John S. Battle

John Stewart Battle (July 11, 1890 – April 9, 1972) was an American politician and the 56th Governor of Virginia from 1950 to 1954.

Biography

Battle was born in 1890 in New Bern, Craven County, North Carolina. He earned an associate's degree from Mars Hill College (then a junior college), in North Carolina. He then earned a bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University (then college) and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Battle was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1929, and to the Virginia State Senate in 1934, where he served until 1949, when he resigned upon his election as governor.

Battle was a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, and 1968. In 1956, he was a candidate for the Presidential nomination, eventually losing in floor voting to former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. When the Virginia delegation was threatened with expulsion at the 1952 Democratic Party national convention for refusing to sign a loyalty oath to whomever the party nominated, Battle delivered a speech to the convention that forestalled expulsion and helped prevent a split like the Democrats experienced in 1948.