. Other VCCG publications in the Image Portal
General collection, Call Number JK1861.V82 V6, Library of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Virginia Historical Society