This document summarizes the history of school desegregation in Virginia following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision declaring segregation unconstitutional. It describes how Virginia enacted massive resistance laws to prevent integration, including closing public schools in some areas. In 1959, courts ruled these laws unconstitutional. The document then focuses on Norfolk, Virginia, where 17 African American students integrated 6 schools on February 2, 1959, despite resistance. It includes photos and quotes from students who were part of integrating Norfolk schools. In the end, it lists resources for further information.

1. Aaron Wolfe
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
June 21, 2013

2. Value Tensions:
conflict between two equally desirable goals
Law – Ethics
Common Wealth – Private Wealth
Unity – Diversity
Freedom – Equality

3.  Freedom:
power, rights,
and privileges
enjoyed by an
individual or
group.
 Too much
freedom for some
can threaten
equality for all.
But the quest for
equality can limit
individual
freedoms. How do
we find a balance?
 Equality:
identical
treatment in
society. The
availability of
opportunities
and shared
common wealth
that arise from a
shared sense of
reciprocal duty.

4.  23 April 1951 - Under the leadership of Barbara
Johns, students at the all-black Robert Russa Moton High
School in the town of Farmville in Prince Edward County
walk out of their school to protest the unequal conditions
of their education.
 23 May 1951 - The NAACP files suit to end segregation in
the Prince Edward County schools. The case: Davis, et. al.
v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia
 17 May 1954 – The Supreme Court, in a 9-0 decision in the
case of Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, Kansas, declares segregation in public schools
unconstitutional
 http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/radio/audio/stanley_segregation.mp3
Radio address by Gov. Thomas Stanley, 17 May ,1954

5.  Enactment of state laws eliminating funding—or closing—
integrated public schools, and allowing the state to seize and close
any school that dares to integrate.
 The power to assign students to specific schools is removed from
local school boards and placed in a state-wide board of appointees
who refuse to assign any black child to a previously all-white school.
 Tax credits are also granted to parents who send their children to
segregated private schools.
 When the Court of Appeals overturns the law allowing the state to
close integrated schools, the legislature repeals the state-wide
compulsory school-attendance law. In effect, this means that
counties are no longer required to provide public schools, and they
can choose to close their schools if they wish to do so.
http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis54.htm

6.  http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/civilrightstv/wdbj/segments/WDBJ1_09-high.html

7.  Approximately 10,000 students in Norfolk Public
Schools

8.  Governor J. Lindsay Almond responds to the court
rulings that the Massive resistance laws are
unconstitutional, 20 January 1959
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/radio/audio/Gov_A
lmond_Defiance%28clip%29.mp3

9.  19 January 1959 - Both the Virginia Supreme Court of
Appeals and the United States District Court overturn
the decision of Virginia governor J. Lindsay Almond Jr.
to close schools in Front Royal, Charlottesville, and
Norfolk.
 2 February 1959- Norfolk schools open, with 17
students integrating 6 schools

10. http://www.littlejohnexplorers.com/jeff/brown/imagesfromfilm/lostclassgranby.jpg

11.  "My world and all of our worlds had changed, and it
was through no fault of our own," - Suzanne Shipp
Owens, Granby High School

12.  "That was so hard. We were used to our core friends," I
started first grade with so many of the people I should
have graduated with.“ - Suzanne Baker
Horton, Norview High School

13.  “The actions of that year changed so many lives, not
just the loss of proms, football games, sodas with old
friends at the familiar hangouts, but the scattering of
classmates that took place, trying to find a school to
attend, and for some, disjointedness.” – June West
Austin, Granby HS

14.  Northside Jr. High School
Geraldine Talley Hobby
Maury High School
Louis Cousins
Granby High School
Betty Jean Reed
Blair Jr. High School
Lolita Portis
Reginald Young
 Norview Jr. High School
LaVera Forbes
James Turner Jr.
Patricia Turner
Edward Jordan
Claudia Wellington
Norview High School
Andrew Heidelberg
Alvarez Frederick Gonsouland
Delores Johnson Brown
Johnnie Rouse
Olivia Driver Lindsay
Carol Wellington
Patricia Godbolt

15. The Norfolk 17, the African-American students who broke the color barrier in
Norfolk public schools
http://www.chrysler.org/about-the-museum/historic-houses/special-exhibitions/lessons-of-massive-resistance/

16. http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/special-report-fighting-massive-resistance

17. An Associated Press photograph of Louis Cousins, Maury High School
http://www.chrysler.org/about-the-museum/historic-houses/special-exhibitions/lessons-of-massive-resistance

18. Alveraze Gonsouland sits in class on Feb. 2, 1959, his first day at Norview High
School.
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/back-focus-found-photos-norfolk-17#

19. LaVera Forbes, Claudia Wellington, and Edward Jordan at Norview Jr. High
School, February 2, 1959
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/back-focus-found-photos-norfolk-17

20.  25 May 1964- In Griffin v. County School Board of
Prince Edward County, U.S. Supreme Court
unanimously rules that Prince Edward County
Schools’ decision to close all local, public schools and
provide vouchers to attend private schools were
constitutionally impermissible as violations of the
Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.

21. Virginia Historical Society
Old Dominion University
Library of Virginia
Chrysler Museum (Norfolk, VA)
WHROTV (Norfolk, VA)
Virginian-Pilot

22. Aaron Wolfe
Email: awolfe@cwf.org
Phone: 757-220-7186
Twitter: @historywolfe