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Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], W. B. Gilmer Papers, 1954-1962, Ms2023-059, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

The W. B. Gilmer Papers were purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in August 2020.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the W. B. Gilmer Papers was completed in June 2023. Additional processing and description was completed in March 2024.

Biographical Note

The W. B. Gilmer of this collection lived at "Woodbourne" in Louisa, Virginia, and worked for the Gilmer Manufacturing Corporation in Louisa in the 1950s. Gilmer was one of the founding members of the Louisa Chapter of the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties, a political organization that fought integration in Virginia's public schools. Gilmer may have been secretary or another officer in the chapter. He left the group in 1959 or 1960, as he felt there was too much talk and not enough action, like boycotting businesses.

W. B. Gilmer is probably Weir Burton Gilmer, Sr. (1891-1964). He was born to William B. Gilmer, Jr., and Emma Haardt on August 17, 1891, in Montgomery, Alabama. He worked as a chemist and consulting chemical engineer in Georgia and Virginia and for the Tata Oil Mils Company, Ltd., in Ernakulam, India, as manager of their oil mill and butter plant. Gilmer married Minnie Ruth Monroe (1891-1980) on December 22, 1916, in Savannah, Georgia, and they had several children: Weir Burton, Jr., Ruth, John R., and Margaret Lynn. According to the obituary for Lynn Gilmer Guilford, she was born in the family home, "Woodbourne". Gilmer died on February 20, 1964 in Richmond and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Louisa, Virginia.

External sources:

U. S. Federal Censuses, 1930-1950

"Weir Burton Gilmer, Sr.", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29936086/weir-burton-gilmer , accessed on June 15, 2023.

"Weir Gilmer" in the Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/2036699:9278 , accessed March 6, 2024.

"Weir Burton Gilmer" in the U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/572070:1174 , accessed March 6, 2024.

"Mr. Weir Burton Gilmer" in the U.S., Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current, Ancestry.com, from The Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser , Dec. 29, 1916, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/112745487:62116 , accessed March 6, 2024.

"Guilford Lynn Obituary", The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.), August 3, 2014, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailyprogress/name/guilford-lynn-obituary?id=10449961 , accessed March 6, 2024.

Administrative History

The Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties was a political organization created in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1954 to prevent integration in Virginia's public schools. The group formed folllowing the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), which established racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. The organization pushed for the closing of Virginia schools to avoid integration within the state's schools. The group promoted several "Massive Resistance" laws, and in 1956, the Virginia General Assembly passed laws to close schools forced to integrate and to deny funding to schools forced to open under integration, both of which were knocked down by courts in 1959. At this time, the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties started to decline in popularity, and it dissolved in 1967.

External sources:

"Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties", Encyclopedia Virginia, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/defenders-of-state-sovereignty-and-individual-liberties/ , accessed on June 15, 2023.

Scope and Content

The W. B. Gilmer Papers document the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties in Virginia from 1954-1962. The organization was formed to prevent integration in Virginia's public schools, and Gilmer was a founding member and officer of the Louisa, Virginia, chapter. The collection includes broadsides, circulars, letters, copies of organizational documents, and newspaper clippings, primarily from the Central Virginian (Louisa, Va.) It also contains newsletters and memos from the group's headquarters in Richmond and similar organizations, draft documents from the Louisa chapter, and speeches by members of the U.S. Congress - such as Strom Thurmond and Harry Byrd - in copies of the Congressional Record.

In addition to the opposition of integration, the collection discusses white supremacist perspectives on related topics, such as Civil Rights, "states' rights," immigration, communism, the NAACP, and interracial relationships.

Please note: This collection contains racist ideology and language that may be upsetting to researchers.

Arrangement

This collection is in original order with original folder titles in quotes. It is primarily in chronological order.

Related Material

See also the following related collections at other institutions in Virginia:

W.B. Glimer account book, MSS-16465, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties. Records, 1956-1963. Accession 39469. Organization records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Loudoun Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties Records (SC 0025), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA

David P. Neff Papers, MG 101, Special Collections and University Archives, Old Dominion University Libraries. This contains materials about the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• African Americans -- History
• Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties
• Discrimination in education
• Educational equalization
• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• Louisa County (Va.)

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the W. B. Gilmer Papers by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).