Transcripts For CSPAN3 The 20240703

Tonights lecture will trace the history of harry byrds conservative political organization, which dominated virginia politics for more than half a century. The byrd machine wielded power and influence over everything from the choosing of gubernatorial candidates to how the state would maintain racial segregation. A major turning point which sparked the organization lynns decline, came with massive resistance. A group of laws passed intending to prevent integration of virginias schools. And here to speak tonight is Michael Lee Pope hope, an Award Winning journalist whose reported for npr, the new new york daily news, the Northern Virginia magazine and the alexandria gazette packet. Michael holds a masters degree in american studies from Florida State university and is a former adjunct professor at Tallahassee Community college. Hes the author of several books, including a Hidden History of alexandria, d. C. Shotgun justice. And of course, most recently, the bird machine, the rise and fall of a conservative political organization. Please join me in welcoming Michael Lee Pope. All right. Well, this is a treat. This is a real honor to be asked to come speak here. So thank you so much to the Historical Society and to the museum of history and culture. I want to start by saying that my book, the bird machine of virginia, has no nefarious foreign influence. The communist Chinese Party had nothing to do with it. It was built for tough, though, so, you know, hopefully im thinking hopefully somebody will want to ban it. Im thinking the sales of the book could really skyrocket if someone were to threaten to ban it. So keep that in mind as we learn more about the bird machine. So this is the cover here. And you dont have to start out by saying, you know, my interest in the bird machine goes back about 20 years when i first moved to virginia and i started hearing about the bird machine over and over again. You know, people would say that that was the reason for the way things were working, the way that it did. The nefarious interests of the bird machine kept coming up. And so it was always kind of lurking around in the background as something as like an explanation for why things worked the way they work in virginia, sort of the back story. So, you know, virginia has only three statewide elected officials. Thats a legacy of the bird machine. Virginia has this long history of shortchanging Public Education. Thats the bird machine. Virginia is a place where unions just dont have the same kind of power and influence they have in other states. Thats the bird machine. So and then theres systemic racism, right . I mean, this is just straight up White Supremacy. This is probably what people know the bird machine most for. You know, this is perhaps the most notorious legacy of the bird machine is massive resistance closing the Public Schools rather than put the black children in the white children at the same classroom. So you know, all of these things are the legacy of the bird machine, and its an ongoing legacy because the bird machine may have fallen apart in the late 1960s, but in many ways, this is a system that is still with us, like a zombie machine aimlessly lumbering around. So i want to start by taking a look at political machines. So this is a famous editorial cartoon, 1871 editorial cartoon called the brains by thomas nast. So its about boss tweed and the tammany hall political machine in new york city. So this is, you know, probably the most famous political machine. If you if you know anything about machines at all, you probably know about this cartoon and the person at the center of it. If you think about machines, theres also James Pendergast in kansas city, James Michael curley and boston. So those were all big city machines in sort of urban areas. But this is the south things work a little differently in the south. So this is where we have, you know, the good Old Boy Networks of small town dixie, where they use the combination of patronage and electioneering to maintain power. So this is where the byrd machine kind of defied the odds, staying in power way longer than any of those other political machines, outlasting boss crump in tennessee and even huey kingfish long in louisiana. So from his perch as chairman of the Senate Finance committee in washington, d. C. , senator harry byrd controlled virginia politics with the kind of animal instinct that prevented anybody else from coming anywhere close to the reins of power. So as Time Magazine noted in 1958, describing the byrd machine this way, quote, the byrd machine is an oligarchy composed of the few chosen by the few to make decisions for the many. So the origins of the byrd machine are often traced to the day when this guy, harry byrd, became chairman of the Democratic Party in 1922. So this is a position he used carefully oversee the flow of money and power in virginia. So the byrd machine was a statewide operation, but it operated as a kind of network of courthouse rings. Sheriffs, judges, clerks of court. They all conspired to hold power by using the mechanics of elections to control the outcomes. So the New York Times explained it this way 1941, 1949, they were explaining the byrd machine, quote, it has become as much a fixture in the comfortable, cloistered life of people of the state as, say, their faith in the confederacy or their addiction to buttermilk biscuits or smithfield ham. To relate senator byrd to this palpable monolith is a little like debating the divine origin of scriptures. You know the answer, but just try to prove it. Interesting. The New York Times was associating virginia with like the faith and the confederacy and smithfield hams. So in our modern context, you know, we have to reevaluate some of these assumptions the New York Times is making in the 1940s. So the center of power and the byrd machine was the courthouse. Right. This is the alex andria courthouse. These large windows of the Circuit Court, one of the Circuit Courts, and then this top part of the building here is called the crows nest, where the chief judge had his had his office courtroom and office. So the courthouse was where all the organization functionaries kept the engine humming along for the bird machine. And election after election. County seats from across south side, virginia, and up and down the Shenandoah Valley to the Eastern Shore competed with each other to see who could provide the most lopsided victory for the machine candidates. The old confederate statue guarding the courthouse was a not so subtle hint that the retrograde forces were at work here. So few people held as much power and influence over the local situation there. The local machine. As the clerk of court, the clerk of court was sort of key to your local political machine. So he was welcomed in the back room of the senators Washington Office and the hotel suites here in richmond. Historian Harvey Wilkinson put it this way, quote, there has always been a certain mystique surrounding the manner in which the organization picked its candidates for governor from the informal give and take of the courthouse preference. The senators own wishes and the choice of the senators closest advisers. A preferred candidate usually emerged and proceeded to an almost certain victory in the forthcoming democratic primary and the general election. So you see there the encryption of the local courthouse ring is central to how the machine sort of used its power and maintained its power over a long period of time. So the courthouse clerks organize the local elections from the local organizing candidate, aided by the sheriff and the commonwealths attorney members of the local board of supervisors worked as the public face of the campaign team, as did the delegation to the General Assembly here in richmond. So behind the scenes, the chief judge who had this top office, top courtroom here, the chief judge of the Circuit Court, would encourage support for the organization candidate by offering to use his power to appoint key positions in the jurisdiction. So this is the appointment. Power is very important to the maintenance of the machine. Patronage, the bread and butter of any political machine is patronage. And so the byrd machine, it flowed through the courthouse during the election season as judges named members of everything from the electoral board to the school board to the welfare board, to the board of assessors, all named by your local judge. So the historian wilkinson explained it this way, quote, candidate appearances also featured handshaking. A handshaking tour near the courthouse, followed by impassioned eloquence before a small but sympathetic courtroom crowd. Large fans eyes hanging from the ceilings to break the heat in a july afternoon. Light green courthouse walls broken only by the faded picture of county fathers and former Circuit Court judges. Harry byrd grimly warning of a grasping federal government. Such was a classic snapshot which would soon take its place beside the new england town meeting and the president ial whistle stop and the gallery of fond politics cool memories sets wilkinson, explaining kind of how the byrd machine would have not just work, but actually looked if you were in the courthouse like the to see the machine in action. So how did any of all this happen . In order to answer that question . We need to go all the way back to the end of the civil war and meet this guy. This is a confederate general, william mahone, kind of. He later ends up being a really key figure in virginia history. Its sad that we dont know more about this guy because he was a really interesting figure. You see him here in his confederate outfit. But, you know, after the civil war, he transformed himself from a confederate general to a railroad executive. And ultimately a United States senator who created virginias First Political machine in the 1880s. So his meteoric rise to power was matched only by his breakneck fall from grace. This is probably why we dont know too much about him today, because it was a very brief period of time that he was in power. But mahone was so exacting with his wardrobe that his tailor said he would rather make dresses for eight women than suit than one suit for the senator. So i think if you look at this image here, you can tell hes a puts a lot of care and attention into what he was wearing. So senator mahoney spoke with a squeaky voice. He stood about five foot six, weighing in at about £100, soaking wet. But dont let that fool you. He ran a cutthroat operation that seized power after reconstruction and kept its steely grip on virginia politics as long as possible. So historian Stephen Woodward put it this way, quote, in the whole gallery of southern figures of his generation, he stands out as one of the boldest and most enigmatic. Mahoney was a selfmade man, not to the men or born, yet possessed of an imperviousness of will and manner, and an over winning confidence in his own destiny. So this is one, of course. Not only did mallon make an impact in politics, but he also left a lasting impression on virginias place names. So his wife was a big fan of the novel ivanhoe. And so several place names along the railroad from norfolk to petersburg. And that line actually bear the names reflected in the literature from ivanhoe. So this is the waverley train station. So its one of the many place names of virginia that still bear the memory here of mrs. Mahoneys love of place names inspired by ivanhoe. Other place names that we can thank for mrs. Brown include wakefield, windsor, ivor. So at the end of the line, the end of the line, there was a famous argument between the maroons that led to a curious name. So apparently they got into an argument. And so now virginia actually has a place called disputed hania, which is because the maroons had an argument and couldnt decide what the what the name it. So, you know, mahoney is a man of contradictions, hero of the lost cause, who but who also helped black people get elected to the General Assembly. A Railroad Tycoon who became a hero to the working man, enemy of the establishment, who became a political boss. So his machine, the mahoney machine, ended the poll tax. They abolished the whipping post. They boosted funding for asylums. They forced railroads to bear a larger share of the taxpayer. And they repudiate did about a third of the virginias debt. So, you know, in all of that, they also increased the appropriation for Public Education by 50 , 50 , and opened a scores of new schools across virginia. So, i mean, this is one heck of a legacy here for the 1880s, for the mahoney machine to abolish the poll tax and abolish the whipping post and fund Public Education. So thats a you know, that was there. Those were their issues today. We would call them a progressive set of issues. But it was also a ruthless and autocratic organization. So he demanded that his Office Holders contribute a fixed percentage of their salaries to the party, to the war chest of the readjust our party. 5 for state employees. 2 for federal employees. If youre a federal employee, you got to get a little bit of a discount. If youre a state employee, you got to pay the full 5 . So businessmen who scored state contracts were expected to share the wealth and help finance party activities. Registers who held office were required to sign pledges agreeing to support specific bills and specific candidates approved by the register caucus. So, you know, progressive list of issues, some accomplishments. And that list that i mentioned. But then these hardball tactics really give him, you know, kind of a not a stellar reputation today. So his political machine fell apart after the danville riot, the socalled danville riot, which prompted a wave of White Supremacy and ultimately a jim crow constitution that limited who could vote and consolidated power and wealthy white elites who hated mahone and his machine. So around this time, the new rules about voting swept into power, as did this guy, thomas staples. Martin this is the portrait of thomas staples. Martin that used to hang in the capitol. Its now gone, replaced by like a landscape or something. But this is a one of two portraits youll see tonight that no longer hang in the capitol building. So thomas staples martin is a lawyer from scottsville, who was counsel for the chesapeake and ohio railroad. So he led the second political machine in virginia, which was largely created as a reaction to the mahoney machine. So this is a machine that was created to vanquish the previous machine, and it was all done with Railroad Money and really important to remember the source of this guys wealth and power is Railroad Money. So this was an era of concerns about election integrity. So between 1874 and 1900, no fewer than 20 Congressional Elections had been officially contested. That led to talk of a Constitutional Convention to write new rules and progressives were clamoring for election reform, tightening the rules to prevent against what they perceived as voter fraud. So this was kind of coming on the heels of a time when mahoney and his machine had all these black elected officials. And so there was a distrust about all of that, which is how we come to this guy, carter glass. So, you know, like many people from this era, carter glass was a newspaperman. He left school early to become a reporter with the lynchburg news. And within a few years, he owned the newspaper. So when delegates to the Constitutional Convention met in 1901 to craft a new system for voting, carter glass was there with a plan to purify politics. And when he said purity came at White Supremacy, right. So its disturbing today to read these documents from this area era to see how freely people threw around racial slurs at this time period. Although its also important to know the language that was acceptable at the time and get a sense of sort of what they were thinking or why they were thinking it. So the official record of the convention includes this quote from carter glass, this plan quote, this plan of popular suffrage will eliminate the as a political factor in this state in less than five years. And he was right. So the new constitution of 1901, 19 oh, to dramatically reduce the number of voters. If you take a look at the number of voters from the 1905 election for governor and compare it to the election before the new constitution, youll see there were about 88,000 fewer votes. Thats one third fewer voters. And the you know, that came that were able to vote in the election for governor after this new constitution versus the one before one third fewer voters. So in 1901, before that change, progressive governor Andrew Jackson montagu was elected governor with 200,000 votes. And the next election cycle, after this new constitution, 70,000 fewer voters were able to purchase two space. So thats a drop of like a significant number of voters who were recorded in that first election that did not vote in that second election. Right. So these are the new rules. The new numbers here were vastly smaller or scale of voters participating in the election. So progressives were the ones who pushed for election reform as Good Government movement that ended up handing the keys to the kingdom to the machine. So theres an irony here, too. The machine initially resisted this idea and the progressives were pushing it, not really knowing kind of how would actually work when they implemented these rules as it turned out, the machine benefited from this tremendously, kept them in power for decades to come. They did not know it at the time. So as it turns out, one of the chief beneficiary beneficiaries of this new jim crow system was none other than the machine itself. So historian with withhold explains it this way. Quote, the reform of the electorate boomerang and on the reformers it reduced the electorate by one half, removing that voting power at the bottom, which probably would have supported reform. So a bit more about martin here, the guy at the center of the machine during world war one. Senator martin, who was at the top of the machine at this point. He oversaw the greatest expenditure of revenue that the government of the United States had ever made at that time. So world war one. So that strain took its toll and martins health started suffer suffering as one of the casualties of war. So when republicans seized control of the senate in march of 19, 19, martin became minority leader. Eight months later, he died in charlottesville, and the future of the machine was in doubt. Jesse frederick essary wrote this for his obituary in the richmond timesdispatch, which, quote, for more than 20 years, this virginian was the master of Party Politics of the state. He himself never suffered defeat as a candidate, and few of the men he nominated for office and behind whom he threw his full strength were rejected at the polls. So there you see in his obituary, you know, contemporaneously, people saw him as kind of a master politician who, you know, always wanted elections and his candidates always won. His death in 1919 left a vacuum. And it was a vacuum that a young harry byrd stepped into. So harry byrd was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, although it was a tarnished antique. His family could trace his history all the way back to the blue bloods of the 17 17 century, a time when william byrd arrived on the banks of the james james river and fought in bacons rebels and his maternal grandmother was a daughter of a u. S. Senator and ambassador to england. By the time harry byrd was born in the summer of 1887. Virginia was in a state of genteel poverty. Historian allan hatch put it this way paint was peeling off the noble corinthian columns of the great mansions. Roofs were leaky and obviously patched, and every man over 30 could remember the federal troops, the carpetbaggers, and going hungry because of devastated fields, stolen cattle and the wreckage of the economy. So this is the world that he was born into, kind of a smoldering wreckage of a world that he was born into. So after his father was elected speaker of the house of delegates, a young harry byrd decided to take charge of the family newspaper, which was struggling to make ends meet. So, yeah, so a young harry byrd took control of the winchester evening star, and at that time it was in sorry shape. Advertisers were notoriously laid paying. Theyre paying for their advertisement in the paper, and many skipped out altogether. By the time the dead to the Antietam Paper Company had grown to a bill that was over like 20 500. So the Company Refused to ship any more paper on credit. So harry byrd had this crazy idea to save the newspaper pay as you go. This is where our pay as you go actually came from. Is harry byrd saving the family newspaper. So this was his plan. He would drive all the way to the Antietam Paper Company in maryland every single day to buy one roll of paper. Thats all he could afford, the one roll. And so then the next order of business was tracking down all those winchester businesses that didnt pay the money for their advertising. So if the winchester four star evening store went out of business, byrd argued, they would have only one advertising option. The news item. No one wants to advertise on the news item right. So that was the rival newspaper owned by george norton. And it would have had a monopoly unless all those unpaid bills were handled. So the newspaper industry is a very important part of harry byrds life. It is also really interesting, if you think about all these people of this time period had a relationship with the news business. We dont really see that anymore. Right. So carter glass was a newspaper reporter or editor owner. Harry byrd, of course, you know, owned the winchester store. You dont really see a lot of that these days. Newspaper owners acting in a political context. But thats the world that we live in, the newspaper business was not really the source of byrds financial success. The real apple of his life was the apple business. So as a 19 year old, byrd started working to harvest the apple orchards, orchards and winchester. So during apple season, he lived in a truck that was like a house on wheels, a vehicle that carried the spray rig and the tools. So by 1911, he was able to save up enough capital to buy a plot of land on Hawthorne Drive in winchester for an orchard farm. So byrd grew 16 different varieties of apples, which i find fascinating. So some of these names maybe youve heard of, maybe some of these are gone. But here are some of the names of the varieties that he grew. Ben davies album old pippins Grimes Goldens stamens yorkshires wine snaps wealthy and smoke houses. So, you know, weve talked about the newspaper business. We talked about the apple business. So another really important thing you need to know about harry byrd is that he became president of something called the valley Turnpike Association excuse me, company. The valley turnpike company. So excuse me. So by the 1920s, the rise of the automobile put new pressure on an old problem. The deplorable state of virginias highways. I hope you saw that car in the lobby as we walked in that car needed really good roads to drive on. You would not want to drive that car on bad roads or gravel. And so this was a time period actually when people were fighting to improve the state of the roads. So you had vehicles like that that could get around before the civil war. Virginia borrowed heavily to build roads and turnpikes after the war. That debt was paid at face value and road building became a county problem, a local problem. But the rise of the automobile created new political momentum, and a young state senator named harry byrd led a campaign to force a pay as you go system for financing road construction. So here hes taken what he learned at the newspaper and applying it to the state senate in terms of building roads. So in the early 1920s, many senators were hopeful they could persuade voters to approve a plan of debt financing. Byrd didnt like that financing. So he led the forces against debts spending and made a name for himself in the process. Historians Daniel Stanley willis puts it this way. Here was an example of the methods of the new organized nation. Increasingly, there would be less room in it for those who chose to follow paths, even slightly inimical to the dominant faction. So either lined up with harry byrd or you got out of the way. Advocates for the referendum. The pay as you go road building referendum. Were hopeful that foul weather on the eve of the referendum would help their cause. But the anti bond forces flooded the ballot box. And although a few cities approved of the idea of borrowing money to improve roads, voters up and down the Shenandoah Valley rejected the idea of borrowing money. So too did rural farming communities and south side and central virginia. Harry byrd had marshaled his forces into a statewide operation here, and he earned a reputation for himself as a political leader that had an iron fist concealed under a velvet glove as Stanley Willis notes, with this victory, the byrd era publicly began. So harry byrd was elected governor in 1925 at the age of 38, pretty young in terms of being a governor. He famously refused to wear a silk head to his inauraon to avoid what one voter called silk hat harry he dit want to be silk hat. Harry so he didnt wear the silk hat. His most significant accomplishment during s rm was the socalled sho blot eliminate aiding the election of all the cabinet officials. And so. Well, except for the attorney general, i suppose, but the the the old way is all those cabinet officials were elected by voters. And under the reform of the short ballot reform, the governor actually gets to appoint all of those, with the exception of the attorney general. And i suppose the lieutenant governor. So paired with Voter Suppression from the jim crow constitution, we talked about, byrd now had a recipe for a durable political machine that could last well into the 20th century and perhaps even in some ways beyond. So after his term as governor, byrd is appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States senate. When Franklin Roosevelt appoints Claude Swanson as secretary of the navy. So from his perch in the Russell Senate office building, senator byrd could oversee the operation of the political machine he put into place as governor. So during its time in power, the byrd machine faced a labor crisis as they faced opposition from young war vets and ultimately selfdestructed over the civil rights movement. So first, lets talk about the labor crisis here. So this is the Virginia Electric and Power Company known as pepco employees here decided that they wanted better working conditions and better pay. And so they started organizing a strike. But then they came across this guy, governor bill tuck, bird machine governor, who wanted to thwart the power of the unions. So 235 power bill tuck described Democratic National leadership as political reps, scallions, and he castigated opponents as Washington Waste rolls and union. Charles. He railed against judas like betrayals and outbursts of perfidy. He once declared that an organization opponent had retracted like a man in a patch of sneeze. Wed friends like to joke that he was most likely to secede, so Talk Solution to the potential straight strike at pepco was to conscript all the employees of pepco into the state militia and then threaten to Court Martial them if they failed to show up for work. So it was a bold move, but it worked. The strike did not materialize and tuck followed up the next year with passing what we now call the right to work law, which forever undermined the power of unions in virginia. So this was a time when there was really no Republican Opposition to speak of the real significant opposition came from inside the Democratic Party. So after World War Two, that opposition came from a group of youthful World War Two vets known as the young turks. It was a group led by a delegate from alexandria, armistead boothe. Booth, on the upper right hand corner here as an older man. But like these are the young turks here on the bottom of the screen. So armistead booth, you know, led this group that were known as the young turks at the time. And this is an article from the alexandria gazette. When i was launching the book. So this was a group that were trying to get more money for Public Education and ditch t races to poll tax. So they were working from inside thorganization to change the organization. They tried and failed severa times before they were finally able to increase funding for schools. Itas a hard fought victory that lasteseveral years, and then the Supreme Court eventually stepped in and got rid of the poll tax. So the legacy the young turks ended up being really important. Turning point in the history of the bird machine. And that brings us to this massive resistance. So this is moten high school in farmville, where the beginning of the end started for the bird machine in the 1950s. It was the building, you know, the students there called it a fire hazard with bad heating and a leaky roof. Water fountains were few and far between. The auditory home was so small that any kind of assembly was overcrowded and stifling. The Prince Edward School System promised to build a new school in 1946, but five years dragged on without any action or funding. And so finally, the students had enough and they organized a walkout. So just before noon on monday morning, april 1951, more than 450 students walked out of the schools. They picketed and carried signs that read we want a new school or none at all. And were tired of tar paper shacks. Members of the Student Council began canvasing the white citizens of farmville about segregation, asking them if they really wanted to continue having separate and unequal school facilities. The Parent Teacher association called an emergency meeting where the naacp argued that that a new black high school would solve nothing. One student told the associated press, we dont care if it takes two years. We planned to stay out until we get some concrete information about the new school. Well, it took a lot more than two years and that was the lawsuit that sparked the the famous. What we now know is the brown versus board of education and the this lawsuit was sort of mixed in with other lawsuits and went to the Supreme Court and eventually overturned, you know, segregated Public Schools. And we now have integrated Public Schools as a result of what had happened here with these virginia students, you know, demanding a Better School instead of staying here. So this strike that the students had went on for weeks a time when School Officials threatened disciplinary action against students they considered to be playing hooky. The students may not have been getting a formal education during that time, but they were certainly getting a crash course in constitutional law by the time they returned to school, they had legal representation from the richmond based firm of hill, martin and robinson the lawyer sent a petition to the Prince Edward School Board Members demanding they cease and desist segregating schools, warning that they were prepared to file a federal lawsuit if they did not get a satisfactory answer. So the school board voted to reject the petition and retain the services of richmond based firm Hunton Williams and anderson. So the students responded, by filing a federal lawsuit that asked the court to restore in Prince William schools from enforcing the provisional the provision of the state constitution, requiring segregated schools. So the leader of legal fight here is enjoined on may 22nd, 1951, 100 students and their parents filled a 2022 page complaint arguing that they were suffering, quote, irreparable injury and threatened with irreparable injury to the future. So one of the most prominent people in all of this is barbara johns. So we now have a statue her in capital square. This is the image of taken of that statue in capital square. She you know, one of her, she was the niece of vernon johns, who had a connection to the church where Martin Luther king used to lead the church, dexter street baptist church. So the connection with Martin Luther king and Barbara Jones may have provided star power in the johns family, but it did not give them top billing in the legal case, unfortunately. So the lawsuit was styled davis at all versus county board of Prince William, because Dorothy Davis was the First Student listed in the complaint in ninth Grade Student who was the daughter of the local farmer. So the legacy of massive resistance, it did not end well for the byrd machine, right . In fact, the byrd machine had egg all over its face at the end of massive resistance because they had been fighting the wrong side of the war and as time went on, they became increasingly viewed as crusty old conservatives and was the massive resistance really was the sort of turning point where it was kind of all downhill from there in fact, the machine comes to an end with the election of a republican governor holton so harry byrd dies in 1966. And then this guy is elected governor in 1969. Hes a republican. Linwood holton and so it was Lyndon Llewelyn wood holton that drew the nail into the coffin of the bird machine by being a republican who was elected governor. Now, this is probably controversial proposition. I like to end the bird machine at the election of the republican governor. There are many people who would tell you it went on far longer than the gubernatorial years of Linwood Holton. And thats a valid argument. Theres nothing wrong with that. But i really wanted for the narrative arc learning about the bird machine to end it here because of two things the death of larry bird in 1966 and then the election of the republican governor in 1969. So theres also an interesting backstory here. One of the things i did in the book was talk about the the last two gubernatorial elections. So the last election where the bird machine candidate won was 1965. The bird machine candidate was mills, godwin, and he was running against the republican in Linwood Holton. So Linwood Holton was the republican running for governor unsuccessfully in 1965. That was a crazy election because the the John Birch Society also had a candidate running in this race. So this is sort of anticommunist, you know, small government, a little bit on the wacky, crazy side. They had their own candidate, the conservative party they created for this to run william storey. So he was a bit more aggressive on wanting to maintain massive resistance. And then, of course, there was the nazi leader, George Lincoln rockwell also ran for governor that year. So 1965 is a really fascinating year. And George Lincoln rockwell, fascinating guy. I dont really talk about too much in this book, but if you want to know more about George Lincoln rockwell, you can pick up wicked, Northern Virginia. I have a whole chapter about George Lincoln rockwell, who led the American Nazi Party from arlington. So arlington is actually the home of the American Nazi Party. So on the campaign trail, he would say these most radical things that he could possibly think of knowing that it would get headlines and it would get printed. So he was really in it for the publicity, but so the dynamics here of that election were so fascinating going because mills, godwin put together this crazy coalition and you dont really think of as being the bird machine. This was actually why it was falling apart i think also so a good example of this one of the things that godwin did in that 60 to 65 campaign for governor is the year before 65 and 64, he got on the lady bird special. So Lyndon Johnsons wife, the first lady, had this Railroad Train that she would take around as the campaign was the lady bird special. So godwin was a democrat, but he was a conservative democrat, a bird democrat. They did not like the new deal. They did not like the Great Society. So for godwin to embrace the Johnson Campaign in that way by getting on the lady bird special, it actually changed dynamics a little bit because. As you know, godwin would have been seen, would have been viewed as an anti Great Society person. But here he is campaigning with johnson so you know he must share some of the values that johnson that president johnson has. So he up some voters that you know johnson supporters that might have been wary of godwin but they were willing to vote for him because he campaigned on the lady bird special. So, godwin, also, when he announced his campaign, his leading argument for why people should elect him governor is that he wanted to make investments in Public Education. That doesnt sound like the bird machine, right . So here they are at the end of the bird machine abandoning all of these things that they held for so long, campaigning with president johnson, advocating for more funding for Public Education, the meanwhile, the John Birch Society, you know, like they want to investigate subversive influences in government and that sort of thing. And then the nazi leader, George Lincoln rockwell, he wanted the School Curriculum. So theres always fights over the School Curriculum. This year. Were continuing to have fights over the School Curriculum. George Lincoln Rockwell wanted the School Curriculum to say that whites were superior White Supremacy. He wanted it written into the curriculum. So the the thing about godwin and his coalition thats so fascinating is he got the you know, he got the machine people that he would have otherwise gotten. He got the Lyndon Johnson supporters that were new to the coalition, frankly. He also got armistead booth campaigning for him up in Northern Virginia and bill tucker complained, campaigning for him south side. So this is a really interesting coalition. Youve got armistead booth, youve got bill tuck, youve got president johnson, youve got ladybird and even senator byrd kind of held on and did not make an announcement until very late into that campaign in october, the october surprise was harry byrd endorsing godwin. So this is the most fascinating part of the coalition, labor leader. So i went through all the history with bill talk and the right to work labor leaders supported godwin and that 65 Campaign Based on the relationship chip that he had formed with president johnson. So they figured, well, if johnson likes him, will vote for him. So, i mean, thats this is a really funny thing here is this is the Largest Coalition and the godwin could have possibly put together and totally creamed Linwood Holton in that election and then only four years later, it all fell apart. And Linwood Holton got elected governor. Right . So in his book opportunity time, Linwood Holton wrote that this is about the 1965 campaign. There was no for a republican to win virginia Gubernatorial Race in 1965. So his goal was name recognition to get his issues out there, to get people talking about him, to build up some buzz. He figured that if he got anywhere between like 30 of the vote and 40 of the vote, that would be worth it. Well, he got 38 of the vote in the 65 election. Then came back and ended up winning that election in 1969. So Linwood Holton here, the killer slayer of the bird machine. So the now we have to confront the legacy of the bird machine. Right . This is a photograph taken by my friend craig harper, whos in the audience. And this statue, this a portrait of larry bird is no longer in the building. This is actually the the gubernatorial portrait of harry bird from the 1920s. Bird is a young man. This portrait used to be out side of the entrance of the Senate Chamber. You see the Senate Chamber there that has been removed and it is now been replaced by pocahontas. So governor bird has been excised from the capitol building. Now there is another portrait of larry bird as an old man up on the third floor wearing a white suit and so, like, hes not been totally evicted from the building. So the presence of larry bird is still around. But so we have to confront his legacy. Like, what do we associate him with . Well, theres massive resistance, right . You cant get around that. This is actually the first thing people will tell you if they know anything at all about the bird machine, they know about that sort of White Supremacy, massive resistance, a stain, clearly smaller government. You know, this thing about the elections, the short ballot is one of the most significant changes that with us today. You know, if you go to other states, they will elect a secretary of state, you know, that oversees elections. We dont elect that person in virginia. Thats because of harry byrd and his short. You know, there will be like the secretary of agriculture will be a position that voters choose. We dont do that in virginia because of harry byrd in the short ballot. So there are a lot of things clerks of court have eight year terms because they ran the local political machine. So like a lot of these features is of the byrd machine, these things that he did to maintain power, they are still with us and remain a legacy. Even if the byrd machine and machine politics in general are not quite around so i have some other titles for sale if youre interested in George Lincoln rockwell, you can pick up the wicked Northern Virginia. And i would love to take some questions. So i set lots of time aside, hopefully to take as many questions as you want to ask. There will be people roaming around with microphones. I think in order to get audio for the cameras. So does anybody have a question that they want to ask . If not, ill call on specifically bill. Yes, in the back. So you might want to wait for the microphone for the second time in like 75, 76. Did anything like subdivision happened during that time because i think dorothy just disassociated from herself in the very machine during his second run for good editorial run. Well, i missed the beginning part of your question. So say the question again. Say i when mills godwin again got elected and five or 76 like did he disassociate itself from the burr machine by that time or did he still like or people still saw him as like a bird machine . Did . People definitely saw him as a bird machine dude, but he was a republican. So that second time that he ran, he did not run as a democrat. So you have, a former democrat governor whos making a comeback, running as a republican and boy, that got awkward. I mean, like, can you imagine showing up to the party events and you show up with the republican chairman of the republican grandees and poobahs and like just a few years before you were trying to defeat them. Right. So that was the significant change is the southern strategy where republicans were really going after kind of the old conservative blueblood, you no voters in the south and making them into republicans. And this was very successful and, you know, one of the chief examples of that is mills godwin, who on that Second Campaign for governor ran as a totally different party, a republican party. So, i mean, this is another reason why i sort of put that is the death knell of the bird machine is the election of Linwood Holton because then when mills godwin makes his comeback, its as a republican thats, you know, the machine is dead by that point. I think other questions. Good. Im glad we have somebody questions. So can you can you say more about the other end of the bird machine, the one that you dont agree with, but that happens later. Like, what is it exactly . Well, its not that i dont agree with it. I just i mean, there i mentioned at the top of my speech how like 20 years ago when i first moved to virginia, people were constantly talking about the bird machine. The bird machine. This the bird machine that. So i said to myself, i got to learn more about this bird machine thing. And, you know, some people argue its still around with us, right . I mean, i dont think thats accurate. But i you know, mills, godwin did make a comeback. Was he a bird machine character or on the second go round . I mean, i thats a debatable question. You know, the the bird, harry bird, junior, you know, was a senator for many, many years after the death of harry bird. I mean, is that the bird machine . Thats a thats a credible argument. You know, they it was on the i mean, i guess you could also view it as a very slow, steady decline after the death of larry bird in 1966. You know, like i said, an argument could be made that the machine lasted longer than the election of Linwood Holton. But i like that as an end point to the narrative arc of talking about the machine. Its my other questions over here. I want to go back to microphone. I want to go back to your initial comment, that of harry byrd was responsible for underfunding education in virginia. And i guess im tying that to the massive resistance. But but he was active in politics for many years before that point. So what was the concern about ed, Public Education . Well, a long history of not fully funding it, right under funding at and you know, the conditions at modern high school are a reflection of that generational approach to Public Education, where it was not funded. It was really interesting if you think about the readjust or is fighting for more money for Public Education way back in the 1880s, Something Like that is actually a divide that goes back a very long time. You know, like progressives with their head in the clouds and want to see a better society. And so they want to invest in Public Education and then conservative people who are looking at the balance books and say, well, can we really afford that . And we dont want to have debt spending. And i mean, the whole thing about byrd is he didnt want debt financed and he didnt want any debt. And so if they did something, they would need to pay for it. And so as a result, you funded Public Education system, you know, massively underfunded for a long period of time and that led to a lot of problems. And some people would say the debt problem is still with us today in terms of underfunding of education. So, i mean, like, you really cant look at the machine as having a legacies that will remain with us today. And the systemically underfunded Public Schools would be chief among them. Michael, when you say that way, am i looking back here . Oh, yes. When you say the byrd machine ran elections out of the courthouse and the clerks, what that mean practically . Are you talking about ballot stuffing or are you talking about money for grassroots campaigns . Not talking about ballot stuffing . There was certainly an era of ballot stuffing in virginia history and that pre dated that that jim crow constitution that i was talking about thats a reaction to the ballot stuffing and the reaction to the crazy election is they said were going to have to tighten the rules about what it means to have an election so that we dont have ballot stuffing. And thats when they created the new rules around the jim crow constitution. So they were doing all their elections totally legal. Theres nothing illegal about what they were doing. But it was i mean, at the courthouse, thats where all of the functionaries happened. Right. So like the chief judge had patronage power that he got from the machine. Hes the chief judge. He gets to appoint the members of the school board and the members of the electoral board. And i mean, there were the chief judge of the Circuit Court had a really important position to play in terms of patronage for the machine, plus the clerk of the court mean was the kind of the political center. So, i mean, the identified candidates to run for office, they supported the candidates. They kept them in power. So them in the machine exists to keep itself in power using the levers that theyve got, which are, you know, patronage and and money and so, i mean, thats when you know, when you say the bird machine ran out of your local county courthouse, thats what youre talking about is the judges and the clerk of court, you know, sort of acting in ways to perpetuate the political power of the opponent of the machine. Thank you for the question. Were you able to visit larry lamar gates in winchester . The old history, i was not. But it sounds like i should go there. Well, no, it is no longer. I just wondered if it was only a short period of time he has now passed away. I was just curious. Any other questions over here . Lots of questions. Oh youre holding a microphone, so ill go with you. Given his opposition to unions, how popular was he in southwest virginia . And the second question is how much did his brother play in his political charisma . Admiral byrd so the brother hes mentioning is the famous admiral that was in many ways way more famous than harry byrd. I mean, look, if you look at the newspapers, the time period, the the ad, they were always given all these copy to the admiral and like his circumnavigation of the treacherous parts of the antarctic or, you know, wherever he went. Yeah, he really was in his brothers shadow for a lot of his life. And, you know, there were three brothers, tom, and harry. And in fact, i think thats where we get the tom, and harry. It was these three brothers and so there was two there was the two questions. I forget what the other one was. The unions. Yeah. I mean, governor, tough. He had this plan to undermine the power of the unions with this really interesting strategy of conscript ding all the members of pepco the militia and then threatening them with a Court Martial. So, i mean, it was a really radical and creative solution to this problem and it worked. And so then he followed it up the next year with the right to work law, which we still live with today which you know, forever undermined the power of unions in virginia. And so, no, he was not popular with unions, which is why it was funny that godwin had Union Support in 1965. This was part of the strangeness that led to the divide, the demise of the byrd machine. Is that why Union Union Leaders are suddenly endorsing a byrd machine . Governor, whats this is up is down. And this is the opposite of what people expected. Yes, yes. Is there someone have a microphone over here. Hey, michael, thank you so much for the research youve done and for this talk you mentioned. We talked a little bit about the role that he had as a newspaperman early in his life. Do you think that he captured an ability to control narrative from that experience . And to what extent did the news media play a role in the burden machine . Wow. Controlling the narrative circa 1920s. We live in a different media environment that they lived in. So, you know, its really interesting if you think about the state senate in this time period that were talking about in the book, many of those guys, the state senators were newspaper executives or reporters. And you just dont really see that anymore. Did that have any kind of did that give byrd or carter glass or any of those people a more insightful view into shaping the narrative . I doubt it. I mean, i think in some ways it was a business like any other, you know, if you think about harry byrds approach to pay as you go, you can apply that to any business. But i mean, doesnt necessarily have to be a newspaper business. Its certainly he did give the ability of harry byrd to shape the narrative in winchester. And thats true. I because if you live in winchester, you read harry byrds newspaper and so that was really important. And it is curious to me that you really dont see this anymore. You dont really have a lot of journalists. There is a former journalist in the house of delegates currently and i think there are two former journalists actually in house of delegates, lee wear and danica roam, or former journalists dont really see that on the senate side anymore. So it is curious. You would think the more journalists would would run or run for office, but not this journalist tell you that. All right. We have some other questions. Yes. You might raise your hand for a question. I want to hand you the microphone here. Okay. So it was really interesting to hear about the short ballot. And my question is, since ive never heard that explained asian before, since americans love to vote, how did he convince people who had been able to vote for all of these positions to give him that power and create a short ballot . Its easier for voters if theres a short ballot. I mean, like if you the voters at that time would have been presented with a ballot, would have been confusing and required a lot research, you know, like who do you want to vote for as agriculture secretary . I dont know who the candidates. I mean, like a folsom ballot where you elect every member of the cabinet takes voters to lot of research and time to know who all those candidates are for all those cabinet positions. So actually, from the voter for the perspective of the voter, its actually lot easier to know about your three statewide candidates and then whatever else is on the ballot. So, i mean, that was the sales pitch to voters is that this will be simpler. This will be easier for you, the voter. And thats a pitch that worked because this is the system that we live with currently. I mean, like if you go to other states, they elect a whole lot of people that we dont elect. Youre like our governor has the power to appoint all those people. So this is another important way the machine worked is the governor the governor was invested with. So much power as a result of that short ballot and the change they made with that short ballot that harry byrd and all of his machine governors had patronage, that other governors would kill for. Yes we have time for one more. Im told. Forgive what may be an ignorant question, but given the duration of our machine, did they have anything to do with virginias off cycle election and one term . I dont think so. I think that actually predated. Yeah, thought probably. Yeah, but it is actually i mean if you think about the short ballot and its easier for voters, you dont have to study about the candidates that want to run for the secretary of agriculture. Thats all true. Its easier for voters. Theres Less Research for voters. But then you got to vote every single. You got the odd year elections and even year elections. That actually is a system that predates the the changing of the short ballot. But yeah, it is definitely something to think about when when you think about voting, you know, virginians are some of the most is over voted a overall like we have a lot of elections we have to deal with right but fewer candidates as a result of the the short ballot that harry byrd instituted when he was governor. All right. So i think im going to hand the microphone over to other folks here at the museum and i would like to thank you all very much for coming out and for coming to this which. Thank you for joining us for tonights lecture, a tempest, a teapot. Political combat antebellum rhode island with scholar eric chaput and