Earl A. Fitzpatrick
| Earl A. Fitzpatrick | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Virginia Senate from the Roanoke district |
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In office January 1948 – January 1960 |
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| Preceded by | Leonard G. Muse |
| Succeeded by | William B. Hopkins |
| Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Roanoke, Virginia district |
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In office January , 1938 – January, 1948 |
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| Preceded by | Marion S. Battle |
| Succeeded by | James Adam Bear |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 22, 1904 Roanoke, Virginia |
| Died | June 22, 1984 Roanoke, Virginia |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Linn Petty |
| Residence | Roanoke, Virginia |
| Alma mater | Washington and Lee University |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Earl Abbath Fitzpatrick (September 22, 1904 – June 22, 1984) was a Virginia lawyer and member of the Virginia General Assembly representing Roanoke between 1940 and 1959, first as a delegate and then as a state Senator. A lieutenant in the Byrd Organization, Fitzpatrick was active in the Massive Resistance to racial integration vowed by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd after the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education. He introduced much of the segregationist legislation and was vice-chairman of the Boatwright Committee which investigated the NAACP for litigating on behalf of civil rights, before being defeated in the 1959 Democratic primary.
Fitzpatrick was born in Roanoke to Frank Abbath and Maggie Thomas Fitzpatrick. The family included two brothers, Horace S. Fitzpatrick (1913 - 1990) and Beverly Thomas Fitzpatrick (1919-2000), and a sister, Margaret Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Mayes (1906 - 1984). Beverly Fitzpatrick followed in his elder brother's footsteps at Jefferson High School and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia and in becoming a lawyer, but served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and became a judge. Earl Fitzpatrick married Mary Linn Petty (1905-2002) and was active in the Presbyterian Church.
Fitzpatrick served as Roanoke's city attorney from until . In 1935, Roanoke's voters had elected Marion S. Battle and Raye O. Lawson to serve as their delegates in the Virginia General Assembly, but Lawson was not certified by the Committee on Privileges and elections in the extra session, so his seat remained vacant. In 1937 Fitzpatrick and Walter H. Scott won election to the Virginia General Assembly as the two delegates allotted Roanoke. Both were re-elected in 1939 and 1941; Walter W. Wood replaced Scott and served as Roanoke's delegate alongside Fitzpatrick in 1943 and 1945.
In 1947, Fitzpatrick won election in the relatively new Virginia Senate District 36 (representing Roanoke City). He replaced independent Democrat Leonard G. Muse (what the Byrd Organization called an "Anti", meaning Anti-Byrd Organization). Beginning in January 1936, Muse had previously served over a decade, mostly alongside Byrd Democrat Harvey B. Apperson of Salem, Virginia (seat of Roanoke County) in the 21st District, which then had two seats and encompassed Radford as well as Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke Counties. When District 36 was created in 1943 to cover the City of Roanoke, Muse had been elected to the seat, but Fitzpatrick denied him re-election four years later, and he was appointed to the Virginia School Board. Apperson failed to qualify in the contested 1943 senatorial election for District 21, but was his fellow delegates selected him to serve as a judge on the Virginia State Corporation Commission; in the special election that followed, Republican Ted Dalton of Radford was elected as District 21's senator, and re-elected several times. Roanoke City is now again in District 21, along with Giles County and parts of Roanoke and Montgomery Counties. In any event, upon his election, Fitzpatrick sat in the Virginia Senate next to the Byrd Organization's heir-apparent, Harry F. Byrd, Jr., who was also first elected there in 1948 and represented Winchester, Virginia together with its surrounding counties (and served there until his father retired from the U.S. Senate). Fitzpatrick was re-elected as Roanoke City's senator in 1951 and 1955, although in the latter election the Roanoke City senatorial district was renamed District 35.
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