After admission to the Virginia bar in 1948 and a brief stint in private practice, Satterfield served as an assistant
United States attorney from 1950–1953. As the state's
Massive Resistance crisis began following the United States Supreme Court decisions in
Brown v. Board of Education and its allied cases (including one from Virginia), Satterfield resigned his federal job and resumed private legal practice. Satterfield then followed his late father's career with the Democratic party and won his first elective office, to the (then-all-at-large)
Richmond City Council, where he served from 1954–1956. Satterfield then won election to the
Virginia House of Delegates, serving from 1960–1964. That was (and remains) a part-time position, and he in a way succeeded fellow Navy veteran and St. Christopher's School alumnus
FitzGerald Bemiss in the then multi-member district. Satterfield ran for Congress in the Richmond-based 3rd District in 1964 after 20-year incumbent
J. Vaughan Gary retired. Satterfield defeated Republican
Richard Obenshain, who would later go on to become state party chairman, by only 654 votes. Obenshain nearly won on the strength of
Barry Goldwater carrying the district; Goldwater won every county-level jurisdiction in the district except for the city of Richmond. This was the second straight contest in which the Republicans nearly ended the long run of Democratic dominance in the district; two years earlier Gary had only survived by 348 votes. The district reverted to form, and Satterfield was reelected seven more times without serious difficulty, despite the collapse of the
Byrd Organization, running unopposed in 1966 and 1972 and only facing an independent in 1976 and 1978. This came even in years when Republican presidential candidates carried the district handily. However, he decided not to seek re-election in 1980, and concentrated on his legal practice in
Washington, D.C.,
Arlington, Virginia, and Richmond, where he continued to reside until his death in 1988. ==Electoral history==