ENTRY

Archibald C. Buchanan (1890–1979)

SUMMARY

Archibald C. Buchanan was a judge on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals who authored the majority opinions in Naim v. Naim (1955), which upheld the state’s antimiscegenation laws, and Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward (1963), which upheld a county’s right to close public schools rather than integrate them. The latter case was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court a year later. Buchanan was born in Tazewell County and educated at Hampden-Sydney College and Washington and Lee University before beginning his law practice. He joined the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in 1946 and was generally a conservative presence there. In 1959, however, he voted with the majority in Harrison v. Day, striking down Virginia’s plan of Massive Resistance. Buchanan retired in 1969 and died ten years later.

Archibald "Archie" Chapman Buchanan

Archibald Chapman Buchanan was born on January 7, 1890, in Tazewell County, the son of Augustus Beauregard Buchanan and Nancy Emerine Chapman Buchanan. His father served for five years as deputy clerk of the Tazewell County Court and for eight years as postmaster of Tazewell during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Buchanan graduated from Tazewell High School in 1906. He received a BA from Hampden-Sydney College in 1910 and an LLB from Washington and Lee University in 1914. Both institutions subsequently bestowed honorary doctor of laws degrees on him, and Buchanan recalled that he had been especially influenced by William H. Whiting, a Latin teacher at Hampden-Sydney, and Martin Parks Burks, dean of the Washington and Lee Law School and later a judge of the state Supreme Court of Appeals.

George C. Peery

In partnership with his uncle John William Chapman and George Campbell Peery, who later served as governor, Buchanan practiced law in Tazewell from 1915 to 1927 in the firm of Chapman, Peery, and Buchanan. He served from 1917 to 1921 as mayor of Tazewell and from 1919 to 1927 as the county’s commissioner of accounts. On April 8, 1927, the General Assembly elected Buchanan to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, which consisted of Bland, Giles, and Tazewell counties. He was subsequently elected to a full term on January 19, 1928. He sat from 1928 to 1932 on the first Judicial Council of Virginia, which the assembly created to advise it on improving the administration of justice in the courts. Buchanan also helped the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council develop recommendations for revision of the probation and parole system, which the assembly enacted into law on February 6, 1942.

Preston White Campbell

In 1946 Preston White Campbell, of Abingdon, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals, notified Governor William Munford Tuck of his intention to retire and expressed a preference that Buchanan be appointed to Campbell’s seat. On September 12, 1946, Tuck duly appointed Buchanan, who had already been mentioned with respect to earlier court vacancies, to replace Campbell.

A modest man, Buchanan was known to his associates as the scholar of the court. “Citizens need to know what they can and cannot do under the law,” he declared in an interview following his retirement. “The fundamental principles of the law are generally well established,” he continued, “and courts should only with great reluctance depart from them or modify them.” In 1955 Buchanan wrote the opinion in Naim v. Naim upholding Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage as a proper governmental objective and one that had traditionally been open to state regulation. The court reaffirmed its validation of the state ban in 1966, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia (1967), declared the state law unconstitutional.

Fourth Circuit Court Ruling

Buchanan also wrote the majority opinion in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward that in 1963 absolved the General Assembly of any constitutional obligation to operate free public schools in Prince Edward County. The nation high court reversed this decision, too. In 1959, however, Buchanan voted with the majority on the state court in Harrison v. Day, which struck down Virginia’s plan of Massive Resistance to desegregation in the public schools on the grounds that it violated the state’s constitutional mandate requiring the assembly to “maintain an efficient system of public free schools through the State.”

Buchanan lived in Tazewell throughout his life and traveled to Richmond and Staunton for the sessions of the state’s high court. He married Olivia McCall on December 18, 1915, and they had one son and one daughter. Buchanan was a Presbyterian teacher and elder, a member of the Tazewell Rotary Club, and a director of the Tazewell National Bank and the Lynn Camp Coal Corporation. He also served on the boards of trustees of Hampden-Sydney College from 1928 to 1969 and of Mary Baldwin College from 1948 to 1962. He retired from the bench in 1969 after forty-two consecutive years as a jurist, and that year the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association honored him with the Virginia Distinguished Service Award. Buchanan died on May 3, 1979, after a long illness and was buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Tazewell.

MAP
TIMELINE
January 7, 1890
Archibald C. Buchanan is born in Tazewell County, the son of Augustus B. Buchanan and Nancy E. Chapman Buchanan.
1906
Archibald C. Buchanan graduates from Tazewell High School.
1910
Archibald C. Buchanan receives a BA from Hampden-Sydney College.
1914
Archibald C. Buchanan receives an LLB from Washington and Lee University.
1915—1927
Archibald C. Buchanan practices law in Tazewell in the firm of Chapman, Peery, and Buchanan.
December 18, 1915
Archibald C. Buchanan marries Olivia McCall. The couple will have one son and one daughter.
1917—1921
Archibald C. Buchanan serves as mayor of Tazewell.
1919—1927
Archibald C. Buchanan serves as Tazewell County's commissioner of accounts.
April 8, 1927
The General Assembly elects Archibald C. Buchanan to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, which consists of Bland, Giles, and Tazewell counties.
1928—1969
Archibald C. Buchanan serves on the board of trustees of Hampden-Sydney College.
1928—1932
Archibald C. Buchanan serves on the first Judicial Council of Virginia, which the General Assembly has created to advise it on improving the administration of justice in the courts.
January 19, 1928
Archibald C. Buchanan is elected to a full term as a circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit.
February 6, 1942
The General Assembly enacts into law the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council's recommendations for revision of the probation and parole system.
1946
Preston W. Campbell, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals, notifies Governor William M. Tuck of his intention to retire. Campbell expresses a preference that Archibald C. Buchanan be appointed to fill his seat.
September 12, 1946
Governor William M. Tuck appoints Archibald C. Buchanan to fill the seat of Preston W. Campbell, the retiring chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals.
1948—1962
Archibald C. Buchanan serves on the board of trustees of Mary Baldwin College.
June 13, 1955
In Naim v. Naim, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals grants Ruby Naim, a white woman, an annulment for her marriage to the Chinese-born Han Say Naim on the grounds that the interracial marriage had never been legal in Virginia.
January 19, 1959
Both the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court overturn the decision of Governor J. Lindsay Almond Jr. to close schools in Front Royal, Charlottesville, and Norfolk.
May 25, 1964
After Prince Edward County's public schools have been closed for the previous five years, the U.S. Supreme Court in Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County rules that the county has violated the students' right to an education and orders the Prince Edward County schools to reopen.
March 7, 1966
In Loving v. Virginia, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the state's antimiscegenation laws. The Court also sets aside the original conviction of Richard and Mildred Loving, finding that a sentence requiring the defendants to leave the state is "unreasonable."
June 12, 1967
In Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that Virginia's antimiscegenation statutes violate the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment. The decision effectively overturns the bans on interracial marriage in sixteen states.
1969
Archibald C. Buchanan retires from the Supreme Court of Appeals.
May 3, 1979
Archibald C. Buchanan dies after a long illness. He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Tazewell.
FURTHER READING
  • Morris, Thomas R. “Buchanan, Archibald Chapman.” In The Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 2, edited by Sara B. Bearss et al., 365–366. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2001.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Morris, Thomas & Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Archibald C. Buchanan (1890–1979). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/buchanan-archibald-c-1890-1979.
MLA Citation:
Morris, Thomas, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Archibald C. Buchanan (1890–1979)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 31 May. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
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