Senate panel backs removal of segregationist Harry Byrd Sr.'s statue from Capitol Square
RICHMOND — The Senate Rules Committee on Friday voted 11-0 in favor of a bill to remove the statue of segregationist Gov. and U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. from Capitol Square.
Byrd, a Democrat, was governor from 1926-30 and a U.S. senator from 1933 to 1965. He was the driving force behind “Massive Resistance” to school desegregation following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
“I’m sure everybody is familiar with Harry Byrd and his legacy of segregation and Massive Resistance that prevented people like my parents from going to public school in Virginia for several years,” said the bill’s sponsor, Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, who did not cast a vote on the measure, acknowledged to Jones that Byrd was a segregationist and a racist, but Deeds said that applies to “just about every Virginia politician that existed before 1960.”
Read more: https://newsadvance.com/news/state-and-regional/senate-panel-backs-removal-of-segregationist-harry-byrd-sr-s-statue-from-capitol-square/article_96e1f6e0-c3da-5195-bc55-8d33d725198e.html
(Lynchburg News & Advance)