Republican Meeting at Fairfax Courthouse

A photograph taken inside the Fairfax Courthouse in 1947 depicts county Republicans gathered for a meeting that probably took place on December 8 in response to a scandal within the party. In October of that year, Fred A. Bryan, the Fairfax County Republican chairman, was charged with homicide in a drunk driving accident. Bryan subsequently submitted his resignation as chairman. According to a December 9, 1947, article in the Washington Post, "a group of party stalwarts" called a meeting of approximately eighty Republicans during which they "voted to ask all of the Republican Party's standing committee in Fairfax County to resign 'so the party can get a new start.'" A resolution was also adopted that henceforth county Republican candidates would be selected in primaries rather than through the old system of party conventions.

The portraits on the far wall are James R. Allison (top), Fairfax county sheriff from 1904 to 1927; C. Vernon Ford (bottom left), commonwealth attorney for the county from 1879 to 1922; and William E. Graham (bottom right), deputy clerk of the county's circuit court from 1904 to 1916. The Confederate flag in the back of the room, probably a regular feature in the courthouse, stood next to a commemorative wall plaque for Confederate veterans.

This photograph is part of the Quentin Porter collection of photographs at the Fairfax County Public Library.