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Interview with Almond About Four Years As Governor
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)

Outgoing governor J. Lindsay Almond, Jr. said the sales tax issue will be a big challenge facing the incoming administration. To support his statement, Almond quoted a Ways and Means committee report that suggested "Virginia will and must come to the general sales tax as a method of financing public services." When asked to name his greatest personal achievement and his worst political blunder, Almond identified public education as the arena for both. Almond considered his top personal achievement the improvement of higher education during his tenure as governor. At same time, Almond admitted that his biggest failure was his handling of the school integration issue at the elementary and secondary level; and his calling a Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals decision about integration a "cesspool of iniquity." But Almond found consolation for his former opinion by way of his decision to swing Virginia away from massive resistance. Although this decision cost him support of close friends and companions, Almond believed it was the right thing to do. When asked by Murray if Arkansas governor Orval Faubus sought moral support from him during the school integration crisis in Little Rock, Almond said Faubus had not.
About the film
  • Date: 1962
  • Sound: Yes
  • Duration: unknown
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