Pete Giesen, who was from Radford, was the last of the “mountain-valley Republicans” who broke the stranglehold on power of segregationist Democrats in Virginia in the 1960s.
In 1963, a young businessman from Staunton ran for the House of Delegates on what was then considered something of a radical agenda.
He didnât think much of the poll tax that Virginia levied â and which was used to keep the electorate small, and with as few Black voters and poor white voters as possible.
He wanted to abolish the Pupil Placement Board that Virginia had set up to facilitate the continued segregation of schools after the U.S. Supreme Courtâs landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.
He objected to the tuition grants that Virginia used to pay for white students to attend segregated private schools.