About

Brent Tarter is a retired research historian and senior editor at the Library of Virginia. He was one of the founders of the Library's Dictionary of Virginia Biography project, a co-founder of the Virginia Forum, the annual Virginia history conference, and one of the consultants for Liberty or Death, the educational video St. John's Church and what was then WCVE produced in 2007.
He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 18 volumes on various topics in Virginia history as well as numerous articles in scholarly and popular historical journals. His most recent books include The Grandees of Government: The Origins and Persistence of Undemocratic Politics in Virginia (2013); Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia (2019); Virginians and Their Histories (2020); Constitutional History of Virginia (2023); with Marianne E. Julienne and Barbara C. Batson, The Campaign for Woman Suffrage in Virginia (2020); and coming in the spring of 2024, with John G. Deal and Marianne E. Julienne, Justice for Ourselves: Black Virginians Claim Their Freedom after Slavery.