| Howard Hearnes Carwile | |
| State Delegate: | Virginia |
| District: | 35th |
| Term Start: | January 9, 1974 |
| Term End: | January 14, 1976 |
| Predecessor: | William Ferguson Reid |
| Successor: | Gerald Baliles |
| Birth Date: | 14 November 1911 |
| Birth Place: | Charlotte County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Richmond, Virginia, U.S. |
| Spouse: | Violet Talley |
| Alma Mater: | Alma White College Southeastern University |
| Party: | Independent |
Howard Hearnes Carwile (November 14, 1911 – June 6, 1987) was an American lawyer and politician.
Howard Carwile was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, to parents Willis Early Carwile(May 6, 1873 – May 10, 1950) and Allie Taylor (July 2, 1887 – November 23, 1968); they were tenant tobacco farmers. Howard was one of 13 children. His great-great-grandfather Jacob Carwile, served as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War.
In 1948, he married Violet Virginia Talley (January 28, 1918 – October 21, 1994), daughter of John C. Talley (May 8, 1882 – ?) and Virginia Magnetta Cullingsworth (March 27, 1895 – Feb. 1986), and a divorced beautician.[1] Howard and Violet had one son, Howard H. Carwile, Jr., and one grandchild, Taylor Lane Carwile. Both Howard and Violet died in Richmond, Virginia.
Howard Carwile was known as a fiery, passionate trial attorney in Richmond, Virginia. He opposed the Byrd Organization in his early years, a machine of Conservative Democrats led by Harry Flood Byrd which dominated Virginia's politics from the 1920s until the mid-1960s.
Carwile represented many black clients as a trial lawyer in the 1940s through 1960s in Richmond. He was an ever-vigilant watchdog over the Richmond Police Department and champion for reform of Virginia's prisons and a general political gadfly. He was known for his colorful rhetoric in public, such as calling a city-hall boondoggle he disliked a "horrendous heap of hokum" and his campaign style, including an automobile completely covered in Carwile bumper-stickers. Richmonders appreciated his verbal theatrics, and in the 1970s it was not uncommon to hear someone say he or she was "shocked and appalled", a frequent Carwile exclamation. His case against Richmond Newspapers concerning an editorial by the Richmond Times-Dispatch reached the Virginia Supreme Court in 1954 and was decided in his favor.[2] A collection of his papers is housed in the Special Collections and Archives section of the library of Virginia Commonwealth University.
Richmond voters elected Carwile to the city council in 1966 and re-elected him several times. In 1973, voters in Richmond and Henrico County elected Carwile as their representative (part-time) in the Virginia House of Delegates,[3] so he resigned his municipal position, but only served a single term. His successor, fellow Virginia lawyer Gerald L. Baliles would later become Governor of Virginia, a post which decades earlier had eluded Carwile.
Served on Virginia House committees: