John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virginia (1977–1985). Rockefeller moved to Emmons, West Virginia, to serve as a VISTA worker in 1964 and was first elected to public office as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates (1966–1968). Rockefeller was later elected secretary of state of West Virginia (1968–1973) and was president of West Virginia Wesleyan College (1973–1975). He became the state's senior U.S. senator when the long-serving Senator Robert Byrd died in June 2010.
Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets that attempt to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
Robert Ellsworth Wise Jr. is an American politician who served as the 33rd Governor of West Virginia from 2001 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, Wise also served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2001. In 2005 Wise became the president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a nonprofit organization that focuses on reforming the nation's high schools. In 2015, North Carolina State University honored Wise with the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation's Friday Medal which recognizes significant, distinguished and enduring contributions to education through advocating innovation, advancing education and imparting inspiration.
Arch Alfred Moore Jr. was an American lawyer and Republican politician from West Virginia. He began his political career as a state legislator in 1952. He was elected the 28th and 30th governor of West Virginia, serving from 1969 until 1977 and again from 1985 until 1989, he is the longest-serving West Virginia Governor in state history with 12 years of service. He is the father of U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito and the grandfather of US Representative Riley Moore.
George Poindexter was an American politician, lawyer, and judge from Mississippi. Born in Virginia, he moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1802. He served as United States Representative from the newly admitted state, was elected as Governor (1820–1822), and served as a United States senator.
Erastus Corning 2nd was an American politician. A Democrat, Corning served as the 72nd mayor of Albany, New York from 1942 to 1983, when Albany County was controlled by one of the last classic urban political machines in the United States.
Thomas Parran was an American physician and Public Health Service officer. He was appointed the sixth Surgeon General of the United States from 1936 to 1948, and oversaw the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiment and Guatemala syphilis experiment.
Gene Arthur Budig was an American baseball executive and academic administrator. He was the last president of the American League (AL), serving from 1994 to 1999. After his tenure concluded, the presidencies of the American League and the National League (NL) were eliminated by Major League Baseball (MLB). Budig went on to become part-owner of a minor league baseball team, a position he held until his death.
The Capitol at Williamsburg, Virginia housed both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the Governor's Council and the House of Burgesses of the colony of Virginia from 1705, six years after the colonial capital was relocated there from Jamestown, until 1780, when the capital was relocated to Richmond. Two capitol buildings served the colony on the same site: the first from 1705 until its destruction by fire in 1747; the second from 1753 to 1780.
The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) is a Washington, D.C.–based 527 organization founded in 1983, consisting of U.S. state and territorial governors affiliated with the Democratic Party. The mission of the organization is to provide party support to the election and re-election of Democratic gubernatorial candidates. The DGA's Republican counterpart is the Republican Governors Association. The DGA is not directly affiliated with the non-partisan National Governors Association.
William J. Simmons was an American Baptist pastor, educator, author, and activist. He was a former enslaved person who became the second president of Simmons College of Kentucky (1880–1890), for whom the school was later named.
Richard Howell Gleaves was a lawyer, merchant, and politician who served as the 55th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from December 7, 1872 to December 14, 1876. He served under Governors Franklin J. Moses, Jr. and Daniel Henry Chamberlain. A Haitian-American of mixed ancestry, Gleaves was notable as one of the highest elected black Americans during the Reconstruction Era.
Joseph Edward Persico was an author and American military historian. From 1974 to 1977, he was primary speechwriter to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. At the time of his death, he lived in Guilderland, New York.His book Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial tells the story of the Nuremberg Trials; it was adapted for television as the docudrama Nuremberg.
The history of the College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It fulfilled an early colonial vision dating back to 1618 to construct a university level program modeled after Cambridge and Oxford at Henricus. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.
John Randolph Ingram was an American Democratic politician, attorney, and insurance commissioner. He served as North Carolina's Commissioner of Insurance from 1973 until 1985.
Woodrow Wilson Goode Sr. is a former Mayor of Philadelphia and the first African American to hold that office. He served from 1984 to 1992, a period which included the controversial MOVE police action and house bombing in 1985. Goode was also a community activist, chair of the state Public Utility Commission, and managing director for the City of Philadelphia.
Carte Patrick Goodwin is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed by Governor Joe Manchin on July 16, 2010 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Robert Byrd. He chose not to seek election to finish the unexpired term of Robert Byrd. Goodwin left office on November 15, 2010 when Joe Manchin was sworn in after being elected to the Senate.
NC Mutual was an American life insurance company located in downtown Durham, North Carolina and one of the most influential African-American businesses in United States history. Founded in 1898 by local black social leaders, its business increased from less than a thousand dollars in income in 1899 to a quarter of a million dollars in 1910. The company specialized in "industrial insurance," which was basically burial insurance. The company hired salesmen whose main job was to collect small payments to cover the insured person for the next week. If the person died while insured, the company immediately paid benefits of about 100 dollars. This covered the cost of a suitable funeral, which was a high prestige item in the black community. It began operations in the new tobacco manufacturing city of Durham, North Carolina, and moved north into Virginia and Maryland, then to major northern black urban centers, and then to the rest of the urban South.
Dr. Mildred Mitchell-Bateman, M.D. was an American physician and medical administrator. She was West Virginia's mental health commissioner in 1962, and was the first woman and first African-American to hold the position.