Correspondence A-W, 1938

Aubrey E. Strode (1861-1969,88 cubic feet) was a Virginia lawyer, state senator and eugenics advocate who drafted the Virginia sterilization law and brought Buck vs. Bell to the Supreme Court. This collection consists of his personal and professional papers concerning his family, law practice, army service, political and legislative activities as a member of the Virginia Senate, the Virginia Democratic Party and the Progressive movement, and as a co-owner of the newspaper, The Amherst Progress. The bulk of the papers consists of the files of the law firms of Strode and Tucker and Strode and Edwards, containing correspondence, court records, trial transcripts, exhibits, estate settlements, debt collections, and various legal documents.

It also includes some speeches, bills, and correspondence with Edwin A. Alderman in the political and legislative papers in series four concerning the proposal to establish a coordinate Woman’s College at the University of Virginia and the budgetary needs of the University of Virginia in the legislature. There are also letters in the family correspondence from his cousin, Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton (1876-1968), an American physician and surgeon, concerning her trips abroad and her autobiographical books.

There are three files in this collection entirely concerned with Strode’s role in eugenics and sterilization in Virginia and they are: Carrie Buck v. Dr. J.H. Bell, 1925 June 1 (Box 9); State Colony for Epileptics and the Feeble-Minded, 1908, 1920-1922 (Box 42); and Sterilization and Eugenics, 1924-1947 (Box 159). Much of the other material is scattered among his legal practice alphabetical correspondence files, under the last name of correspondents such as William F. Drewry, superintendent of Central State Hospital; Dr. Albert Priddy, first superintendent of the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded; his successor, Dr. John H. Bell; and Dr. J.S. DeJarnette, superintendent of Western State Hospital or chronologically in the political and legislative series.

Other topics with significant material in these papers include: the American Legion; The Amherst Progress (for additional information about the newspaper and the partnership with Tucker, see Strode’s incoming legal practice correspondence files under “T” containing letters from Stickly Tucker and Strode’s outgoing legal practice correspondence files under “S”); Judge Advocate General material; Kenmore High School, Amherst County, Virginia; the Lynchburg Jail; Marshal Lodge Memorial Hospital, where Strode served on the Board of Directors; and political and legislative material.