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Democratic that it tried to secede from Virginia when the state went Republican in 1928.”
Instead, the women believed the council maintained a “do-nothing” posture.
The Post, in what today might be considered a sexist remark, interpreted that posture of the male council as “just inefficient housekeeping, and housekeeping was something they knew all about.”
The unresponsive, all-male council that was ousted drew sharp criticism from Judge Miller, who was caused to pronounce that a “bunch of women could run this town as well.”
His quip rang a bell inside the judge’s head and he proceeded to recruit women for the campaign.
But there was one hitch: The woman slated to run for mayor was discovered to have failed to pay her poll tax and was therefore declared ineligible. That was two days before the election, according to a 1971 recap in the New York Times.
Mrs. Davis agreed to run and spent the two days of her campaign knocking on doors. The tactic worked. Ninety-eight ballots were cast for mayor; at the time, the town listed 122 registered voters.
“It was sort of a lark, really,” Mrs. Davis said from her home this week. “Everybody was sort of caught up in this joke.” Mrs. Davis served 10 terms. “I was the one that the joke was on,” she said with a laugh.
Twenty-two years later, in 1972, the town had the same mayor, who told the Washington Evening Star that she would not seek reelection to
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