From Our Archives; 101; A Different Dominion:The Independents

set from our archives a new series showcasing programs of local historical significance produced by central virginia public tv and its early years in the nineteen eighties and focused on two virginia's most colorful and famous politicians and indeed how this program opens the series and explores the lives of the bird but as the conservative democratic political control until the emergence of edward forces led by gary howell in the nineteen sixties i followed as a candidate for governor was speaking at a rally in prussia bill for attending the rally because drowning was tough in those days we had a room at a boarding helps to freshen up and my grandfather richard e byrd was to me is that when she did what his car broken down the war some distance to get them for years and when he got there

he had owners only and the job something wrapped in newspaper that you know it was and i asked him the sakhalin big it has a big thick what have you got on the owners is that will come in the bedroom and i'll tell you so when the bedroom william wiley freshened up and he took from underage and other newspapers to customers is that a threat your father's life david and nia threat was a deviant would be shot if you made a speech in russia will tonight well i'm going to sit in the back of the hall my grandfather said other than issuing gun issue forge a lot of my introduction to a political meeting at the age of ten at that point as

bernie nico for more of the printing press the smell of voters really across fresh look up the newly printed use these are a few of the things that makes a newspaper in an addictive business especially for a man who's devoted the but a part of fifty years to writing editing and publishing the newspaper that also belonged to his father and grandfather in the latter part of the nineteen eighties harry flood byrd jr doesn't drop into the press room of the

witches just barbaric all most weekday mornings however he goes to the star building and to his office upstairs where a former united states senator may spend a few hours catching up with them audio and the telephone calls but still flow in from another longtime addiction a lifelong dedication to politics and public affairs one afternoon recently senator byrd left the start building to me that those throughout his father's mentioned rose not the sound the bird apple orchards their ago on those loans broad veranda they began to talk about virginia political history the conversation went back to the question about the nineteen twenty four democratic national convention in new york harry byrd senior of them was a young state senator and

state democratic party chairman he was planning five years ahead to run for governor in nineteen twenty nine it was a chance encounter with bishop james cameron the arrogant an imperious prohibition as balls caused him to change his mind and thereby change the course of virginia political history that encounter was a taxi cab in new york city and during the taxi ride bishop cantu is considered the political leader of the state senate to love all of that he was not to run for governor of our year nineteen twenty five because the ira had decided to support someone else when my father got back to virginia he repeated that conversation that his father my grandfather those are a couple

and he said that that's s o b say that opposes yes that's exactly what he said then my grandpa settle high that so did you must've run now one generation my generation since the first bird william byrd landed near jamestown i think in sixteen seven every generation except one has had at least one member of that generation elected to public office tell us a little bit about those remarkable earliest virginia bird within the first in women's soccer both of those williams certainly virginia legislature builders legislative body in the new world the second william byrd built only accomplishment show the first really weren't secondly amber accumulated

what we believe to have been the largest library in the state of virginia crucial ivory he also owned the land and the land on which they richmond situated he also did something else he wrote a personal diary eroded in his own peculiar type of shot and he thought that no one could decipher and four hundred and fifty years no wonder you feel very loyal very foolish woman in the huntington library in california they get out his eye so to speak and she published in book form i read it very very spicy their escape whose is longer so it happened after reading that i concluded that soulful and unconcerned at least it's a lot

more dangerous to look back on it has to look forward the one in the second i think was also a point of thinking roots unfortunate and he was a surveyor or engineers and then he surveyed land between virginia north carolina tobacco whatever you'd want to use surveyed the line between these two states virginia north carolina great deal of that day in the great dismal swamp your job is doing it a one day promotion by of that the movers is the problem danza well let's get to the seventh generation and then going to your grandfather richard even remember it wasn't your newspaper man before who sort of blacks lived and politics you as it was rushed a lawyer a graduate of law

university of virginia it's a class mail one who shoved and the king impression you know stage to woodrow wilson richie member of them began the practice of law in the city when sister and then he went into the newspaper business at that point thank you a move at ninety eight but he acquired the wages are going to start making any money he was speaker of the house and three terms and i think on the road that he was awkward of the news that primary election ball of nineteen twelve the one that sort of the book together and establish the primary law in virginia that continued for so long would your father also began as a newspaperman before

writing and apples and pollack six out of the well at a huge the newspaper was not doing very well when just distill it was indeed bankrupt they couldn't hear the paper cannot pay its huge windows were far persuaded has fallen to let him was stopped to take or williston attempt to salvage it but you did it he left school at the age of the age of fifteen and that's how it happened to go into the there's levity when an awful but before they won an election that was that thing for iran for public role as a novel that you he's also started a newspaper in one injured west virginia statute is that it became successful you so let and that's how i got the money to buy an apple watch let's go back to nineteen twenty five

i think you want to only own one memorable experience early in the campaign her father took the whole family where was a group or so go in first my first recollection of politics and of the political meetings was in the town of prussia will in loudon county i followed as a candidate for governor was speaking at a rally and russia will so my grandmother and my mother and the only brother tom and myself went to that rally before attending the rally because traveling was tough in those days though we had a room and avoiding it's freshened up and my grandfather to the borders to meet is that when she didn't put his car broken down

the war some distance to get them for years and when he got there he had owners only and each arm something wrapped in newspaper that you know it was and i asked him the sakhalin big it has a big thick what have you got on the arms race that will come in the bedroom and i'll tell you so i went in the bedroom william reilly freshened up and he took from underground of the newspapers to customers your father's life it made me a fraud was really would be shot if you made a speech in russia will delight lamanna said in the back of the hall my grandfather said oh that any shooting gunnell an issue forge a lot of my introduction to a political meeting at the age of ten at that point they didn't scare you would vote that of his family and i will on election night where a crew of this campaign

the returns showed the bishops have not heard the band guidance when he told europe all the region there was gonna like somebody else go up in a headline summly richmond times dispatch on august the fifth song live up in three words word easy one headline speaking of the speaking know my grandpa and my fallen during my grandfather and my father and myself the three of us serve a hundred and thirteen years in public covers almost consecutively that's a pretty good record won as you one question what did your grandfather say after that great victory after that your father won the election for governor in nineteen twenty well cause he was very elated looking forward to

the four campaign the november campaign but in baghdad there's still ten days before the fall actually was elected government before the jumbo in general election when the truck mirza think that ruptured a burden for the significant role in the beginning of what became known as the byrd era in virginia politics and that headline bird easy one for the next forty years would've stood up were after almost every state election which parent bird singer was involved one measure of your father's success and influence years that he appeared on the cover of time magazine three times well that's that's pretty rare distinction for mark and political leader who was not present age of

three time cover stories marcus separate distinct achievement in his long political career in october nineteen twenty eight times showed a boyish looking over her smiling and more the cover story inside the million described him as a man who had brought a political and gubernatorial run is on the virginia state capitol he was one of the nation's most progress of government plan also calling for use when it said that his spirit of the rest took credit democracy the risk to credit the muppets or grapefruit wasn't raining virginia good roads and had converted a state deficit of about one and a half million dollars into a surplus of tuna that

there were seven years later in may nineteen thirty five the mature united states senator byrd made the time cover as a symbolic leader of the conservative southern democrats who have broken with the new deal franklin roosevelt and time style prose the cover story describes sonic the bird as they place so we're long smoking long drinking virginia conservative who have decided to put his economic convictions above board of oil the third turn covered in august nineteen sixty two shows thoughtful keen on senior statesman at seventy five the chairman of the senate finance committee standing in front of the tall white columns appeared at rosemont

the name he lived here at rosemont for about thirty six years after his time as a government as a whole move given what the other cover story in nineteen sixty two depicted senator byrd as the symbol of conservative congressional rebellion against an activist democratic president but it's a summit to bourbon president jack kennedy respected each other as a politician showed time magazine suggested that sen byrd hope to teach a few conservative economic truth is too that attractive young fellow in the white house will that attractive young following the white house came to sign a banner with your father right here grows more and i think he's also going to

vote my most funded the movement of blue always the apple blossom firm that too far over the years tell us what stands out in your memory of those presidential visits over in effect the lines that you remember well i only really dramatic aspect of it was when they each produce effort to separate and came in by helicopter landon the vessel per mls in a hundred yards of only on the front porch or very dramatic and cringe but each of them but what i guess what our mom were mostly about president kennedy owen when he was was he a two things a before going into lunch

he said he liked impression that so i picking up stairs really only need a diversion was to call ms have and then they're walking down the steps you made an observation to me he said you know what concerns me more than anything else is it we're going to have a tremendous a surplus <unk> be very bad for the us government to have a surplus a lesson that president i don't reveal that they were very much about that that they're doing that much research that commanders never six years what did president johnson bring his beagle the woman who's president johnson brought the broad is his dog which was followed a cocker spaniel two dollars got into a fight and the presence of the drain them separate vote open opening the one of the book in the book about this term in the nineteen

sixties those sirens the harriet bird senior in his democratic political organization or political machine as some people call it are beginning to encounter a changing terms and crawl suddenly as nineteen sixty progress and new voice of challenge was really loud and clear harsh and strident from tidewater region and soon that morris was echoing across the commonwealth oh my god

that was the opening shot the first television commercial fired by henry evans howl jr in the nineteen sixty nine democratic primary campaign for governor it was aimed at virginia's conservative establishment alias the bird organization at us the bird machine nothing quite like it had exploded so challenging way in twentieth century virginia politics senator howell himself had given for warning when my head come on you said you're the dc that i am a george wallace sound like little lord fauntleroy here's another example eleven million bucks and school money disappeared every year until henry hall started sniffing around eight hours ago

he was mistakenly that referred to one of senator howell successful lawsuits against government mills godwin and the state government that forced the state to call for a full amount of federal impact aid doing awful and other localities the nineteen sixty nine roger howl media boy us also paint a sales tax on food and drugs and tried to make it the main issue man with billions of dollars and i know you do what about politically

the voters however didn't buy the whole doctrine in nineteen sixty nine but in nineteen seventy one he won a special election for lieutenant governor as an independent candidate and in nineteen seventy three he tried a different approach to running for governor this time he ran as an independent he cultivated that image of a more moderate folks at a population look at a campaign theme song to howl cannonball canada's how to have the state in a big vehicle wear and that's all he also sounded a constitutional might appeal to the masses love alone and people just he's

been the nineteen seventy three race turned into the closest gubernatorial election in virginia history henry how was a margin of less than one percent four years later mr howell run again as a democrat are nineteen seventy seven however the good old boys at once provided political money and muscle for the bird organization had merged with oh my and republicans to form a more powerful and servitude coalition this time it wasn't close the margin of defeat was one hundred and fifty eight thousand votes the biggest numerical margin in virginia gubernatorial election history with for statewide campaigns in just eight years however anne marie howe left a lasting impact on virginia politics sen byrd your father

retired from the set of the nineteen sixty five because of the elements they've added rosemont in october nineteen sixty six just about three weeks before you were elected to serve the remaining four years of his opponent turned he never saw him no election what do you suppose he would've thought of an adult as a candidate and politicians well i have no annoying what he would've thought we probably thought very much like i think of attention to oversell it like so much of the time hackberry god in reality is as a very shrewd an able politician i was totally opposed to a great deal of his own philosophy when i recognized him to be a very vulnerable politician through lots of music in virginia politics harry byrd singing i like to stroll up

on those broad veranda but while i prep for roosevelt he would gaze across the garden and across the region some bowel and watch the evening shadows lengthen obama does to the slopes of the blue ridge mountains your song ball still spends deep in the garden behind shrubbery its message as an appellate lawyer is is barely legible hyun takes all but memories in our next episode we returned to rose want and pickup or an innocence is with arab origin later in this series we will generate an awful for talks within an hour then we will make with both mr burton as to how often the studios of channel twenty three for a head to head confrontation some of the burden of urine was a howl over before

i don't recall it anyhow we hope to have a candid no holds barred exchange of views on virginia politics past present and future and we hope you'll be watching like you for joining us for this introduction to our new series the key fb