Secondary Education in the Tidewater Region
COUNTIES IN WHICH DESEGREGATION IS IN EFFECT, SPRING, 1960
ACTUAL ENROLLMENT AS OF MARCH 30, 1963 AND ESTIMAMTED ENROLLMENT FOR THE SCHOOL YEARS 1964-1965 AND 1967-68
End School Segregation Now! Communist Flyer
The map shows the counties with desegregation in effect as of spring 1960. The states with the most counties integrated with actual black pupils in schools or non-discriminatory acceptance were Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. States with one or more counties integrated included Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina had no integrated counties. In Virginia, Warren County and Floyd County had official policies of integration, along with the independent cities of Charlottesville, Norfolk, Alexandria, and Arlington County. While integration may have been federal policy, for years after the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision many states and school systems resisted integration. For example, while Charlottesville, Norfolk, Warren County, and Arlington County may have been federally ordered to integrate in 1958, local and state officials resisted. Most of Virginia participated in Massive Resistance for many years, spearheaded by Senator Harry Byrd. In 1959 Prince Edward County closed their schools for five years, and several school districts such as Charlottesville and Warren County were closed for shorter periods. Additional resource: Information Obtained from a review of The Crisis of Conservative Virginia: The Byrd Organization and the Politics of Massive Resistance by James W. Ely, Jr by Bruce A. Glasrud and the Encyclopedia of Virginia.
The 1963 enrollment report from the Stella Neiman papers (a Williamsburg City Council member and Williamsburg-James City County Schools Board member) showed the current and projected enrollment of white and black students from grades 1-12 in Williamsburg. The categorization of White and Negro schools demonstrates that even nine years after the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling, public schools in Williamsburg remained officially segregated. This report includes a discussion about building new schools. The impact of segregation can be seen in that white students had three schools while black students only had two. This report shows that a new high school for black students would be built, whereas before all grade levels were taught in the Bruton Heights School. While definitely representing a form of progress for the black community, this act also represents an attempt to maintain segregation. In response to national desegregation policies, a few black students from the Bruton Heights School were enrolled at the white James Blair high school in 1965. However, rather than fully integrating the high school, the all-black Berkeley High School was built for the remaining students. Furthermore, funds and resources were directed more towards the white schools. For example, the report says that “the most workable arrangement would be to secure funds to make an addition to James Blair.” Rather than allocating funds to expand the black schools, preexisting facilities were reused, and the Berkeley high school even had its capacity reduced from 675 to 600 students. Additional Information obtained from “A History of Black Education and Bruton Heights School, Williamsburg, Virginia” by Linda H. Rowe
Less than a month after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was announced in May 1954, this flyer was published and circulated by the Communist Party of Norfolk. On this flyer, the Communist Party endorses desegregation on the grounds that it is supported by millions of black and white Americans and that it would decrease the costs of supporting “dual facilities.” The Communist Party of Norfolk admonishes “artificial barriers” created by legislators working to protect “the interests of the wealthy few.” In a progressive stance, the flyer encourages civic participation in support of desegregation policies. It also makes several jabs at the power and influence exercised by the “Byrd machine and its local underlings,” a pro-segregation political faction led by US Senator Harry F. Byrd. The flyer has a politically-motivated message that highlights a multi-racial movement to embrace racial desegregation and the Brown vs. Board ruling during the era of massive resistance. Although traditionally focused on socioeconomic division and oppression, here the Communist Party of Norfolk aligns itself with local black communities in the struggle for access to equal education by voicing the injustice of racial oppression.