Mills E. Godwin, Jr.

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

Early years

Mills Godwin attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. After studying law at the University of Virginia in 1939, he received his license as a lawyer. In the years 1942-1946 he worked as a Special Agent for the FBI. He then became active in Suffolk as a lawyer.

Political rise

Godwin was a member of the Democratic Party. From 1948 to 1952 he was a delegate in the House of Representatives from Virginia; 1952-1960 he was a member of the State Senate. During this time he was a supporter of racial segregation and partisans of U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, who was set particularly reactionary on the issue of racial segregation. Godwin was, therefore, an opponent of the merger of schools for children of all ethnicities. From 1962 to 1966 he served as Deputy Governor Deputy Governor Alberti S. Harrison. In 1965 he was a candidate himself for the post of governor. Looking at the votes of African-Americans he gradually changed his conservative attitude. As early as 1964 he had supported the presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson, who strongly argued for a new Civil Rights Act.

Governor of Virginia

After he was elected as the new governor of his state, he could start his first four-year term on 16 January 1966. In this time and especially after the end of his tenure, Godwin broke away from his party, whose prices increasingly appeared to him as too liberal. He led the campaign of Harry F. Byrd, Jr. for the U.S. Senate. The son of the conservative Harry Byrd Sr. had also distanced himself from the Democratic Party and ran as an Independent. In the presidential elections of 1972, Godwin was the leader of a number of politicians of the Democrats, who spoke under the motto " Democrats for Nixon " for the election of Republican Richard Nixon against the Democratic candidate George McGovern.

In the period after the end of his first term as Governor Godwin was one of the directors of Standard Brands Inc, the Western Railway Company and several other companies. He was also on the board of Virginia National Bank. Politically left Godwin the Democratic Party and was a member of the Republican Party. As the candidate he was in 1973 again governor of his state. He was the first governor of Virginia, who was twice elected to that office. His second term began on January 12, 1974 and ended four years later on 14 January 1978. During this time, a value-added tax was used to finance a newly introduced school system introduced. Governor Godwin then also introduced the death penalty in Virginia and was a member of numerous associations governor.

Further CV

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