Part Three: Judge Lester V. Moore, Jr. Rise & Fall of Voting Rights Act

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter Emeritus
New Journal and Guide

A decade after the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was passed in 1965, Hampton Roads received its first post-reconstruction Judge of African American descent.        

That honor went to Lester V. Moore, Jr. who was appointed in January 1976 to the  Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Court.

    The first in Virginia—post Reconstruction—was Willard H. Douglas, who was selected in 1974 to serve as judge of the Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Court.   Born in Amherst County,  he was a  Howard University Law School graduate.

    If you thumb deeper into the pages of the state’s history textbooks on the subject of the selection of  Black judges, during  Reconstruction, Daniel M. Norton,  a York County physician, was the first Black judge elected in 1866.   Norton won the seat three times. However, the assistant commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau for Virginia refused to seat him.

          While Moore was the first in Hampton Roads, the second was Joseph Jordan, who was named to the Norfolk General District Court the following year.

    In 1968, Jordan was also the first post-Reconstruction era Black elected to the Norfolk City Council.

Jordan presided over Moore’s swearing-in ceremony on February 27, 1976, according to the GUIDE Archives.

Moore was born into a very distinguished family, in 1943, headed by Lester V. Moore, Sr. and his wife Mary.  His father  was an executive with the Norfolk affiliate of the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, the largest Black insurance company in the country, for 38 years.

          The building the affiliate occupied still sits at 701 Tidewater Drive.

     Lester V. Moore Jr. graduated from Norfolk’s historic Booker T. Washington High School in 1961 at the top of his class.   He was President of the school’s student government and other student activities.

    Moore earned a Political Science  Degree at North Carolina Central University  (NCCU) in 1965. After attending NCCU, he was a Graduate student of  International Relations at American University in  Washington, D.C.  He then enrolled at the University of Virginia Law School.

In 1967, fellow Norfolkian  Elaine Jones was among the handful of Blacks enrolled. She was the first Black woman to attend UVA Law School. She graduated in 1970

    A year before, Moore graduated from the UVA Law School and then worked for two years as a staff attorney for the Tidewater Legal Aid Society in Norfolk.

    According to a November 25, 1972 edition of the GUIDE,  he was hired to review and evaluate draft violations as the Assistant Regional Counsel for the Selective Service System, when the nation was drafting people to serve in the military.

    The nation ended the draft in 1973.

Stationed in Chicago, according to the GUIDE,  Moore reviewed draft law violations from the states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

    The late Norfolk City Councilman Paul Riddick, who was well versed on the political history of Norfolk, recalled events of the 1976 session of the Virginia General Assembly where the judgeship was debated and decided. Then, Black leaders in Norfolk specifically were looking for “a dividend or “payback” for their years of investing their support for progressive Democrats and Independent candidates for council and the state offices.

    At that time there were two vacant seats in the Norfolk  Court system; one on the Juvenile and Domestic Court and one on the Circuit Court.

 Riddick said Black leaders   “made it known they  wanted a qualified  Black lawyer to fill one or both of them”.

    A January 24, 1976 edition of the GUIDE reflected that sentiment in an article headlined “Black Judge Seems Sure for Norfolk” by reporter Rep Johnson. It also noted their displeasure when their designs did not go as planned.

Black leaders were aware of the political muscle their community had gained with the passage of the Voting Rights Act.  Black citizens no longer faced the barriers of the poll tax or White primaries to access the ballot.

This was the leverage they used to pressure White Democrats and Independents to support their desires for Blacks to be appointed to powerful positions, including judgeships

        As they do today,  the 10-member delegation composed of House and Senate members from Hampton Roads cities had a hand in reviewing  a candidate’s credentials when a local bar association nominated them.

          State Delegate William P. Robinson, Sr., the lone Black in the delegation, navigated the process in Richmond for the Black community.

Black Twin City Bar Association nominated Attorney W. T. Mason  for the Circuit Court seat.

    Surprisingly, Moore got  the  nod for the Juvenile and Domestic Court seat and  Mason was bypassed. A White jurist was selected for the Circuit Court seat.

     Moore’s selection was a surprise to him, the  Bar Association,  and the Black community, in general, according to the January 24, 1976 GUIDE article.

   Black leaders complained that although a Black lawyer was selected for one of the two judgeships,  their actual wishes were ignored.

    Although the Black community accepted the surprise selection and admitted  Moore’s sound resume, the article suggested some felt  Mason  had the professional and civic pedigree.

          Mason’s father was a prominent real estate broker and insurance man.  His mother, Vivian Carter Mason, born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was a noted social worker, civic leader, and leader of the National Council of Negro Women and served briefly as its director at one time.

          Mason began college at Virginia Union University before transferring to Colby College in Maine and then earning a law degree from Howard University School of Law in 1950.

In  1963, while Moore was still in college,  Mason was appointed by President John F. Kennedy   as the first African American Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

          He had the support of the White political and civic establishment.

          Black leaders noted that the selection of Moore would not cause any “static” in the Black community, according to the GUIDE article.

    “The Black community wants a Black Judge…and we feel Mr. Moore is qualified and we are not going to fight any qualified nominee,” stated George Banks, President of the Norfolk NAACP  and a member of a group supporting Mason.

    Another member of the  Black leadership group, Attorney  J. Hugo Madison,  said, “The selection brought an end to the lily-White judicial system of the city.”

    He added, “But, the way in which the selection was made vividly shows that Black people are still excluded from the decision-making process of the state. Are we once more given a dose of paternalism?”

    W.T. Mason died three years ago, never ascending to the bench.

          Moore still lives quietly  in Hampton Roads. Unfortunately, this reporter despite repeated calls and phone texts and relaying messages via close friends,  was not able to speak to him directly for this  article

        Moore served for 22 years on the bench before retiring in  1997 and never discussed his reaction to this piece of history.