The Library of Virginia >> Exhibitions >> Working Out Her Destiny
 
Eliza E. Fitch, Charlottesville, to Governor Thomas B. Stanley, Richmond. 26 June 1955.
Office of the Governor, Thomas B. Stanley Papers
Shaping Public Opinion - Temperance 

Governor Stanley’s adamant stand against the desegregation of public schools prompted Eliza E. Fitch to write her first letter to a governor. She wrote that “I have always been proud of Virginia, thinking of us as one enlightened Southern state not to be put in a class with Mississippi.” She shrewdly noted that “In the army where desegregation was put into effect we are told the trouble predicted by one and all simply never developed.”

Fitch letter page 1

Fitch letter page 2

Fitch letter page 3