Virginia Readmitted to Union
After the Civil War, Virginia approved a new state constitution providing for free public schools for all citizens.
Timeline
1870
1896
Plessy v. Ferguson
U. S. Supreme Court approved “separate” facilities for public transportation so long as it was “equal.” This decision was the authority for “separate but equal” public schools for 58 years.
1901
A new Constitution of Virginia protected laws requiring segregation of schools.
“White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school.” Section 140, the Constitution of the State of Virginia, adopted by the Convention of 1901-2.
1905
Niagara Movement
W. E. B. Du Bois, along with other activists, founded the Niagara Movement. The civil rights organization engaged in activism against disenfranchisement and segregation laws for the next five years, when many remaining members joined Du Bois in the newly formed NAACP.
1908
Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson became the first Black heavyweight boxing champion. In 1912, he was arrested for Mann Act violations for his consensual relationships with white women, including his soon-to-be-wife, and convicted by an all-white jury.
1909
NAACP
W. E. B. Du Bois and other activists founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
1930
Charles Hamilton Houston
Attorney Charles Hamilton Houston and the NAACP developed a strategy for gradual desegregation of schools. Houston participated in nearly every civil rights case that reached the Supreme Court until his death in 1950.
1938
Gaines v. Missouri
The U. S. Supreme Court in Gaines v. Missouri held that if a state furnished higher education to white residents it was bound to furnish substantially equal opportunities to Negro residents, though not necessarily in the same schools.
1942
Congress of Racial Equality
James Farmer and Bayard Rustin, among others, founded CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in Chicago. CORE pioneered the use of nonviolent sit-ins and other forms of civil disobedience to challenge segregation.
1947
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson was signed to a contract by the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. He was the first Black major league baseball player since the late 1800s, when major league teams began enforcing segregation.
1948
Shelley v. Kraemer
The United States Supreme Court in Shelley v. Kraemer declared racially restrictive covenants in residential deeds unenforceable.
1951
Walkout in Farmville
April 23, 1951
African American teenagers in Farmville (Prince Edward County) Virginia staged a walkout to protest inequality in their school. They engaged NAACP lawyer Oliver Hill to represent them.
1952
Oliver Hill challenges Virginia
March 7, 1952
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided the case adversely to the Farmville students and stated that the Virginia constitution did not violate the federal constitution. Oliver Hill appealed the case to the U. S. Supreme Court.
1953
Moton High School
September, 1953
Prince Edward County opened a new school for Black students, Moton High School, paid for out of Prince Edward County and Commonwealth of Virginia budgets.
1954
Brown vs. Board of Education
May 17, 1954
The Davis case brought by Oliver Hill on behalf of Prince Edward County students was consolidated with several similar suits from around the country, styled Brown vs. Board of Education. The U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregation solely by race of white and Negro children in public schools was unconstitutional.
United Front Against Desegregation
June 1954
Southern Governors at their annual conference agreed to present a united front in their fight against desegregation.
1955
“All Deliberate Speed”
May 31, 1955
The U. S. Supreme Court revisited the Brown case and ruled that school systems will have to take responsibility for finding the best way to “transition to a system of public education freed of racial discrimination.” It directed authorities to proceed “with all deliberate speed.”
Rosa Parks
December 1955
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, AL, for refusing to move from her seat after the bus driver moved the "Colored Section" sign to make more seating room for white passengers. This incident sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and popularized economically based resistance to segregation laws.
1956
Harry Flood Byrd issues his call for “massive resistance”
February 24, 1956
U. S. Senator (and former governor of Virginia) Harry Flood Byrd called for “massive resistance” to the orders of the U. S. Supreme Court to desegregate.
Fight against desegregation
Spring 1956
Virginia Conservatives demanded that the General Assembly enact laws to forbid desegregation in public schools. Mills Godwin said “integration, however slight, anywhere in Virginia would be a cancer eating at the very life blood of our public school system.”
Outlawing Desegregation
August 27, 1956
Governor Thomas Stanley called a special session of the General Assembly to outlaw desegregation in public schools.
Read More
The enacted 13-law package provided, among other things, to cut off state support for any school district that desegregated but would award tuition grants to families that sent students to private schools.
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Courts Reach Charlottesville
December 31, 1956
The federal appeals court affirmed a decision to prohibit the Superintendent of Schools in Charlottesville from any actions that affect enrollment based on race in any city schools.
1958
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Forced Desegregation
May 10, 1958
United States District Judge John Paul decreed that several Black students would be admitted to Lane and Venable. Once the day of desegregation arrived, the Governor ordered the closing of both schools.
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Closing of Venable and Lane
September 22, 1958
The closure of Venable and Lane left approximately 1,700 White students locked out of classrooms. Other elementary schools were not affected by the order and Black students could still attend the all-Black Burley High School.
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Temporary and Permanent Schools
1958
Educators came forward to respond to the need for classrooms and teachers. The Charlottesville Education Foundation began work on an entirely new and permanent school for White students; the Parents Committee for Emergency Schooling, in contrast, began a temporary school offering classes only until the crisis in public education devolved. Both groups provided classes beginning in September 1958.
1959
End of Massive Resistance
January 19, 1959
On January 19, 1959, two courts (the Virginia Supreme Court and a United States District Court) declared critical portions of the Virginia Massive Resistance laws unconstitutional, substantially ending Massive Resistance.
Read More
See Harrison v. Day, 200 Va.439, (January 19, 1959,) and see James v. Almond, D.C. E.D. Va., 170 F. Supp. 331 (-0-).
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Operation of Schools handed back to Charlottesville School Board
January 30, 1959
Judge Paul was asked to determine whether the city had planned “to effect expeditious and complete compliance with the decree of the District Court.” This decree effectively returned the operation of Venable and Lane away from the Governor and handed it back to Charlottesville School Board.
1961
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Desegregation plans “not objectional on constitutional grounds”
April 14, 1961
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that though the plan to desegregate Charlottesville and Alexandria was “not objectional on constitutional grounds”, there were issues with how the plan was being administered.
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Ban on School Dance
October 1961
Superintendent of Schools Fendall R. Ellis banned school dances after he learned that four African-American couples planned to attend Lane High School's annual homecoming dance.
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Lane High School students initially appealed the decision but retracted their petition soon afterward and held a private homecoming a week later.
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Pupil Assignment
December 18, 1961
The Federal District Court ruled that students were assigned to the district in which the student lived but permitted the student to seek a transfer in certain situations.
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See Allen v. Charlottesville, 203 F. Supp. 225 (1961).
1962
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Cutoff Policy on Social and Athletic Events
July 12, 1962
The Albemarle County School Board passed a resolution, detailing a “cutoff policy on social and athletic activity in event of integration of any county school.”
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Dillard v. Charlottesville
September 17, 1962
Pupil Assignment continued to be debated as the plan required Black students who wanted to transfer to take aptitude tests and the Court found that requirement to be unconstitutional.
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See Dillard v. Charlottesville, 308 F.2d 920 (1962).
1963
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New School Superintendent
1963
A new school superintendent, George Tramontin, replaced Fendall R. Ellis, who had resisted integration in Charlottesville schools.
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“Race Mixing” Allowed
January 1963
The Charlottesville School Board overturned its policy to avoid “race mixing.” Lane High School, which at this point counted about 30 African American students, was allowed to resume school dances.
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Protests against Athletic and Social Activities
June 13, 1963
Members of the Board of County Supervisors and general public protested against the Albemarle County School Board’s resolution on athletic and social activities.
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“The Board of Supervisors agrees with the school board that such activities as dances and parties should be eliminated as school-sponsored; however, ‘the Board of Supervisors feels that the athletic program and some of the other activities should be continued…’”
1964
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Eugene Williams
March 12, 1964
Eugene Williams, a civil rights activist, and president of the Charlottesville NAACP, argued against any building additions to Burley High School, emphasizing that “Burley was designed as a monument to segregation and should not be continued unless integrated.”
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Rock Hill Academy
July 23, 1964
Rock Hill Academy, a private white high school founded in 1959, was allowed to use the athletic field of Albemarle High School for its football games. A substantial portion of tuition at Rock Hill was covered by state grants; the first wave of students had been granted vouchers to attend the academy while the public schools were closed at the time.
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All Students Allowed to Dance
September 10, 1964
After some discussion, the Albemarle School Board approved dances open to all students for the ’64-’65 school year at Albemarle High School.
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Pupil Assignment Continues
December 10, 1964
Mr. Warnock and Mr. Eugene Williams argue that it was “the duty of the School Board to assign all pupils of the junior high school age to the new junior high schools on a mandatory basis.”
1965
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Parents’ Choice
May 24, 1965
Under pressure to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Albemarle County School Board allowed parents to “register pupils at the school of their choice.”
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Also to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act on May 24, 1965, the Albemarle School Board made the following “refinement” among others to its “Freedom of Choice Plan:” “All school activities shall be open to all pupils enrolled without regard to race, color or national origin.”
1966
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“Freedom of Choice”
April 14, 1966
Citizen petitioners addressed the Albemarle School Board with their conviction that the “Freedom of Choice” school desegregation plan could not effectively achieve total school desegregation while all Black schools continue to operate. Burley High School was closed the following spring.