A modest man, Buchanan was known to his associates as the scholar of the court. "Citizens need to know what they can and cannot do under the law," he declared in an interview following his retirement. "The fundamental principles of the law are generally well established," he continued, "and courts should only with great reluctance depart from them or modify them." In 1955 Buchanan wrote the opinion in Naim v. Naim upholding Virginia's ban on interracial marriage as a proper governmental objective and one that had traditionally been open to state regulation. The court reaffirmed its validation of the state ban in 1966, but the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia (1967), declared the state law unconstitutional.
Buchanan lived in Tazewell throughout his life and traveled to Richmond and Staunton for the sessions of the state's high court. He married Olivia McCall on December 18, 1915, and they had one son and one daughter. Buchanan was a Presbyterian teacher and elder, a member of the Tazewell Rotary Club, and a director of the Tazewell National Bank and the Lynn Camp Coal Corporation. He also served on the boards of trustees of Hampden-Sydney College from 1928 to 1969 and of Mary Baldwin College from 1948 to 1962. He retired from the bench in 1969 after forty-two consecutive years as a jurist, and that year the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association honored him with the Virginia Distinguished Service Award. Buchanan died on May 3, 1979, after a long illness and was buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Tazewell.
Time Line
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January 7, 1890 - Archibald C. Buchanan is born in Tazewell County, the son of Augustus B. Buchanan and Nancy E. Chapman Buchanan.
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1906 - Archibald C. Buchanan graduates from Tazewell High School.
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1910 - Archibald C. Buchanan receives a BA from Hampden-Sydney College.
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1914 - Archibald C. Buchanan receives an LLB from Washington and Lee University.
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1915–1927 - Archibald C. Buchanan practices law in Tazewell in the firm of Chapman, Peery, and Buchanan.
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December 18, 1915 - Archibald C. Buchanan marries Olivia McCall. The couple will have one son and one daughter.
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1917–1921 - Archibald C. Buchanan serves as mayor of Tazewell.
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1919–1927 - Archibald C. Buchanan serves as Tazewell County's commissioner of accounts.
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April 8, 1927 - The General Assembly elects Archibald C. Buchanan to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, which consists of Bland, Giles, and Tazewell counties.
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1928–1932 - Archibald C. Buchanan serves on the first Judicial Council of Virginia, which the General Assembly has created to advise it on improving the administration of justice in the courts.
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1928–1969 - Archibald C. Buchanan serves on the board of trustees of Hampden-Sydney College.
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January 19, 1928 - Archibald C. Buchanan is elected to a full term as a circuit judge for the 22nd Judicial Circuit.
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February 6, 1942 - The General Assembly enacts into law the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council's recommendations for revision of the probation and parole system.
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1946 - Preston W. Campbell, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals, notifies Governor William M. Tuck of his intention to retire. Campbell expresses a preference that Archibald C. Buchanan be appointed to fill his seat.
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September 12, 1946 - Governor William M. Tuck appoints Archibald C. Buchanan to fill the seat of Preston W. Campbell, the retiring chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals.
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1948–1962 - Archibald C. Buchanan serves on the board of trustees of Mary Baldwin College.
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June 13, 1955 - In Naim v. Naim, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals grants Ruby Naim, a white woman, an annulment for her marriage to the Chinese-born Han Say Naim on the grounds that the interracial marriage had never been legal in Virginia.
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January 19, 1959 - Both the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court overturn the decision of Governor J. Lindsay Almond Jr. to close schools in Front Royal, Charlottesville, and Norfolk.
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May 25, 1964 - After Prince Edward County's public schools have been closed for the previous five years, the U.S. Supreme Court in Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County rules that the county has violated the students' right to an education and orders the Prince Edward County schools to reopen.
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March 7, 1966 - In Loving v. Virginia, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upholds the state's antimiscegenation laws. The Court also sets aside the original conviction of Richard and Mildred Loving, finding that a sentence requiring the defendants to leave the state is "unreasonable."
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June 12, 1967 - In Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that Virginia's antimiscegenation statutes violate the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment. The decision effectively overturns the bans on interracial marriage in sixteen states.
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1969 - Archibald C. Buchanan retires from the Supreme Court of Appeals.
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May 3, 1979 - Archibald C. Buchanan dies after a long illness. He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery in Tazewell.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Morris, T. R., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Archibald C. Buchanan (1890–1979). (2014, November 4). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Buchanan_Archibald_C_1890-1979.
- MLA Citation:
Morris, Thomas R. and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Archibald C. Buchanan (1890–1979)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 4 Nov. 2014. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: January 31, 2014 | Last modified: November 4, 2014
Contributed by Thomas R. Morris and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.