John Stewart Battle was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 56th Governor of Virginia (1950-1954).
Background
Stewart Battle was born on July 11, 1890, in New Bern, North Carolina, the son of the Reverend Dr. Henry Wilson Battle and Margaret Stewart. His father became pastor of the First Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia, where the family moved in 1893, and his grandfather was General Cullen A. Battle of the Confederate Army.
Education
John Battle attended public schools in Petersburg before entering Wake Forest College in North Carolina in 1908. In 1910, he transferred to the law school of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he received his law degree in 1913. John Battle received an honorary LL. D. from Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia, in 1950 and also from the University of Richmond in 1952.
Career
After graduation Battle began to practice law in Charlottesville in association with Lemuel F. Smith. He served briefly as a private in the United States Army during World War I. Battle's political career began when he was elected in 1929 to the House of Delegates to represent the Charlottesville area in Virginia's general assembly. From 1934 to 1949, he was a member of the Virginia senate, with a special interest in issues of taxation and budget. He was chairman of the Senate's finance committee during his final four years in the legislature, and from 1940 to 1950 he served as a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on the Budget. Among the measures Battle sponsored in the general assembly were the establishment of the unemployment compensation system in Virginia, the establishment of the probation and parole system, and the abolition of the sheriff's fee system in counties and cities.
Not until he ran for the office of governor as the Democratic candidate in 1949 did Battle face opposition in a political campaign. Endorsed by Senator Harry F. Byrd and his supporters, Battle's most serious competition in the primary came from Francis Pickens Miller, a former Army officer who had the support of labor and African Americans. After winning the primary, Battle defeated the Republican candidate, Walter O. Johnson, in the general election, with the votes of farmers, businessmen, and white-collar workers. He stressed in the campaign the need for money to build schools and the continuation of the financial programs already in place. On election day, Battle culled five times the number of votes of his nearest opponent. In his inaugural address on January 18, 1950, Battle called for increasing school building expenditures. The $45-million-dollar "Battle Fund" represented the first time that Virginia had made direct grants to localities for building public schools. By the end of his term, more than four hundred new schools had been built.
Also in Battle’s inaugural address was a request for the power to seize coal mines for state operation in an emergency. One week later the newly activated Virginia Fuel Commission took over and operated all unionized coal mines in Virginia until a strike was settled. In 1952, Battle won acclaim for his leadership of the Virginia delegation in defiance of the loyalty oath required of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Adlai E. Stevenson was the nominee for president. As head of the delegation, Battle had concerns with regard to the pro-civil rights course that the Democratic party had been taking. Under the terms of the loyalty oath, no delegate could take part in the convention unless he pledged to support the convention nominees for president and vice-president, ensuring that they would appear on the ballot in the delegate's home state under the Democratic party heading. This measure was a response to the formation in 1948 of the splinter Dixiecrat party that had run Strom Thurmond for president. The loyalty oath requirement led the Virginia delegation, along with those from Louisiana and South Carolina, to revolt and refuse to file their pledges with the credentials committee. On the verge of the expulsion of these delegations, Battle took the lead. The southern governor spoke for a mere three minutes on the podium, but his words altered the course of the convention. Invoking the Jeffersonian ideal of freedom of thought and action, he persuaded the convention to overrule the requirement and seat the delegations.
Although he believed strongly in segregation, Battle refused Senator Byrd's call for "massive resistance" to school desegregation. This stand was noted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who appointed Battle in 1958 to serve on the six-member Civil Rights Commission that had been created to investigate voting rights violations. During public hearings of the commission, Battle fought Montgomery, Alabama, officials who were attempting to impede the commission's work. He dissented from the commission's first report to Congress, which offered legislation to ensure equal voting, educational, and housing rights. He contended that the commission's report was not impartial or factual but, in fact, reinforced "preconceived [antisegregation] ideas in race relations. " At the end of his two-year term, Battle refused Eisenhower's request that he stay on and returned to his private law practice with the firm of McGuire, Woods and Battle, which he had joined upon leaving the governorship in 1954, continuing there until his retirement in 1969. Battle died in Albermarle County, Virginia.
Achievements
Membership
John Battle was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1929); the Virginia Senate (1934–1949); the Governor's Advisory Committee on the Budget (1940-1950); the Civil Rights Commission (1958-1959).
Interests
John Battle was an avid golfer and fisherman.
Connections
On June 12, 1918, John Battle married Mary Jane Lipscomb of Charlottesville; they had two children.