Dr. William Ferguson Reid, co-founder of the Richmond Crusade for Voters (Photo courtesy William Ferguson Reid)
Dr. William Ferguson Reid has instant recall about becoming the first African-American since Reconstruction to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly 50 years ago.
Reid, 93, was elected to the statehouse in 1967, 11 years after he co-founded the Richmond Crusade for Voters with Dr. William Thornton, John M. Brooks, Ethel T. Overby and Lola Hamilton. The Crusade was formed to register more voters to combat the racist politics driven by the era of “massive resistance,” a term coined by then-U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia. Massive resistance was part of a Southern strategy to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that public schools be desegregated.
“No civic organization did more to democratize local politics in 20th-century Richmond than the Crusade," says University of Richmond history professor Dr. Julian Maxwell Hayter in his book, “The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia."
Reid and others knew that the only way for the city’s blacks to gain political influence, along with better jobs and education, was to register voters. The Crusade developed a strategy that focused on Richmond’s 28 predominantly black precincts.
“Each of us would be responsible for starting a civic association in areas where [there were] housing projects and other areas where there were unregistered voters,” Reid says. “Eventually we were able to elect moderate whites, who then would appoint other Crusade choices to commissions in City Hall. We were very patient.”
A Richmond Crusade for Voters sample ballot from 1970 (Photo courtesy Special Collections and Archives, VCU Libraries)
Progress was slow but steady. In 1967 Reid won by 36,735 votes to represent portions of Richmond and Henrico County in the Virginia House of Delegates. A bigger payoff came in 1969, when L. Douglas Wilder became the first African-American to be elected as a Virginia state senator. After becoming lieutenant governor in 1985, Wilder was elected governor of Virginia in 1989, becoming the first black governor in the United States.
Leading up to Wilder’s wins, several African-Americans were elected to Richmond City Council and appointed to various boards and commissions. During Reid’s four-year tenure in the General Assembly, gains included a bill ferreting out housing discrimination and redlining by banks and other lending institutions.
Growing up in Richmond’s Jackson Ward community, Reid was well aware of redlining and boundaries.
“We knew our limitations as kids,” he says. “Don’t argue with police, be careful not to touch anything in department stores. It was a Jim Crow society. Streetcar conductors had police authority. We were told to obey.”
As far as Reid is concerned, many of those rules still apply today.
“Things haven’t changed that much,” he says.
Reid’s activism mirrored the work of his parents, both members of the NAACP who often traveled to the civil rights organization’s meetings in New York and other cities. Upon returning to Richmond, Reid’s father, Leon, a dentist, pushed his patients and others to join the NAACP. His mother was an administrative volunteer for the Richmond chapter of the organization.
After earning his diploma from Armstrong High School in 1941, Reid graduated from Virginia Union University and Howard University’s medical school. For several years he lived in Maryland and also served as a lieutenant in the Navy during the Korean War. He eventually returned to Richmond, practicing general surgery.
He also became active in the NAACP, which was continuing efforts to register voters.
“The General Assembly was trying to put the NAACP out of business by demanding that it turn over its membership list,” says Reid. That’s when he and the others decided to start the Crusade in 1956.
Reid (upper row, second from left) with fellow activists (Photo courtesy Special Collections and Archives, VCU Libraries)
“Blacks were not active in the Democratic or Republican parties because they were treated as private organizations,” he says. “We decided to start a third party.”
Ticking off a list of districts and cities, including Alexandria, Newport News, Norfolk and Portsmouth, that have reaped the benefits of the Crusade’s political savvy, Reid clearly relishes politics, which he has “been hooked on since I was 21.”
Asked about the current state of the nation’s political affairs, Reid says that a lack of organization by both mainstream political parties led to the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
“People were not interested in building the party or increasing membership,” he says.
For Reid, all politics is local, and he readily quotes Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, maintaining that government should be “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
“Each of us has the responsibility to make sure these things are done. It’s up to all of us to effect change.”
When Reid turned 90 three years ago, a Chesterfield County group sought to enact change by creating a “90 for 90” campaign in honor of the civil rights leader. Each individual participating in the campaign was asked to register 90 new voters in each of Virginia's precincts. According to the organization’s website, 130,605 new voters were registered between January and October 2015, and 210,138 new voters were registered between November 2016 and October 2017.
Reid is excited about the organization’s ability to mobilize voters and get them and potential candidates involved in the political process.
Having spoken with many candidates running for office in various cities and states, Reid plans to continue his work by “staying on top of things” when he moves this spring with his wife, Jacqueline, from their current home in Maryland to California, to join their son, William Jr.
“Each election is a dress rehearsal for the next.”
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