Howard Palmer Anderson (May 25, 1915 – November 1, 2000) was a Virginia attorney and
Democratic Party politician.
Education, early career and family life
Howard Anderson was born in
Halifax County, Virginia to Howard Putnam Anderson and the former Nancy Elizabeth Palmer.
He and his brother attended the local public schools. Anderson then attended the
College of William and Mary, graduating in 1940. He then held various sales jobs during the next two years, and married his wife Mildred Webb in 1941. They had three sons who survived them, Howard P., John W. and David T. Anderson.
In 1942, during World War II, Anderson enlisted in the
U.S. Navy. Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, he served as a communications officer aboard ships in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. After the war ended, Anderson attended the
University of Richmond Law School, and graduated in 1948.
Career
Anderson became an FBI agent, and then established his own legal practice in Halifax county in 1950. He was active in the bar association, as well as Halifax School Board, and with the Ruritan Club, Masons, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Virginia Farm Bureau.
Beginning in 1958, during the
Massive Resistance
Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...
crisis, Anderson served in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing
Halifax County and
South Boston, Virginia from 1958 until 1972. He succeeded
Roy B. Davis. Anderson won the 35th District seat unopposed in 1957, 1959 and 1961, handily defeated Republicans Flournoy G. Lacks in 1963 and Weldon W. Tuck in 1965 in what had become the 34th District, and was again unopposed in 1967 and 1969.
In 1971, Anderson won election to the Virginia Senate, succeeding
Byrd Democrat James D. Hagood
James Davis Hagood (November 4, 1889 – December 30, 1972) was a Virginia physician and Democratic member of the Senate of Virginia. Allied with the Byrd Organization, Hagood represented a district centered around Halifax County part-time for t ...
in the 18th Senatorial district, comprising not only Halifax County, but also
Appomattox,
Buckingham
Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...
,
Lunenburg and
Prince Edward counties and part of
Campbell County, as well as the city of South Boston. Voters re-elected Anderson to the Virginia Senate several times before he announced his upcoming retirement in 1991. However, district boundaries changed significantly, such that he was succeeded by fellow Democrat
Louise Lucas of
Portsmouth who defeated Republican
Frank L. Ruff Jr. in the general election to become the first African American female senator in Virginia.
Anderson also helped pass a
Uranium mining
moratorium in the
Virginia General Assembly halting plans to excavate over 100 million pounds of uranium in
Pittsylvania County.
This moratorium still stands today, and is the bulwark of the anti-mining resistance within the state of
Virginia.
Death and legacy
Anderson died in 2000, survived by his three sons. He is buried at the Baptist cemetery in Halifax, and a local street is named after him.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Howard Palmer
1915 births
2000 deaths
Virginia lawyers
Democratic Party Virginia state senators
College of William & Mary alumni
University of Richmond alumni
20th-century American lawyers
People from Halifax County, Virginia
20th-century American legislators
20th-century Virginia politicians