Mills E. Godwin

Mills Edwin Godwin Jr. (born November 19, 1914 in Chuckatuck , Virginia , † January 30, 1999 ) was an American politician and between 1966 and 1978 governor of the state of Virginia twice .

Early years

Mills Godwin attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg . After studying law at the University of Virginia , he was admitted to the bar in 1939. From 1942 to 1946 he worked as a special agent for the FBI . He then worked as a lawyer in Suffolk .

Political rise

Godwin became a member of the Democratic Party . From 1948 to 1952 he was a member of the Virginia House of Representatives ; between 1952 and 1960 he was a member of the State Senate . During this time he was a supporter of racial segregation and partisan of US Senator Harry F. Byrd , who was particularly reactionary on the issue of racial segregation. Godwin was accordingly also an opponent of the merging of schools for children from all ethnic groups. From 1962 to 1966 he was Lieutenant Governor's Deputy Governor Albertis S. Harrison . In 1965 he himself ran for the post of governor. He gradually changed his conservative stance with regard to the African American votes . As early as 1964, he had supported the presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson , who campaigned for a new civil rights law .

Governor of Virginia

After he was elected the new governor of his state, he was able to take up his first four-year term on January 16, 1966. During this time, and especially after the end of his term in office, Godwin broke away from his party, whose course increasingly seemed too liberal to him. He led Harry F. Byrd Jr.'s campaign for the US Senate . The son of the conservative Harry Byrd Sr. had also distanced himself from the Democratic Party and ran for independence. In the 1972 presidential election, Godwin led a number of Democratic politicians who voted "Democrats for Nixon" for the election of Republican Richard Nixon against Democratic candidate George McGovern .

In the aftermath of his first term as governor, Godwin became a director of Standard Brands Inc , the Western Railway Company, and several other companies. He was also on the board of the Virginia National Bank . Politically, Godwin left the Democratic Party and became a member of the Republicans . As their candidate, he was again governor of his state in 1973 . This made him the first governor of Virginia to be elected to this office twice. His second term began on January 12, 1974 and ended four years later on January 14, 1978. During this time, a value added tax was introduced to finance a newly introduced school system. Governor Godwin reintroduced the death penalty in Virginia and was a member of numerous governor's associations.

Another résumé

After his governorship ended, Mills Godwin played an important role behind the scenes in the Republican Party of Virginia. He died in January 1999. Governor Godwin was married to Katherine Thomas Beale, who died in 1968. The couple had adopted a daughter.

Web links

• Mills E. Godwin at the National Governors Association (English)
• Mills E. Godwin in the database of Find a Grave (English)