Massive resistance
Massive resistance was a political strategy created by American politicians Harry F. Byrd and James M. Thomson[1] aimed at getting Virginia officials to pass laws and policies preventing public school desegregation, particularly after Brown v. Board of Education.
To complete white supremacy, after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), Virginia adopted a new constitution in 1902 effectively disenfranchising African Americans through restrictions on voter registration and also requiring racially segregated schools, among other features.
One of the Byrd Organization's most vocal, though moderate, long-term opponents proved to be Benjamin Muse, who served as a Democratic state senator from Petersburg, Virginia, then unsuccessfully ran for Governor as a Republican in 1941 and became a publisher and Washington Post columnist.
[4] Using legal challenges, by the 1940s, black attorneys who included Thurgood Marshall, Oliver W. Hill, William H. Hastie, Spottswood W. Robinson III and Leon A.
As a result, de jure (legalized) racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby paving the way for desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement.
A little more than a month after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown, on June 26, 1954,[note 1] Senator Byrd vowed to stop integration attempts in Virginia's schools.
By the end of that summer, Governor Thomas B. Stanley, a member of the Byrd Organization, had appointed a Commission on Public Education, consisting of 32 white Democrats and chaired by Virginia Senator Garland "Peck" Gray of rural Sussex County.
On January 11, 1957, U.S. district judge Walter E. Hoffman, in consolidated cases concerning Norfolk's schools,[10] declared the Pupil Placement Act unconstitutional.
In November 1957, Virginians elected Attorney General J. Lindsay Almond, another member of the Byrd Organization, to succeed Stanley as governor.
Warren County (Front Royal) and Charlottesville cobbled together education for their students with the help of churches and philanthropic organizations such as the American Friends Service Committee.
[7] Moderate white parents throughout Virginia that fall formed local committees to Preserve our Schools, as well as conducting letter writing and petition campaigns.
[13] James v. Almond was heard in November 1958, and the three-judge panel of federal district judges gave their decision on January 19, 1959, Virginia's traditional holiday celebrating Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, declaring for the plaintiffs and ordering that the schools be opened.
While the Virginia Supreme Court found that funneling local school funds through the new state agency violated another state constitutional provision, it condemned the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown decision as showing lack of judicial restraint and respect for the sovereign rights of the Commonwealth and allowed the tuition grant program to continue through local authorities.
[16] Shortly thereafter, Edward R. Murrow aired a national TV documentary titled The Lost Class of '59 that highlighted the Norfolk situation.
Nonetheless, Norfolk's government, led by Mayor Duckworth, attempted to prevent the schools' reopening by financial maneuvering, until the same three-judge federal panel found again for the plaintiffs.
However, the American Nazi Party at that time maintained its headquarters in Arlington, and it, with the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties (a segregationist group), disrupted school board meetings and distributed tracts against integration.
Meanwhile, Arlington parents hoped for peaceful desegregation, but believed strongly that northern Virginians should not lead the statewide movement of moderates, but instead jointly resolve their situation with those in Norfolk, Charlottesville and Front Royal.
The special legislative session formed a commission led by Mosby Perrow Jr. of Lynchburg, which issued a report backing acceptance of limited desegregation, leaving the burden on black parents, repealing the compulsory attendance law in favor of a "school choice" program and relying on the Pupil Placement Board to keep desegregation to a minimum.
[34] The county's board refused to appropriate any money to operate the schools, which closed rather than comply with the federal desegregation order effective September 1, 1959.
[35] Finally, in 1963, Prince Edwards' schools were ordered to open, and when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the county's appeal, supervisors gave in rather than risk prison.
In 1986, Prince Edward Academy changed its admission policies and began accepting black students, but few non-whites attend the school.
[39] The Richmond City Public Schools had attempted various schemes to avoid integration, including dual attendance zones and the "Freedom of Choice" Plan.
In 1970, District Court Judge Robert Merhige Jr., ordered a desegregation busing scheme established to integrate Richmond schools.
Massive resistance was formed in response to legislation yet the racist motive behind the movement persisted across the country as displayed by protests against bussing plans.
In 1969, Virginians elected Republican A. Linwood Holton Jr., who had opposed massive resistance and labeled it "the state's pernicious anti-desegregation strategy," as governor.
[14] In 2009, as part of their "American Soil Series", the Virginia Stage Company featured Line in the Sand, a play by Chris Hannah.
[43][44] Several months earlier, the vestry of Johns Memorial Episcopal Church in Farmville, Virginia issued a similar apology during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the school closings.
[47] In 2016 Nansemond Suffolk Academy opened a second campus, that includes an additional 22,000 square foot building for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 3.
In some cases their association with "old money" and past discrimination still cause some tension in the community, especially among non-whites and students of the local public schools.
