On a simmering summer afternoon, more than 60 people packed the basement of the administration building for an emergency meeting of the Norfolk School Board.
Francis Crenshaw, a lawyer, often served as spokesman for his fellow board members and did not shy away from the moment. Reading from a two-page statement, he laid out the dilemma in blunt terms:
“The Norfolk School System is in a precarious predicament. By federal court order, which will be obeyed, we may have to admit colored children to our white schools. If this comes to pass, those schools are closed by state law.”
But Norfolk school officials had their own plan. The board was about to unveil one last effort – a dubious and elaborate testing plan – to keep the schools as segregated as possible.
The School Board announcement that day – July 17, 1958 – was four years in the making. Federal and state forces had been heading for an inevitable collision since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
In June 1958, a federal judge had ordered the board to finally obey the Supreme Court’s mandate: Norfolk could no longer deny Negro students admission to white schools. But Virginia had been digging in its heels, crafting ways to defy the ruling and creating laws to shut any school where the races mixed.
Members of the Norfolk chapter of the Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties, a growing segregationist group, were in the audience for the emergency meeting. So were attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Negro parents wondering if their children would finally get a chance at better schools.
At her home in Norview, Marjorie Turner waited anxiously to hear the outcome. She had been following the news in the papers, and she wouldn’t put anything past the school leaders.
A month before, Turner had filled out applications for two of her children to go to Norview Junior High, the white school only a few blocks from their home. It made perfect sense: Why put her children on a bus to go across town when they could walk to school in 10 minutes?
While her mother awaited word from the emergency session, 13-year-old Patricia Turner was busy trying not to let the summer heat get the best of her; she could hardly care less about a bunch of stuffy adults in a boardroom across town.
Neither could Olivia Driver and Andrew Heidelberg. The three teenagers were busy skinning their knees, climbing trees and playing football in the city’s wooded edges. Before long, they would make history.
Three years earlier, a group of Negro parents had handed the board a petition with 233 names, demanding that it end segregation.
The board instead voted to continue separating students by race for another year, but the petition was a warning shot: The city’s Negro leadership was readying for battle.
Virginia’s NAACP was the largest in the South, more than 27,000 members strong, and the Norfolk chapter always welcomed a good fight. The decade before, a young NAACP attorney had come to town. Thurgood Marshall helped successfully sue the Norfolk School Board for equal pay for its Negro teachers.
Norfolk was one of the
fastest-growing cities in the country, and it had an emerging colored middle class. There was a new college, Virginia State College Norfolk Division , spreading in the Brambleton section. And Hampton Institute across the water produced a steady stream of professionals.
The Norfolk Journal and Guide was one of the most respected publications in the country, and could name among its readers former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Church Street was the avenue for Negro life, teeming with doctors, lawyers and businesses.
The worlds of Negroes and whites did not have to intersect often, which was fine with both sides. But public education was another matter. It was known that Negro schools received the outdated books and equipment discarded by white schools.
In 1956, a year after the parents’ petition, NAACP attorney Victor J. Ashe filed a lawsuit to stop segregation. Within two days, the School Board sent a letter to the governor asking for direction.
At the time, Virginia really belonged to U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr., a staunch segregationist whose reach extended deeply into Norfolk’s boardrooms. Byrd spat at the Supreme Court’s decision, arguing it trampled on states’ rights. The forces of integration, he’d later proclaim, were “working on the theory that if Virginia can be brought to her knees, they can march through the rest of the South singing, 'Hallelujah!’”
He’d vowed time and again that Virginia would lead the fight: “If we can organize the Southern states for massive resistance to this order, I think that in time the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South.”
The movement to fight integration now had a name: Massive Resistance.
Three months after Ashe’s lawsuit, the governor called a special session of the General Assembly. It passed several laws, including rules to thwart the NAACP and to fund only “efficient schools” – meaning ones that were segregated.
Virginia became a role model; five other Southern states soon followed suit.
By February 1957, Walter E. Hoffman, a no-nonsense federal judge, had an answer to the Ashe lawsuit: He ordered Norfolk to desegregate by the fall. School leaders appealed the ruling, successfully holding off any action for another year, but by 1958 they could stall no longer.
Marjorie Turner read the newspaper reports with a grin. She thought Byrd’s actions – and the governor’s and now her city’s – were ridiculous. As a Navy wife, she had lived in the integrated North for a few years before returning to Norfolk.
Turner had grown up in Huntersville , and she knew her hometown’s roots were still Southern. She knew it was stupid that her children could play with whites at the beach at the integrated Navy base but could not sit with them in a class.
Even her daughter, Patricia, who got nervous easily, didn’t see color as she walked among the people at the base. Pat, a tomboy, didn’t pay much attention to grown folks as long as they let her climb trees and read books.
Andrew Heidelberg’s world was much more closed than Pat’s. In the summer of ’58, his family lived in the new cinderblock housing for Negroes in Norview. He was a smart kid – some said too smart for his own good at times – and his few experiences with whites were unpleasant, so he was happy to stay clear of them.
An incident a few years earlier still haunted him. One morning, Andy, his mom and his brothers boarded a bus to downtown. At Lafayette Boulevard and Tidewater Drive, two white girls got on, and the driver told Andy’s family to get up and let the girls sit. It was the custom, so they moved. Andy said nothing, but inside he was fuming: He hated that his mother had to bow to children.
Olivia Driver would sometimes board the bus near Pat’s and Andy’s houses and sit in the front rows. She’d stare at the driver, daring him to tell her to move. He never did. Quiet but feisty, Olivia was an old soul. She revered her grandmother, Margaret Welch, whom she lived with in the Oakwood section of Norview.
When Olivia walked the streets, she did as her grandmother told her and looked everybody in the eye – even when the Southern way was for Negroes to avert their eyes from a white man’s stare. Her grandmother told her that she had nothing to fear because God was on her side and right would always triumph.
In May of ’58, lawyers for the Negro children kept pressing. They returned to court, asking Hoffman to make his desegregation order effective for the fall school term. In June, Hoffman granted the request, ordering the School Board to act promptly.
On June 10, the first Negro applicants showed up at the superintendent’s office to fill out paperwork. By the July 17 board meeting, 137 Negro children had applied to white schools that were closer to their homes; while white children normally went to ones in their neighborhoods, many Negro students traveled miles on city buses for classes.
At the meeting, board members handed out guidelines for a new evaluation program. It would apply only to students transferring from a previously all-Negro school to a white school, or vice versa. Since no whites were asking to attend a Negro school, everyone in the audience knew it applied only to the Negro children.
The board listed 10 criteria that administrators had to consider when considering the applications. Among them:
- The assignment shall not endanger the health or safety of the child or the children already enrolled in the school.
- The assignment shall not interfere with the proper instruction of pupils already enrolled in the school.
- The assignment shall consider the physical and moral fitness of the applicant and their relation to the general health and welfare of the pupils already enrolled in the school.
- The assignment shall take into consideration the expected emotional and social adjustment of the pupil to the school to which he is assigned.
In addition, the children were to take a series of exams – the board didn’t say what kind – and the superintendent would appoint committees to interview the students and their parents or guardians. The board would review the test results, school records and interview transcripts, then vote on each child.
The process would begin in less than two weeks.
When Marjorie Turner found out about the process, she wasn’t happy. Her oldest two kids were reading and writing before they started school; she knew they’d pass the tests. But the idea of screening – of weeding out the unwanted – disturbed her.
Still, Turner told Pat and her 11 -year-old brother, James, the last thing they wanted to hear on a sweltering July day: Babies, we’re going downtown to take some tests.
Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com
TOMORROW: Jumping through hoops – Young Negro students applying to attend the white schools in Norfolk face interviews.
A NOTE TO READERS: Since most of this series covers events of the 1950s and ’60s, we chose to use the language of the time, such as “Negro” and “colored.”
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alex b,
Having lived through this period & experienced 1st hand, the tribulations of early school integration, in Norfolk, I can assure you, that my parents & all Black parents I knew, didn't believe their children had to sit next to Black kids to score better on test, etc. They wanted us in "White schools" because, too often, Black schools lacked equality in facilities, materials, etc. Actually, we, at that time, had education's importance drilled into us, by parents, neighbors & educators, who were often our neighbors also. Most of us were taught we had to be 10 times better, to get the same job, grade, whatever. Many of the problems with our education systems today don't arise out of integration, in & of itself but in the way it has been done, not only in schools but in life in general.
Sometimes I think
The local mental hospitals allow the inmates to post comments as therapy.
Pilot engaging in Electioneering? NAAAAAHHH!!!! LOL!
What an interesting series of articles we have here! And the timing of their release couldnt have been any more on target. What better opportunity to knock the whites over their heads (again!) with some dredged up hurtful wrongdoings of the past. This being the VP, no surprise as to their left wing agenda. Personally, I think the idea that black students can magically achieve higher scores, only if they are sitting next to white students, is an obnoxious affront to blacks. The core ability for a child to learn, rests with his/her parents. Government is not, and never will be, an appropriate substitute for proper parenting, no matter what color you are. Maybe we can focus on controlling the soaring gang crime in our schools today, and a violent culture that promotes it. For a start, how about enforcing mandatory school uniforms to eliminate gang apparel, installing more cameras, metal dete
people who say this "area" has issues
Per Wikipedia : "At the time of the 2000 Census, 54.8 percent of African Americans lived in the South. In that year, 17.6 percent of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7 percent in the Midwest, while only 8.9 percent lived in the western states."
Big surprise, the area called out as "racist" (the south) is the only area that's even remotely integrated. Oh sure, some large metro areas are integrated in the northeast (NYC, Chicago, Philly) but let's be real here. Those readers who claim to be running from this place and it’s racism to go back to somewhere “normal” are really just fleeing from a location that is actually integrated. If you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk. The better question is why do we even listen to the comments of individuals from say, California and it’s 6.2% African American population (per wiki)? This is the real integrated America, you're l
WAKE UP!!!
As long as Congress is still voting to this day to allow blacks the right to vote, then we STILL have a racial problem in our society. Can someone please tell me why a bill to allow blacks the right to vote is still on the books??? As for those who feel that it's HISTORY and blacks need to get over it, I pray that one day you wake up looking like me and see how it feels to STILL in 2008 work ten times harder than you to get a slice of the "American Dream". Wake up!!!!! The problem is, there are many racists that still exist and it's not to categorize all whites because all whites aren't racist, but for those who feel blacks should get over it......you show a sign that YOU may have a little racism in your heart. I sympathize with the Jewish community and I would never tell them to get over it!!!!! I'll pray for you!
To T Rod
I'm voting for Obama because I am A democrat and he is one. There was a black republican running for attorney general I did not vote for him. I voted for Gov. Linwood Holton, who is a republican when he ran for the senate. So I vote for those whose ideas are close to mine.
Why recalling this history is important at ANY time
Because, to quote philosopher George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Racism was shameful, and continues to be among the many who practice it. The difference now is that it's not only African Americans who are on the receiving end. People with little minds have always been insecure around people who didn't look like them. Unfortunately, there seems to be no shortage of people with small minds.
And Sir Joe, as a matter of fact there ARE still lots of Southerners complaining about "the war of Northern aggression."
norfolk public schools integration
This is a sad part of our local history, but it is the truth and after all..."The truth shall set you free". One thing that seems to be neglected here is that Norfolk Public Schools closing because of those who opposed integration hurt all involved, white and black alike. My parents, both white (to clarify, although I dislike racial terminology), were both raised in Norview and when the schools closed it forced them out of school. My mother was able to attend school at the local church, where her public school teacher continued to teach, but my father never completed school and instead enlisted in the army. I do not mean to in anyway trivialize the plight of minorities at the time, but just want to point out what ethnocentrism does to even those that it claims to be defending.
An Apology
is something I've never asked for either. I personally lived through those days. My parents & grandparents endured even worse times. Times aren't perfect, even now. Some Native American Nations have received reparations, as have some descendants of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This doesn't mean I want reparations. I'm only stating facts. I, after integration in the late '50s, had to endure the teaching of "His Story", not History, because that's what was taught in predominately White schools. No one today, should have a problem with history, real, inclusive of all groups, history, being taught. The article only told the facts of that time. We must acknowledge our true past, to enable us to enter a brighter future, as a united country of diversity that acts in the best interest of our nation.
Ashamed?
I'm black. I went to a predominantly white elementary, middle, and high school and went to a college where black people made up only 9% of the population (which, unfortunately, is considered a lot). But I know many black people-like my entire family and many of my friends and co-workers, and none of us have ever asked for an apology. In fact, we wouldn't even know who to ask. Those of us who support Obama do so because he addresses the concerns of the middle class and issues (education, healthcare, etc.) that will either directly or indirecly impact our lives-his color is extremely arbitrary. No one is asking for an apology, but that doesn't mean we want our history silenced. We learn about the Holocaust not because Jews are asking for reparations, but because it is a part of history. The story this article addresses is a part of our history.
Ashamed
I was born here in Portsmouth, but did not live here until my adult life. I grew up in the Southwest, where color never seems to be brought to light. Our community had people of all races, and again, someone's color was never out front as it is here.
We all know what happened in the 50's and 60's and some of the 70's, was a shameful time in history. But...it's the past. Many of the schools here in Norfolk are still racially unbalanced, but now it's quite the opposite of what it was in the 50's. So, why is this still being brought forward into the news? Because there is an election?? Because there is an African American running for Presidnet?? My great grandfather walked the Trail of Tears. He never asked for an apology, no retribution, nothing. He made the best of his life and lived to be a happy old man. The Native Americans suffered horribly, as did the Jewish, and many of the immigrants that came to Ellis Island.
The Navy brought my family here, and I thought it was kind of cool to live where I was born, but honestly, I can't wait till retirement so we can leave.
True Ignorance
Many of these comments represent the true ignorance of their authors. The past has always and will continue to influence the present and future. If a mother loses her child in a car accident, do you think she says years later "well, that was in the past. Let's just forget about it"? It's the comments on this board that reinforce the strength and endurance of many African Americans who have managed to emerge as successful, contributing citizens in a society that privileges white culture above all else. We are educators, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and it's time that many of you stop complaining about our presence and learn to accept our success, a success achieved despite your negativity, ignorance, and intolerance.
If you embrace us the same way we were forced to assimilate, perhaps hearing about us wouldn't be so disturbing to you.
Refusal to Integrate
Prince Edward County Schools made history during this time for keeping its public schools closed longer than any others in the Nation. A private school, Price Edward Academy, enrolled white students from families with the means to pay tuition. Not only were black children denied an education, the children from poorer white families were as well. What began as racial discrimination became socioeconomic in the end. By the time public schools reopened most overage children didn't return to school, leaving an entire generation unable to read/write.
I graduated from Longwood College in Farmville, Va. - the county seat - in the early 90's, and the effects of school closure were still clearly evident in the high number of illiterate adults. The schools were struggling with children whose parent couldn't read notices or info sent from school, help with homework, or read books to them.
Longwood was involved in adult literacy programs and helped parents assist their children with homework. These experiences opened my eyes so much more than anything I read about the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle to desegregate schools.
Thank you, Va. Pilot, for recognizing the anniversary o
OF COURSE!
I did not say "of course", so please do not plant that on me. I cited a fact and not some thought on how I feel soemthing should be. Again, blinded by your preconceived notions. Anyway take a look at the video.
"Let me ask you all this one
"Let me ask you all this one question. Then you try to explain the answer to me. What is the one reason 95 % of the black population is voting for Obama."
Obviously they know something you don't. What does that tell you???
Davidm22987
You siad "Of course most blacks vote for Democrats. Republicans want them to go get a job while Democrats want to pay them just to sit at home and vote for them every 4 years."
Since you made that comment, I'm sure you have the proof to back it up. Please share it with us.
busing
I was a student in Charlotte when they atarted busing in earnest.
What a stupid idea, and a wasteful idea. I now had to get up at 5:30 in the morning, to catch a bus at 6:40 to ride all the way to the other side of town for elementary school, a 7
Does anyone here want to consider how many millions of gallons of fuel have been wasted just for this idea.
I think all students should go to schools that are closest to them. Anything else is inane. If they WANT to go to other schools, go ahead, but the parents should be responsible for the transportation. Additionally, I think this whole article is silly.
All that is being done is to stir up old tensions. WHY? To keep people mad at each other? T stir up racial tensions? Obama is a silly fool who makes McCain look good.. There, I've said it. Quite frankly Bugs Bunny would be a better candidate.
School should be about learning, and newspaper articles should be about thi
to "left wondering"
The difference between this area (as well as some other parts of the South) and the rest of the country is that racism is closer to the surface. I once had a coworker from Detroit who often bragged about her segregated neighborhood. I went to a supposedly sophisticated college near Philadelphia in the early '70's that had four black students who were virtual outcasts. The same people who lectured me about being inferior goods because I was a southerner wouldn't be caught dead sitting a a table with a black person. These are just a couple of examples of the kind of hypocrisy rampant in the US.
Quit acting like the south has a monopoly on racism. It's always easier to pretend like your community isn't infected with this problem when the minority people are all living on one side of town, or if there aren't many in the first place. There's enough racism to go around that you don't need to point fingers at other communities.
Norfolk schools still segregated?
The previous comment about Norfolk schools still being segregated was mine. It's an easy fact to research. In an attempt to desgregate, the Norfolk school system only bussed children from 1972-1986 (middle schools continued to bus until 2001). That means that elementary schools have not bussed in more than 20 years. If minority children, in their neighborhood schools, recieved equal education opportunities this probably wouldn't be an issue. Another easy to research fact is that schools that are primarily minority are not afforded the same resources that other schools are afforded.
LIKE I SAID
This was the wrong article at the wrong time.
The comment about Blacks not working will be dismissed on face value. Just look around and please do your homework on what race of people receives most public assistance, even by percentage, it's not blacks.
It's available on line from your GOVT. I'm not going to tell you where because I want you to research soemthing on your own for once.
Back to the original point which was ignored, what about JM would make a person want to leap to the other side...absolutely nothing and my fellow party members know it...Enter Sarah Palin.
After her response to the bailout question...OMG!!!
It's 2008---Let's Finally Get This Straight in Norfolk
To the person who posted, "You need to get your facts straight. They weren't up until this year..." You obviously need to do more research before making such bold proclamations. Cross-town busing for elementary schools in Norfolk ended in 1986; I know this for a fact because I was a Norfolk Public Schools student during this time and watched racially diverse schools instantly become re-segregated. If you think that the schools aren't segregated, go to the Norfolk Public Schools website and look up the racial demographics for the schools. There are MANY schools in Norfolk that ARE in fact racially segregated. And I find it disgraceful that there are still citizens in Norfolk that do not find this to be apalling; solutions such as, "move to a new neighborhood", are not only ignorant, but unlikely. And I am certain that it can be documented that behavior problems have increased significant
Stir it up Va. Pilot...
Let's go back 50 plus years....... like it matters! Obama will be voted in because a segment of society will always look for handouts! The liberal peanut man carter started it and clinton sealed the deal... wake up America..........
Oh....
and those of you who say "can't we just forget about it and move on!" simply prove my point.
Sure we can move on, but are you willing to forget every other ugly part of our american history or just the parts thet you really REALLY don't like?
To the person that said Norfolk schools are still segregated
You need to get your facts straight. They weren't up until this year, because the communities were tired of the long bus rides their kids had to make to go to another school, they asked for and received neighborhood schools. So if you believe they are still segregated, talk to the citizens about moving to new neighborhoods, since this is what the people asked for.
fast500
Of course most blacks vote for Democrats. Republicans want them to go get a job while Democrats want to pay them just to sit at home and vote for them every 4 years.
Guam?
Im not saying we owe any kind of reparations, no matter how hard you look for it in my post you will not find it. What I am saying is that it is appropriate to run that story right now because a black man is running for president. While others are screaming "it shouldn't be about politics!" I am saying why not? Race relations have always been political, just read the article. Why not point that out now when it is at its most appropriate.
All of a sudden the Pilot (well not so suddenly) is a liberal media trash rag because it runs an article about an important albeit ugly part of our history. Its criticized for running the article now, but not one post here makes a good case for why it should NOT run now. Its an article about the black struggle then, and look how far that struggle has come.........quite possibly the NEXT POTUS!
By all means GUAM you read into it what you will, but something tells me you were look
I will not call you or any other man "sir"
I am white, and I don't care what color you are, but one could guess white. There is not a man out there that I will call sir, and I find it interesting you use it in you blog name, that actually tells me a lot.
I grew up during those days, and while we did not have the problem in York County, I do recall the news and the newspaper articles. Honestly I don't know why we didn't have a segregation issue, because when I graduated in 1962 there was not a person of color in my HS. Maybe I need to do some research for myself, because there were blacks, not all that far from where I lived, but I don't know where they went to school. A lot to ponder!
The entire race issue in Norfolk has made me sick over the years, as I've learned just how backwards both Norfolk and the Commonwealth were during those times.
Teaching history
Teaching history is great but, EVERYONE needs to get off of their high horses! E.L. seems to think that as white people we need to be constantly reminded of what our ancestors may or may not have done to the black people. E.L. seems to think that we need to continuously pay for what they have done. Have black people been the "vicitims" and perfect all throughout history? What about black people paying for what their ancestors did? What I am trying to say is it is just that, history. Learn history and learn from history but, don't try to make this generation pay for that generation. Move forward, stop breeding hatred and moving backwards.
Dear Sir Joe & Others
with similar feelings. I feel sorry for you. You obviously were taught "His Story", not "History". The south wasn't invaded. It seceded from the United States & declared itself a separate nation. Southern troops were the first to shoot, at Ft. Sumter. Segregation existed throughout America, for much of it's history. That doesn't excuse Va. Why do some of you have a problem with truth. The Pilot writes a factual article on a part of local history; causing some of you to cancel your subscriptions. Really revealing of your character. I lived through those times. I saw the legislature create Va. Beach & Chesapeake, to continue segregation of public schools, after Norfolk complied with the law. It's statistical fact, that White women benefited from affirmative action programs more than any other group. To the person hiding behind dress codes, I never saw true misbehavior 'til I saw White students interact with teachers, especially Black ones.
Memories of a 14 year old
I was scheduled to enter the 9th grade at Granby in Sept 1958 when the city high schools were to be desegregated. Being a 14 year old I was not really aware of all the infighting with federal, state and local officials. I just knew that I wanted to attend the best high school in the city and was very disappointed when the doors were padlocked until February 1959.