Joseph Judson Williams Jr. (July 20, 1905 – August 3, 1968) was a Virginia lawyer and banker, who served part-time for more than two decades representing

Henrico County, Virginia Henrico County , officially the County of Henrico, is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is incl ...

in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

. A member of the

Byrd Organization The Byrd machine, or Byrd organization, was a political machine of the Democratic Party led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. From the 1890s until the l ...

, Williams participated in its

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 ...

to racial integration, but left that political crisis to serve as a member of the

Federal Home Loan Bank Board The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) was a board created in 1932 that governed the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB or FHLBanks) also created by the act, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) and nationally-chartered savings ...

for the three years before his death.

Early and family life

Williams was born in 1905 on a farm in

Cold Harbor The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought during the American Civil War near Mechanicsville, Virginia, from May 31 to June 12, 1864, with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3. It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S ...

in Hanover County, Virginia that had been contested during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. His paternal grandfather, George Hugh Williams of Charlotte County, had served in the Confederate Army and was wounded during the

Battle of Antietam The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union G ...

near Sharpsburg, Maryland. After the war, he became a farmer in rural Hanover county, fathering ten children including this Williams' father and namesake Joseph J. Williams. The younger Williams' family included this J.J. Williams Jr. and seven siblings. J.J. Williams Jr. attended Cold Harbor's public schools and graduated from Washington and Henry High School in 1922. He then attended the University of Richmond, receiving a B.A. in history and teaching that subject in Highland Springs High School for several years. He also played varsity baseball at the University of Richmond and later semi-professional baseball on the Everett-Waddey team that won the Virginia state championship in 1933. Williams also coached the Masonic Orphans Home team that won the American Legion junior state championship in 1930. In that year, Williams also received an LLB degree from the University of Richmond's T. C. Williams School of Law. On June 30, 1928, Williams married Nellie Ruth Hoover, daughter of the minister of Newbridge Baptist Church, and they had a daughter Betty Ann. The family joined the Gethsemane Christian Church of Hanover.

Career

Upon graduating law school and being admitted to the bar, Williams practiced under Charles W. Crowder and helped organize the Federal Savings & Loan Association in Sandston. He later served as director and General Counsel of the Franklin Federal Savings and Loan Association of Richmond. Williams also was active in his Presbyterian church, the Freemasons, Acca Temple Shrine, Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles and Ruritans social organizations. Throughout his life, Williams was active in Democratic party politics, becoming president of the Young Democratic Club of Fairfield district, a delegate to the state Democratic convention in Norfolk in 1936 and the third district secretary. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates on August 3, 1937 from Henrico County and re-elected many times. After Senator Harry F. Byrd declared a policy of

to racial integration of Virginia's public schools, Virginia's legislators including Williams participated in a special section of the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

called by Governor

Thomas B. Stanley Thomas Bahnson Stanley (July 16, 1890 – July 10, 1970) was an American politician, furniture manufacturer and Holstein cattle breeder. A Democrat and member of the Byrd Organization, Stanley served in a number of different political offices ...

in August 1956. The legislation they enacted exceeded the recommendations of the

Gray Commission The Commission on Public Education, known as the VPEC or Gray Commission (after its chair, Virginia state senator Garland Gray), was a 32-member commission established by Governor of Virginia Thomas B. Stanley on August 23, 1954 to study the effects ...

on which State Senator Garland Gray and other Byrd loyalists sat, and for which

David J. Mays David John Mays (November 22, 1896 – February 17, 1971) was an American lawyer and writer. He attempted to slow racial desegregation on behalf of Byrd Organization during the Massive Resistance era. Mays served as counsel to the Gray Commissi ...

served as counsel. Seven laws were directed against the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

and other organizations challenging racial segregation within the Commonwealth. Legislators overwhelmingly adopted them on September 29, 1956, despite Mays' opinion that courts would declare them unconstitutional, as eventually happened. The Speaker of the House of Delegates appointed Williams (who was then chair of the Court and Justice Committee) and relative newcomer

William F. Stone William Francis Stone (September 29, 1909 – August 18, 1973) was Virginia lawyer and member of the Virginia General Assembly representing Martinsville as well as Patrick and Henry Counties between 1954 and 1957, first as a delegate and then ...

to serve on a new joint committee chaired by veteran delegate

John B. Boatwright John Baker Boatwright (November 27, 1881 – March 28, 1965) was Virginia lawyer and member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing Buckingham, Appomattox and Cumberland Counties for 38 years beginning in 1922. A member of the Byrd Organ ...

called the "Committee on Offenses against the Administration of Justice." The President of the Senate appointed

E. Almer Ames Jr. Edward Almer Ames Jr. (January 22, 1903 – May 19, 1987) was a Virginia lawyer and member of the Virginia General Assembly representing Virginia's Eastern Shore of Virginia, Eastern shore between 1956 and 1968. A member of the Byrd Organization, ...

Onancock Onancock ( ) is a town in Accomack County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,263 at the 2010 census. History According to a nearby Virginia state highway marker, Onancock was founded in 1680. A courthouse was established some years ...

and Earl A. Fitzpatrick of Roanoke, to the committee (the latter becoming Vice-Chairman). As the session began in January 1957, it issued letters requesting information from the NAACP as well as the

Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties The Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties was a political group dedicated to strict segregation in Virginia schools. In June 1955 it published its ''Plan for Virginia''. The words of Richard Crawford, president of the Defenders ...

and other segregationist organizations. These activities prompted NAACP motions to quash the subpoenas in Richmond and several Virginia counties. In March 1957, the Boatwright Committee in March opined that various segregationist organizations did not commit the expanded legal offenses of champerty, maintenance, barratry, running and capping, nor the unauthorized practice of law. However, the commission's first report issued November 13, 1957 recommended enforcement of the laws against various named NAACP lawyers. The subpoenas and other activities soon reduced NAACP membership in Virginia by half. In the report issued in 1959 Boatwright again complained that the Virginia State Bar was spending $5000 on a Jamestown commemoration and $6350 on a new continuing legal education program, but not "punishing those guilty of unprofessional conduct and those engaged in the unauthorized practice of law" under the Stanley plan's 1956 ethics law expansion. In 1960, Williams was nominated to the

and confirmed.FHLBB Hearings 1962, Task Force Members p. 414, available athttps://books.google.com/books?id=6gQX6ireOPkC&pg=PA403&lpg=PA403&dq=federal+home+loan+bank+board+joseph+williams&source=bl&ots=Jc3qjMlxQH&sig=7JyChEYIiStKmOIjxxv_5aKpyhM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7r8SKu6POAhWMTSYKHTkPDk0Q6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q=federal%20home%20loan%20bank%20board%20joseph%20williams&f=false

Death

Williams died in Gloucester County, Virginia on August 3, 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, J. J. Jr. 1905 births 1968 deaths University of Richmond alumni Democratic Party members of the Virginia House of Delegates People from Henrico County, Virginia 20th-century American politicians People from Hanover County, Virginia