Over the course of her long life, Virginia Foster Durr (1903-1999) was a constant presence in Alabama politics and the movement for civil rights. Her life spanned most of the twentieth century, and Virginia Durr had a front-row seat for the New Deal, McCarthyism, and the civil rights movement. She spent years working to abolish the poll tax and to end segregation, and her husband, Clifford, an attorney, was involved with a number of civil rights cases.