Locating Slavery's Legacies @ Virginia Military Institute

Memorial Honor

Scholarships/Prizes

Anti-Civil Rights

Jim Crow

Lost Cause

Harry F. Byrd Jr.

Harry Flood Byrd, Jr., Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs

Endowed Professorships at the University of Virginia allow esteemed faculty members to receive honors for their work. One such professorship is the Harry Flood Byrd, Jr., Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs.

The professorship, created in 1983 with donations from Albemarle County resident James F Lewis Jr's estate, is named after Harry F Byrd Jr, former senator of Virginia. His father, Harry F Byrd Sr, was also a senator in Virginia and played a critical role in the state during the Civil Rights Era with his championing of the 'Massive Resistance' to school desegregation movement.

Byrd's father was one of the primary catalysts for the Massive Resistance movement and the overall attempt to thwart the democratization of education in America. Byrd Jr. himself followed in his father's footsteps by passing legislation upholding the ideals of Massive Resistance. Byrd Jr. was the architect of the Stanley Plan, which aimed to defy school desegregation and uphold segregation by closing off integrated schools and promoting segregated public education.

In addition, Byrd Jr. attempted to restore the citizenship of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Thus, Harry Flood Byrd Jr. attempted to uphold racial inequality in education as well as promote the mythology of the "Lost Cause."

In 1970, in opposition to the Democratic Party's national stance in support of civil rights, Byrd Jr. left the party to run as an independent. Unsurprisingly, he was a part of his father's political machine, the Byrd Organization, a powerful political apparatus that controlled Virginia politics for much of the twentieth century. His continued political activity resisting integration and civil rights even after leaving the Democratic Party demonstrate that his legacy is both strongly linked to his father's leadership of the "Massive Resistance" effort, but also to his own opposition to school desegregation and the broader civil rights movement.

University of Virginia, estate of James F. Lewis Jr.

June 1983

1945-1976: Era of Civil Rights Movement and resistance to Civil Rights Movement

1976-2000: The Conservative Ascendancy and Retrenchment from Civil Rights Movement

UVA, Estate of James F. Lewis Jr.

University of Virginia; Charlottesville, Virginia

UVA - Endowed and University Professorships

Byrd Chairs at UVA