Governor Thomas Bahnson Stanley, sr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bahnson_Stanley

Thomas Bahnson Stanley (July 16, 1890 – July 10, 1970) was an American politician, manufacturer and Holstein cattle breeder.

Early life

He was born to Crockett Stanley (January 8, 1838 – March 12, 1915) and Susan Matilda Walker (August 17, 1845 – April 9, 1922) on a farm near Spencer, Henry County, Virginia, youngest of seven children. He married Anne Pocahontas Bassett (November 28, 1898 – October 20, 1979) on October 24, 1918 in Bassett, Virginia. Anne was the daughter of John David Bassett (July 14, 1866 – February 26, 1965), a founder of Bassett Furniture, and Nancy Pocahontas Hundley (November 21, 1862 – January 11, 1953). Stanley graduated from Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1912.

Business

Stanley worked for his father-in-law's company, Bassett Furniture, as an executive, until 1924, when he left and founded Stanley Furniture, a leading Virginia furniture maker, in what would become Stanleytown, Virginia. His sons Thomas Bahnson Stanley, Jr. and John David Stanley joined him at Stanley Furniture.

Politics

As the Democratic candidate he defeated Republican Theodore Roosevelt Dalton and Independent Howard Carwile in the general election for Governor of Virginia in 1953. He served as the Governor of Virginia from 1954 to 1958. Before becoming governor, Stanley was the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and a U.S. Representative in Congress from November 5, 1946, filling vacancy created when Thomas G. Burch resigned to assume U. S. Senate seat, until Stanley resigned on February 3, 1953 to run for Virginia's governor. As governor Stanley improved the administration of state hospitals and increased funding to mental hospitals and public schools.

While governor Stanley became embroiled in conflict. The budget fight between the Old Guard and the Young Turks over budget surpluses in the 1954 legislative session colored relations in the Democratic Party for a generation. Brown v. Board of Education was decided during his term, and his initial efforts to preserve segregation through legislative means were hamstrung by U.S. Senator Harry Byrd, Sr., and his Massive Resistance campaign.

Death

He died in Martinsville, Virginia on July 10, 1970 and is buried in Roselawn Burial Park.

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https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Stanley_Thomas_Bahnson_1890-1970

Thomas B. Stanley served as governor of Virginia (1954–1958) during the turbulent first years of Massive Resistance to school desegregation. His initial reaction to the 1954 Supreme Court of the United States decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was moderate, but Stanley, a politician of few gifts, was unable to curb increasing calls for a defiant stance to school desegregation. Stanley eventually followed the lead of more conservative Democrats and backed legislation designed to maintain what supporters called "separate but equal" schools.

Thomas Bahnson Stanley was born in Henry County on July 16, 1890. In 1924 he founded the Stanley Furniture Company and was a dairy farmer before turning to politics in 1930. He was a member of the House of Delegates from 1930 to 1946, serving as Speaker of the House from 1942 to 1946. Before being elected governor, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1946 to 1953.

Early in his term as Virginia governor, the Supreme Court handed down the controversial Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate public schools. Stanley initially urged Virginians to accept the ruling. It quickly became apparent, however, that white politicians in Southside Virginia, where the powerful Byrd Organization's political base resided, would not accept desegregation under any circumstances. Stanley created a committee composed primarily of Southside politicians to craft a response to the Brown decision. The resulting "Gray Plan," named after the committee's chairman, segregationist Garland Gray, of Sussex County, gave localities the choice to desegregate their schools but also provided legislation that would allow those localities to skirt integration if they wished. The Commonwealth, for example, would supply state-funded tuition grants to students who wanted to attend private—and therefore segregated—schools instead of desegregated public schools.

At the same time, Stanley and the Democrats, who were heavily influenced by James J. Kilpatrick, editor of the Richmond News Leader, and Senator Harry Flood Byrd Sr., were adopting the notion of interposition—an argument harkening back to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798 and John C. Calhoun's support of nullification in the 1830s—that states could reject federal infringements on their sovereignty. The combined popularity of the Gray Plan's "local option" and the concept of interposition encouraged Stanley and other Byrd Democrats to adopt a more drastic strategy. A revised proposal, dubbed the Stanley Plan, erased the so-called "local option" on school desegregation and, instead, empowered the governor to shut down any school in danger of being desegregated.

The Virginia General Assembly approved the Stanley Plan in 1956, and though Stanley declared that he would willingly close desegregated schools as outlined in the plan, he never had to follow through on this promise. By the time the federal courts ordered schools in Charlottesville to desegregate in 1958, Stanley had already left office. His successor, James Lindsay Almond Jr., did fulfill the promise of the Stanley Plan and closed the Charlottesville schools, along with schools in Norfolk and Front Royal. The school-closing statute of the Stanley Plan left thousands of Virginia children without an education for several months. Ultimately, federal and state courts ruled early in 1959 that the Stanley Plan, along with other Massive Resistance laws, was unconstitutional. Thereafter, white Virginians accepted minimal desegregation as a condition of keeping public schools open.

Following his term as governor, Stanley went on to become the vice president and director of the First National Bank, as well as the chairman of the Commission on State and Local Revenues and Expenditures. He also continued his work as a furniture manufacturer. He died on July 10, 1970, in Martinsville and was interred in Roselawn Burial Park.

Time Line

July 16, 1890 - Thomas B. Stanley is born on a farm near Spencer in Henry County.

1924 - Thomas B. Stanley founds the Stanley Furniture Company several years before turning to politics.

1930–1946 - Thomas B. Stanley serves as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

1942–1946 - Thomas B. Stanley serves as Speaker of the House of Delegates.

1946–1953 - Thomas B. Stanley serves as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

November 3, 1953 - Thomas B. Stanley is elected governor of Virginia.

August 27, 1956 - Governor Thomas B. Stanley announces a package of Massive Resistance legislation that will become known as the Stanley Plan. Among other things, the plan gives the governor the power to close any schools facing a federal desegregation order.

July 10, 1970 - Thomas B. Stanley dies and is buried at Roselawn Burial Park in Martinsville.