Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Carroll Kem Shackelford Papers, 1954-1985. Accession 32577, Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Carroll Kem Shackelford, 6 August 1985.

Biographical/Historical Information

Carroll Kem Shackelford, Orange County attorney and counselor of law, was born in Newcastle, Wyoming on 22 December 1920, the daughter of James Preston Kem and Mary Elizabeth Carroll Kem. Her father served as a United States Senator from Missouri from 1947 to 1953. After obtaining an A.B. degree from Vassar College in 1940, Shackelford was employed in the field of journalism, working as an editorial assistant for Look Magazine during World War II and writing a column titled "Votes and Views" that was published in several Virginia and North Carolina newspapers. She married Virginius R. Shackelford, Jr., in 1943. In 1947, she helped establish and served for ten years on the board of the Grymes Memorial School, a non-profit private school in Orange, Virginia for children in grades 1-8. She received her law degree from the University of Virginia in 1964 and opened a law office in Culpeper, Virginia. She later became a Substitute Judge of the General District Court.

Involved in issues of interest to women, her membership on Virginia legislative committees has included the Task Force on the Equal Rights Amendment on the Law of Virginia, 1973-1974; the Subcommittee to Study Rights and Responsibilities of Spouses, 1975-1976; and the Subcommittee on Inheritance and Gift Tax Laws, 1977-1978. From 1976 to 1985, she served as counsel for the women delegates to the Virginia Legislature. Shackelford served on the board of the Library of Virginia, serving as board chairman from 1970 to 1973.

Carroll Kem Shackelford died on 22 December 2000.

Scope and Content

Papers, 1954-1985, of Carroll Kem Shackelford, Orange County attorney and counselor of law, concerning her legislative activities on the Equal Rights Amendment and other women's rights legislation. Includes speeches made concering the Equal Rights Amendment, and materials generated during her service on the Equal Rights Task Force and as counsel to the women legislators of the Virginia General Assembly. Her area of research on the Equal Rights Task Force was family law, examining how the amendment would affect the roles of mother and homemaker. The material from her role as counsel to the women legislators show the evolution of legislation on issues of concern to women, excluding the Equal Rights Amendment.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series: I. Speeches, 1954-1980; II. Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Task Force; III. Women's Rights Legislation, 1976-1985.

Series III. Women's Rights Legislation, 1976-1985, is further broken down into subseries arranged chronologically by General Assembly session. The folders under each subseries are arranged alphabetically by subject.

Folders are numbered consecutively, regardless of box, from 1-165.