Virginia Voters League

The Virginia Voters League, founded in 1941 and headquartered in this neighborhood of Petersburg, was a federation of local organizations that advocated for African American voters. Professor Luther P. Jackson (of what is now Virginia State University), together with attorneys Robert H. Cooley Jr. and Raymond J. Valentine and educator James P. Spencer, organized the League, which allied itself with the NAACP and other civil rights organizations. The group educated its constituents about the rights of citizenship, promoted poll-tax payment and voter registration, and assuaged new voters' anxieties, leading to an increase in voter participation among African Americans.