Stephens, Allie Edward Stokes, 1900-

Allie Edward Stakes Stephens was born in 1900 in Wicomico Church, Virginia, the fourth son of J.W.G. Stephens and Allie Tyson Beane Stephens. He attended public schools in Northumberland County, Virginia, and graduated from Wicomico Church High School in 1918. He graduated from William and Mary with both academic and law degrees, and began practicing law in the Isle of Wight County, Virginia, in 1923. Stephens formally began his political career when he was elected as a Democrat to the House of Delegates in 1929. He served as a Delegate for twelve years. In 1941 Stephens was elected to the Virginia Senate where he served until 1952. After the death of Lieutenant Governor Lewis Preston Collins in 1952, Stephens was elected to the unexpired portion of Collins' term and later, a full four-year term in 1957, where he served in that capacity until his resignation after an unsuccessful candidacy for the Governorship in 1961. Throughout his political career, Stephens remained a member of the Democratic Party and until the late 1950s he aligned himself with the powerful Byrd Organization. Stephens split with the Byrd Machine in 1959 when he withdrew his support from the Organization's policy of Massive Resistance to public school desegregation. Stephens played a critical role in the demise of Massive Resistance. Attorney General Albertis S. Harrison who had the Byrd Organization's support, defeated Stephens in the July primary, and Stephens resigned his position as Lieutenant Governor in late 1961. Stephens did not run for State office again, but remained an influence in Virginia politics until his death in 1973.