Welcome to Adventist Angels Watchman Radio official website, preparing the earth for Jesus Christ return Shortly, find us on Facebook, Twitter and You-tube. +254734228119 With Ev. King Osiemo
From the Archives: Blue laws in the 1970s made Virginians see red
A collection of photos from the Richmond Times-Dispatch archive that show the city from the sky.
When the Virginia legislature amended the state’s blue law in 1973, its second update in just two years, it received a curt and pointed response in the form of a letter from a woman in Northern Virginia.
“Sirs, you must be a bunch of nincompoops,” it read, as quoted in an April 1, 1973, article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The 1973 update to the state’s blue law brought to a boil the long-simmering issue of whether to allow local retailers to sell items on Sunday by reinstating criminal penalties for violations — a penalty that had been eliminated just the prior year.
A clipping from the March 29, 1973, Times-Dispatch shows Dan Rogers, manager of Virginia Drug Co. in Richmond, with a cheeky sign protesting the then-new amendments to the state’s blue law. Rogers said the law is “childish and should be abolished.”Times-Dispatch archives
Blue laws, prohibiting sales on Sunday, had existed in Virginia for two centuries, an observation of the Fourth Commandment: to keep the Sabbath day holy. It prohibited the sale of everything from food to clothing.
The law was amended in 1961 when the General Assembly updated the language to say that sales may be permitted “when it may be considered necessary.” It also held that sales on Sunday would be allowed if profits were donated to charity.
“Isolated” breathing crisis on Friday : Pope ‘resurrects’ after breathing crisis, Vatican says
Determining what was “considered necessary” over the next 12 years proved complicated, however, and in an attempt to compromise over what then-Del. Russell M. Carneal referred to as a “ridiculous law,” Virginia’s legislature amended it in 1972 by imposing civil violations for penalties, rather than criminal ones — a $25 fine for each offense. The amendment also exempted employees from punishment, directing enforcement specifically to proprietors.
Virginia’s blue laws prohibited the sales of everything from food to clothing, with a 1961 amendment with exceptions for certain items “when it may be considered necessary.”Times-Dispatch archives
Still, the 1972 update did nothing to clarify which items were “necessary,” leaving commonwealth’s attorneys statewide uncertain of how to enforce it.
“We’d need a staff of 50,000 people to get the right information,” said Petersburg Commonwealth’s Attorney James F. D’Alton.
After the 1972 change in the law, Safeway began opening seven of its stores in the Richmond area on Sundays, which in turn inspired a pastor of Third Presbyterian Church, the Rev. W. Arnold Pate, to denounce the supermarket chain’s defiance of the Sunday law in a sermon titled “The Lord’s Name is Being Torn Down.”
As some stores felt more liberated to sell as they pleased with softer punishments for doing so, certain localities’ top enforcers took initiative to make examples of those that continued to break the law. Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Lloyd H. Hansen told The Times-Dispatch on Dec. 12, 1972, that he had intended to file suit against 200 retailers.
With parties on either side of the blue law divide unsatisfied with its previous update, Virginia lawmakers passed a bill in February 1973 making new changes. In addition to reimposing misdemeanor criminal penalties, it eliminated the charity-exception provision while allowing the unrestricted sale of food throughout the state.
It didn’t, however, address the original source of confusion: What was considered necessary?
“Left untouched, however, were ‘items of necessity,’ including food, ice, the emergency repair of automobiles, boats and aircrafts, and the sale of tickets for movies and sporting events,” reads a June 12, 1973, article in The Times-Dispatch.
null
The result of the 1973 blue law amendments was both an increase in Sunday retail openings as well as an increase in law enforcement crackdown on those very stores.
Within two months, a Williamsburg judge invalidated the law, ruling that it was unconstitutional. Yet enforcement continued in various localities, including when managers of five Roanoke stores were indicted in October and when five people were arrested on blue-law violation charges in Lynchburg in December.
More legal challenges against the law mounted over time. In August, Circuit Court Judge Henry D. Garnett threw out a case against a business in Newport News that had been found guilty of Sunday sales, declaring the law “unconstitutional, arbitrary, vague and discriminatory.”
As the Christmas shopping season was in full swing, Commonwealth’s Attorney Aubrey M. Davis had warned Richmond retailers that they should expect visits from the police. And they did. On Dec. 10, the commonwealth’s attorney filed charges against six stores in Richmond, including Carousel, K-Mart and U-Tote’m.
With enforcement continuing throughout 1973, residents of the state and city grew increasingly more vocal about their displeasure, many of them penning letters to The Times-Dispatch to register their complaints. One such epistolarian, Richmond’s Stewart Whitlow, suggested in a Dec. 18 letter that city officials “should spend more time arresting and prosecuting the criminals that plague our streets rather than wasting time on an obsolete and unconstitutional blue law.”
Citizens had a chance to decide for themselves once and for all whether the law should be enforced in the 1974 midterm election, with 27 out of 53 localities voting to repeal it. Richmond did not participate in the election because of an injunction that year barring local elections until litigation over its 1970 annexation of part of Chesterfield County had been settled.
Chesterfield itself voted to repeal and, upon adoption by the Board of Supervisors, lifted the Sunday prohibition. Henrico County, however, voted to keep the law.
In 1988, the Virginia Supreme Court finally declared the state’s blue law unconstitutional, ending more than 200 years of Sunday store closures.
null
About this series
“From the Archives” is a series of stories exploring the history of Richmond and the region through the files of The Times-Dispatch. Have a topic you’d like us to check out? Email reporter Jeff Terich at jterich@timesdispatch.com and visit richmond.com to see more from our archives.
In November 1953, the section of Monument Avenue between Horsepen Road and Keystone Drive in Henrico County began carrying eastbound and westbound traffic on separate sides of the median. About 20 signs were erected to let motorists know that they no longer shared a single side. The change was in anticipation of expanding the configuration to begin at the city limits.Times-Dispatch
In July 1950, women lounged on a floating platform at a swimming hole that was once a quarry. Starting in the 1800s, the area near what is now Willow Oaks was occupied by a large number of granite quarries. As they closed and were allowed to fill with water, they became popular recreation spots.Times-Dispatch
This December 1963 image shows the old Union School, a four-room school built in 1931 in Henrico County for $4,000. It was used for black students until it closed in the early 1950s. The county was considering offers from businesses to purchase the building, which sat on the south side of West Broad Street near Reynolds Metals Co. and was being used by the recreation department.Times-Dispatch
In June 1946, James Q. Jones took his male donkey on a two-week breeding circuit through Goochland, Louisa and Hanover counties. Jones “bugled his brains out” on his Boy Scout bugle to alert nearby horse owners and members of the League for Planned Mule Parenthood of his arrival.Times-Dispatch
null
In March 1946, while on a trip to America, British wartime leader Winston Churchill (left) addressed the General Assembly. Here, he watched as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the register in the old House of Delegates; Gov. William M. Tuck is between them.Times-Dispatch
In May 1968, the 18th annual Country Club of Virginia Member-Guest golf tournament was held; the winning duo shot 1-under par over three rounds to win by one stroke. The club, founded in 1908, opened its clubhouse in 1910, with the fourth-largest membership (about 1,100) of any country club in the nation.TIMES-DISPATCH
The May 10, 1953, edition of The Times-Dispatch included a photo essay on the Dixie Container Corp., which produced boxes for tobacco, textile and furniture shipments. Here, smaller boxes are folded and taped on a machine operated by Jack Brownie.Times-Dispatch
In April 1942, about 26,000 Richmond men ages 45 to 64 participated in the country’s fourth Selective Service registration. These men were registering at Ginter Park School. Men in this age range were not subject to military service at that time, but they were being asked about special skills to determine how they could best aid the war effort.Times-Dispatch
In July 1952, the nation’s first 24-hour peacetime air raid alert system, called Operation Skywatch, began operation. Air Force members and volunteers staffing the Richmond filter station began plotting sightings of planes as they were called in.Times-Dispatch
In December 1940, barracks for 1 million soldiers were being built quickly at Camp Lee near Petersburg and other bases across the country — the Selective Training and Service Act had been enacted in September as part of preparations for World War II. At some installations, structures went up at the rate of one every 54 minutes.Times-Dispatch
In September 1960, College Presbyterian Church at Hampden-Sydney College was celebrating its centennial. Designed by theologian Robert Lewis Dabney, who was Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s chief of staff and biographer, the church is still used today.Times-Dispatch
This April 1935 image shows the historic Hanover Tavern, which dates to the 1730s and offered refuge for weary travelers doing business at the historic courthouse nearby. The tavern now serves as a restaurant and theater; the oldest part that still stands dates to 1791. Young statesman Patrick Henry lived there for several years after marrying the daughter of the tavern’s owners.Times-Dispatch
This October 1946 image shows heavy kraft paper, made from wood pulp, that was being converted into drinking cups at a Richmond factory. The majority of Virginia pulp and paper mills made this type of paper, which was used to make other goods. Factories were maximizing production after the war era had developed new and popular paper products.Times-Dispatch
This image shows “Sergeant Jack” Blizzard at the Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers’ Home in Richmond. Blizzard, who served as courier for Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson during the Civil War, was its last resident. After he died in early 1941, the home was closed, and the land at the corner of Grove Avenue and the Boulevard reverted to the state. One of the home’s cannons remains outside the former chapel, across from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.Times-Dispatch
In January 1951, delegates to a mass meeting gathered at Leigh Street Methodist Church in Richmond after a federal judge refused to intervene in the case of seven black Martinsville men convicted of raping a white woman and sentenced to death. The Martinsville Seven were executed in early February.Times-Dispatch
In October 1942, Richmond was the site of Virginia’s largest military parade since World War II began, with more than 6,000 uniformed men and women marching along Monument Avenue and Franklin, Belvidere and Broad streets. The parade was organized as part of the nation’s drive to secure the voluntary enlistment of 18- and 19-year-olds in the war effort.Times-Dispatch
In August 1942, Anna Purcell (left) and Mrs. Thomas P. Bryan oversaw the surgical dressing division at the Red Cross chapter in Richmond. After the dressings were made, they were distributed all over the world.Times-Dispatch
In November 1953, Laura Viator (left), a nurse at Sheltering Arms Hospital in Richmond, showed Mrs. Russell Snead, chairwoman of the facility’s drug drive, an average day’s supply of drugs and dressings. Sheltering Arms, which celebrated its 125th anniversary last year, now serves as a rehabilitation facility.Times-Dispatch
In January 1990, thousands of spectators crowded into Capitol Square in Richmond for the inauguration of L. Douglas Wilder as the nation’s first African-American elected governor.Times-Dispatch
In January 1956, Stuart Circle Hospital in Richmond opened a new wing, which included 48 patient rooms and a nursery. The old building was remodeled, including the Lewis C. Bosher Memorial Library (pictured), which moved from the second floor to the first.Times-Dispatch
In March 1945, Navy Inspector M.E. Croft (left) and U.S. Employment Service Manager A.W. Clapton examined shells made at Tredegar Iron Works for the Navy’s use during World War II. Tredegar opened in 1837 and was a major manufacturing center for the Confederacy during the Civil War. It survived the evacuation fire of 1865 and continued as a production facility through most of the 1950s. Today the facility houses the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar.Times-Dispatch
In October 1947, 85-year-old B.W. Partee (seated), caretaker at Camp Shawondasee in Chesterfield County for 26 years, was ready to retire. He was known as a storyteller, and here, he entertained E.G. McDowell, field executive of the Richmond Boy Scouts Council. Shawondasee closed in 1965 after more than 50 years serving Scouts in the region. The next year, the YMCA purchased the land, and its Camp Thunderbird still operates there.Times-Dispatch
In September 1940, the nearly 4,500-ton British steamer Markland was the first ship to dock at Richmond’s new Deep Water Terminal on the James River. The ship brought a cargo of 1,000 tons of newsprint from Nova Scotia for The Times-Dispatch and News Leader.Times-Dispatch
In June 1972, the remnants of Hurricane Agnes brought some of the worst flooding in decades to Richmond, as seen in a watery railroad underpass in the Shockoe area of Richmond. The James River crested at 36.5 feet at the city locks.TIMES-DISPATCH
In October 1963, Thomas Jefferson High School Principal W.W. Brock Jr. presented to Col. John W. Garner, commander of the Richmond school’s cadet corps, the new National Defense Cadet Corps flag, bearing the Thomas Jefferson emblem. The flag was the gift of an anonymous donor. Previously, cadets had carried only the American and Virginia flags.Don Pennell
In November 1958, Virginia first lady Josephine Almond presented changes that had been made to the Executive Mansion to make it more personable. In a nod to her love of birds, this birdbath had been installed in the formal garden.Times-Dispatch
Welcome to Adventist Angels Watchman Radio now Live International official Page preparing the People of the world For Jesus Christ second coming. find us on Facebook YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Palcity and Gettr
View all posts by Adventist Angels Watchman Radio
Adventist Angels Watchman Radio 