59th Virginia Governor. He served as Governor of Virginia from 1962 to 1966. A 1928 graduate of the University of Virginia, he served in the Virginia State Senate from 1947 to 1958, and was serving as Virginia’s Attorney General when he ran as a Democrat for the Virginia Governorship in 1961. Winning the office by 63 percent of the vote, his tenure was marked by improvements in the State’s education system and infrastructure building, and the desegregation of Virginia’s schools, which although he was initially unsupportive of, he later encouraged state officials to end resistance of it, and to comply with laws that banned segregation. After leaving office he served as a Virginia State Supreme Court of Appeals judge. In 1968 he was named the head of a commission that revised and streamlined Virginia’s state constitution. One of the most significant changes he presided over was the removal of the 1923 clause that than commanded white and African-American children to be barred from being taught in the same school. A member of the famous Harrison family of Virginia, he counted as his ancestors Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Harrison V, and former United States Presidents William Henry Harrison and Benjamin H. Harrison.
59th Virginia Governor. He served as Governor of Virginia from 1962 to 1966. A 1928 graduate of the University of Virginia, he served in the Virginia State Senate from 1947 to 1958, and was serving as Virginia’s Attorney General when he ran as a Democrat for the Virginia Governorship in 1961. Winning the office by 63 percent of the vote, his tenure was marked by improvements in the State’s education system and infrastructure building, and the desegregation of Virginia’s schools, which although he was initially unsupportive of, he later encouraged state officials to end resistance of it, and to comply with laws that banned segregation. After leaving office he served as a Virginia State Supreme Court of Appeals judge. In 1968 he was named the head of a commission that revised and streamlined Virginia’s state constitution. One of the most significant changes he presided over was the removal of the 1923 clause that than commanded white and African-American children to be barred from being taught in the same school. A member of the famous Harrison family of Virginia, he counted as his ancestors Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Harrison V, and former United States Presidents William Henry Harrison and Benjamin H. Harrison.
Family Members
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Records on Ancestry
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