Garland Gray

Garland Gray
Member of the Virginia Senate from the 6th district
In office January 12, 1942 – 1945
Preceded by	Robert Williams Daniel
Succeeded by	Edward E. Goodwyn
In office January 12, 1948 – January 11, 1972
Preceded by	Edward E. Goodwyn
Succeeded by	Elmon T. Gray
Personal details
Born	November 28, 1902 Waverly, Virginia, U.S.
Died	July, 1977 Richmond, Virginia
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Agnes E. Taylor; Frances R. Bage
Children	Elmon T. Gray. Mary Wingate Gray Stettinius, Agnes Elizabeth Gray Duff
Alma mater	University of Richmond Washington and Lee University

Garland Gray (November 28, 1902 – July, 1977) (nicknamed "Peck" after Peck's Bad Boy) was a long-time Democratic member of the Virginia Senate representing Southside Virginia counties, including his native Sussex. A lumber and banking executive, Gray became head of the Democratic Caucus in the Virginia Senate, and vehemently opposed school desegregation after the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and 1955. Although Senator Harry F. Byrd himself supported Massive Resistance, and preferred Gray over other candidates, the Byrd Organization refused to wholeheartedly support Gray's bid to become the party's gubernatorial candidate in 1957, so James Lindsay Almond Jr. won that party's primary and later the Governorship.

Gray was born in the rural community of Gray, in Sussex County, Virginia to Elmon Lee Gray and his wife Ella Virginia Darden Gray. His grandfather Alfred L. Gray had moved to Virginia from Sussex County, Delaware and established a lumber company to harvest the local swamp pines. The family-owned Gray Lumber Co. once owned over one hundred thousand acres of forested land in Prince George County, Surry County, Sussex County, Southampton County and neighboring areas, as well as several of the James River Plantations including Bacon's Castle, Swann's Point and Eastover.

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