Linwood Holton Jr, GOP Va. governor, dead at 98
RICHMOND, Va. — A. Linwood Holton Jr., Virginia’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction and a crusader against racial discrimination, died, Thursday. He was 98.
Holton, who served from 1970 to 1974, declared an end to “Massive Resistance,” Virginia’s institutional defiance of federal orders to desegregate its schools. A moderate who raised taxes, he eventually fell out of favor with an increasingly conservative GOP he criticized as obsessed with cutting taxes at the expense of crucial services.
Holton died peacefully at his home in Kilmarnock, his children said in a statement shared by the office of Democratic US Sen. Tim Kaine, Holton’s son-in-law. Kaine called Holton “more than a father-in-law — he was my friend and my public service role model.”
“His courageous efforts to end racial discrimination in Virginia, born out of a deep religious conviction about the equality of all God’s children, made him a moral pillar for so many,” Kaine said.
Holton was the first Republican to break the stronghold Democrats held on state government for nearly 100 years, defeating William C. Battle in 1969. He enrolled his own white children in predominantly Black schools rather than fight school busing. He also was the first Virginia governor to appoint Black officials to high-level government posts.
“To the world, Governor Linwood Holton is known as a giant of civil rights and change. When others stood in the doorways of schools to block de-segregation, our Dad walked us (and bused us) to integrated schools to show the rest of the world the way of justice,” his children’s statement said.
Of raising taxes, Holton once said at a 1999 conference on his administration: “I’ll bet not three of 10 people in this room could tell you what tax I increased, but they all appreciate the swimmable rivers throughout Virginia which my 1 percent increase in the state income tax paid for.”
Holton alienated Democrats who controlled Virginia’s General Assembly when he insisted on a GOP opponent in 1970 for US Sen. Harry F. Byrd Jr.’s bid for reelection as an independent.