Howard Palmer Anderson (May 25, 1915 – November 1, 2000) was a Virginia attorney and Democratic Party politician.

Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, he served as a communications officer aboard ships in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

[citation needed] He was active in the bar association, as well as Halifax School Board, and with the Ruritan Club, Masons, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Virginia Farm Bureau.

Voters re-elected Anderson to the Virginia Senate several times before he announced his upcoming retirement in 1991.

[4] However, district boundaries changed significantly, such that he was succeeded by fellow Democrat Louise Lucas of Portsmouth who defeated Republican Frank L. Ruff Jr. in the general election to become the first African American female senator in Virginia.