Frank J. Thornton, chairman of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors (Photo courtesy Isaac Harrell)
On Jan. 10, Fairfield District Supervisor Frank J. Thornton was unanimously voted as the chairman of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors. His colleague, Varina District Supervisor Tyrone E. Nelson, was sworn in as vice chairman. Having first been elected in 1995, this was Thornton’s sixth time wielding the gavel. Nelson, who was elected in 2011, has also served as chairman.
Ordinarily, none of this would warrant special attention, except that both Thornton and Nelson are Black, and 30 years ago the Black community of Henrico County had no electoral representation on the board. In fact, the county’s white establishment fought hard for many years to stop Black citizens from gaining power and representation in the county.
In the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education and other school desegregation decisions, many whites “fled” to the suburbs. As the primary jurisdiction of white flight, Henrico went from a rural jurisdiction with a population of 57,340 in 1950 to 180,735 by 1980.
However, it was not just whites who desired a suburban lifestyle. By the 1980s, Blacks began to move into the suburbs — Henrico’s Black population grew from 5% in 1960 to 20% in 1990. Unfortunately, the county’s Black residents were met with resistance by whites who did not want them to have representation or a voice in local government.
Mobilization could only do so much, and in January 1988, Black plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Henrico County Board of Supervisors, general registrar and electoral board. The suit alleged that the white political establishment had violated the federal Voting Rights Act to “dilute, minimize, and cancel out the voting strength of Blacks and to deny or abridge the right of Blacks to vote on account of race or color.”
The trial, heard by U.S. District Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr. in September 1988, highlighted the racial tactics used in political campaigns by white Board of Supervisors members from Henrico. On the stand, the white supervisors were unable to cite any issue of concern to the Black community and did not know the percentage of Black constituents in their own districts.
Merhige determined that there was racial polarization in voting and issued a ruling that Henrico County had discriminated against Black voters. He ordered the county to draw a majority-black supervisorial district in the Fairfield area. The county did not accept Merhige’s decision and delayed and appealed the decision for nearly three years.
Henrico County is a very different jurisdiction today than it was in the 1980s. According to U.S. Census estimates for 2022, the county has a non-white population that is almost equal to the white population. There is also a large and rising population of foreign-born residents. A telling sign of future demographic trends is that the Henrico school system is majority non-white.
With our increasing diversity, it is easy to forget how white suburban leaders not that long ago were creating systems that relegated Black citizens to second-class status. Unfortunately, white anger, fear and animosity still exist across our Richmond region in shaping public policy and political representation. We’ve been down that path before, and the only way out is to have more diverse and thoughtful voices like Frank Thornton representing us, not fewer.
Tom Shields is an associate professor of education and leadership studies at the University of Richmond and also serves as associate dean for academic and student affairs and chair of graduate education in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. He can be reached at tshields@richmond.edu.
