For the previous five decades Virginia had almost completely disenfranchised its black and poor white populations through the use of a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.

[3] Historical fusion with the "Readjuster" Democrats,[4] defection of substantial proportions of the Northeast-aligned white electorate of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia over free silver,[5] and an early move towards a "lily white" Jim Crow party[4] meant Republicans retained a small but permanent number of legislative seats and local offices in the western part of the state.

Despite calls by Governor Thomas B. Stanley for a "calm" and "dispassionate" response, the Byrd machine recognised that segregation could unite most of Virginia's electorate behind it and avert criticism of its other policies.

Although Eisenhower refused to publicly endorse Brown, the fact that he had appointed Brown author Earl Warren meant that there was substantial anger in the Southside, and as in 1948 a "states' rights" ticket,[11] this time headed by Virginian former Commissioner of Internal Revenue T. Coleman Andrews, was filled and placed on the Virginia ballot in mid-September,[12] when a poll said that 28 percent of likely voters would back a states' rights candidate if on the ballot.

Andrews' support was centered in the Southside, and he won an absolute majority in Prince Edward County, the epicenter of "Massive Resistance" to school integration and the home of his state chairman Robert B.