Stanley, Thomas B. (1890–1970)

Stanley was governor of Virginia in the years directly after Brown v. Board of Education. Originally moderate in his stance, Stanley caved to pressure from the Byrd Organization and others that strongly opposed desegregation, creating the committee that would draft Virginia’s response to Brown. The Legislature approved the Stanley Plan in 1956, which allowed the governor to shut down any school that might desegregate. These massive resistance plans severely disrupted state-supported education. Stanley subsequently beame an executive of First National Bank.