Virginia House votes to remove statue of segregationist

by: Associated Press

Posted: Jan 28, 2021 / 08:42 PM EST / Updated: Jan 28, 2021 / 08:42 PM EST

FILE – House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, talks on a phone as he sits at the feet of the statue of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd at Capitol Square in Richmond, Va. Saturday, March 13, 2010. A panel of Virginia legislators will discuss the removal of a statue of former governor and U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., from the state Capitol grounds. Byrd was a staunch segregationist and the architect of massive resistance against integrating schools. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia House has passed a measure that would remove a statue of Harry F. Byrd Sr., a staunch segregationist, from the state Capitol grounds.

The measure advanced on a 63-34 vote Wednesday.

It still must clear the Democrat-controlled Senate before it goes to Gov. Ralph Northam, who has said he supports it. Byrd, a Democrat, served as governor and U.S. senator.

He ran the state’s most powerful political machine for decades until his death in 1966 and was considered the architect of the state’s racist “massive resistance” policy to public school integration.

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