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2000 SESSION


SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 60
On the death of Dr. Maynard Herman Law.

Agreed to by the Senate, January 27, 2000
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 4, 2000

WHEREAS, Dr. Maynard Herman Law, a prominent Roanoke physician and an early civil rights leader in the Roanoke Valley, died on May 20, 1999; and

WHEREAS, a native of Roanoke, Maynard Law was educated in the Roanoke City public schools, graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and earned his medical degree from Howard University Medical School in Washington, D.C.; and

WHEREAS, during his 58 years of medical practice in Roanoke, Dr. Law was in private practice for 43 years, during which he also served as Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff at Burrell Memorial Hospital for several years; and

WHEREAS, in 1978 Dr. Law became a full-time staff physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, from which he retired in 1994; and

WHEREAS, during the early years of the civil rights struggle, Dr. Law was one of six African-American Roanoke citizens who joined a biracial committee determined to desegregate Roanoke businesses while avoiding the protests and violence that plagued other Southern cities during the 1960s; and

WHEREAS, due largely to the efforts of Dr. Law and his compatriots, Roanoke’s lunch counters, department stores, theaters, and other businesses were desegregated peacefully; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Law was an integral part of the group that, in the words of former Roanoke Mayor Noel Taylor, “brought growth, development and progress without confrontation” to the Roanoke Valley; and

WHEREAS, the recipient of many honors and awards for his long service to his profession and his community, Dr. Maynard Herman Law will be long remembered as a skilled and compassionate physician and a champion of civil rights and honest government; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly note with great sadness the passing of one of Roanoke’s finest citizens, Dr. Maynard Herman Law; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Dr. Maynard Herman Law as an expression of the high esteem in which his memory is held by the members of the General Assembly.