End School Segregation Now! Communist Flyer

End School Segregation Now! Communist Flyer

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.

The Communist Party of Norfolk

Swem Special Collections

1954

Anonymous William and Mary students, description
Ari Weinberg, metadata