William Ferguson Reid

This article is about William Ferguson "Fergie" Reid. For the Scottish-born Australian legislator, see Fergie Reid.

William Ferguson "Fergie" Reid (born 1925) is a Virginia physician and civil rights activist. In 1968,[1] he was the first African-American elected to the Virginia Assembly since the days of Reconstruction. The 90 for 90 campaign[2] organized by Chesterfield County, Virginia Democrats in 2015 to encourage broader voter participation, especially in gerrymandered precincts, was organized in honor of his 90th birthday.[3]

Biography

Reid was born in Richmond on March 18, 1925, the son of Leon Reid, a dentist, and his wife.[4] In 1941 he graduated from Armstrong High School, and in 1946 he received his bachelor's degree from Virginia Union University. He earned his medical degree from Howard University.

Reid served three terms in the Virginia General Assembly. Afterward he was a regional medical officer for the United States Department of State. Reid was the only African American in the General Assembly when he took office in 1968. In 2000 there were fifteen.[5]

He was a lieutenant in the United States Navy. He served with the 1st Marine Division in Korea and at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Upon his return to Richmond, he became active in civic and professional affairs.

Reid and his wife have a son, William Ferguson Reid, Jr., of Hollywood, California, who is also a physician.[6]

Civil rights activism

Reid co-founded the Richmond Crusade for Voters in 1956. He hoped to register and mobilize black voters during Massive Resistance. He was a de facto member of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Harry F. Byrd Sr. and his Democratic political machine in Virginia largely controlled statewide politics. Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote that "This was an era of poll taxes, literacy tests and other mechanisms to weaken black political clout. The entrenched Byrd political machine stood in defiance of change."

Reid, John Mitchell Brooks and Dr. William S. Thornton began meeting daily at the old Slaughter's Hotel, a popular segregation-era gathering place for black Richmonders in Jackson Ward. The outgrowth of these strategy sessions was the Crusade.[7][8] Virginia Commonwealth University's Cabell Library has in its VCU Digital Libraries Collection "Voices of Freedom: videotaped oral histories of leaders of the Civil Rights movement in Virginia" an interview with Reid in both audio and text format.[9]

African Americans gained national support with the Civil Rights Movement through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. An important outcome was Federal oversight and enforcement of voting rights. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, decisions affecting elections became subject to clearance by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In honor of Reid's 90th birthday, in 2015 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the 90 for 90 voter registration goal based on door-to-door volunteer canvassing began. The 90 for 90 voter outreach program spread throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond.[2][10][11]

Political career

A few months before Virginia's Senator Byrd died of a brain tumor, two other conservative Democrats, Representative Howard W. Smith of Virginia's Eighth District and U. S. Senator A. Willis Robertson, were defeated in the primary elections. In the summer of 1969, the Democratic Party engaged in a bitterly fought gubernatorial primary and "an exhausting run-off election which left the old organization fragmented and set the stage for "the election of Linwood Holton."[12] The first Negro to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly since 1891, Reid took his seat in the lower chamber a year later.

Reid won one of nine seats in the House of Delegates from Henrico County-Richmond with a total of 36,735 votes with 27,392 cast in Richmond. Virginians voted in record numbers for the second successive time in a presidential election since adoption of the 24th Amendment removing the poll tax as a bar to participation in Federal elections.[12]

In 2015, Denise Oliver Valdez wrote for Daily Kos that "While much of the media is focusing on presidential hopefuls for 2016, the state of Virginia has key elections coming up this year—elections for the Virginia House of Delegates.... A unique effort is underway in Virginia to get voters registered and out to vote, not just this year, but in the election years to come. The impetus and inspiration behind this drive is a civil rights icon in Virginia, Dr. William Ferguson Reid, known to many as 'Fergie,' who was the first black man to win a seat in the Virginia General Assembly since Reconstruction."[8]

References

  1. ↑ "William Ferguson Reid". virginia.gov. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Lawmakers part of 90 for 90 campaign to get new registered voters". WSLS. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "90 For 90 Initiative: Honoring Dr. William Ferguson Reid,". 26 October 2015. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  4. ↑ Stop #12 on Maggie Walker Tour"Jackson Ward Podcast" (PDF). Nps.gov. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  5. ↑ Political, Exhibitions:. "William Ferguson Reid". Library of Virginia. Virginia. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  6. ↑ Stop #12 on Maggie Walker Tour"Jackson Ward Podcast" (PDF). Nps.gov. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  7. ↑ "Dr. William Ferguson Reid". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  8. 1 2 "90 for 90. Getting out the vote in Virginia". dailykos.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Interview with Dr. W. Ferguson Reid :: Voices of Freedom". Dig.library.vcu.edu. 2003-03-21. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  10. ↑ Dahl, Wills (2015-02-22). "Ferguson Reid's movement can bring change to Virginia - Baltimore Post-ExaminerBaltimore Post-Examiner". Baltimorepostexaminer.com. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  11. ↑ "DKos Asheville: Dr. Fergie Reid and Jr coming to Roanoke". Dailykos.com. 2015-04-04. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
  12. 1 2 "Linwood Holton's long quest for the governorship of Virginia and its impact on the growth of the Republican Party" (PDF). Nps.gov. Retrieved 2015-09-20.

External links

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