Henry Leander Marsh III (December 10, 1933 – January 23, 2025) was an American civil rights lawyer and politician.

[2] Marsh was a commissioner on the Virginia Department of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, a position to which he received appointment from Governor Terry McAuliffe promptly after his departure from the Senate in 2014.

Through this period, his father was working and also studying, having gone back to college to earn his degree and showing his children how important education was.

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the Virginia legislature, consisting of all white members, was considering laws to enact the Byrd Organization's program of "massive resistance" to desegregation.

Marsh concentrated on civil rights law, participating in such cases as Quarles v. Philip Morris, the first U.S. legal case involving racial discrimination in employment, which set the precedent for prohibiting department seniority systems and requiring equal pay for equal work.

This case established a precedent requiring jurisdictions to create a desegregation plan, with the locality providing transportation to students.

[5] In Gravely v. Robb (1981), Marsh successfully forced the Virginia General Assembly to adopt single-member districts.

In the 1970s, activist Curtis Holt St. challenged Richmond's plan to annex more territory from Chesterfield County, as designed to dilute the voting power of African American citizens.

Marsh led a coalition of black council members, who made substantive changes in the city, starting with Leidinger's replacement by a manager more willing to address minority issues.

The new coalition also adopted a human rights ordinance, worked on downtown Richmond's revitalization, and ensured appointment of African Americans to boards and commissions to reflect their contributions to the city.

[2][5] He worked to control easy firearm sales, as well as opposed the growing number of charter schools as undercutting public education.

[7] In 2014, Marsh accepted a gubernatorial appointment to become a commissioner of the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.