thunder during the storm--school desegregation in Norfolk, Virginia, 1957-1959: A local history, The

Journal of Negro Education, The, Spring 1998 by Bly, Antonio T

On January 11, 1957, Leola Pearl Beckett and a host of other Black Norfolkians (as well as Blacks from the nearby Titustown and Oakwood-Rosemount areas), with the help of their local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), filed a suit against the Norfolk school board in federal district court ("Education: Public Schools-Virginia," 1957; Henderson, 1958; "Norfolk School Case," 1958). The NAACP attorneys, Victor J. Ashe and J. Hugo Madison, argued that the 53 plaintiffs in the Beckett case sought to have their children admitted to the city's White public schools without discrimination on the basis of race. The proximity clause in the Brown decision, the Black plaintiffs argued, was clearly being violated in Norfolk because their children were bused across town, past nearby all-White schools, to all-Black Booker T. Washington High School and the Ruffner and Jacox junior high schools. They further contended that Virginia's Pupil Placement Act was unconstitutional because it too violated Brown and blatantly discriminated against Black students ("Education: Public Schools-Virginia," 1957).

Not surprisingly, the White reaction to the Beckett case was twofold. Initially, Norfolk city leaders called on the assistance of the state General Assembly-decreed Thomas Committee to dissuade Black plaintiffs in the case and their attorneys from seeking integration as a solution ("Get NAACP Group," 1957; "Key Participants," 1957). This committee, commonly known as the "Virginia Inquisition," was created primarily to derail the NAACP's efforts in Virginia. With the full legal sanction of the state of Virginia, its members intimidated and threatened Black plaintiffs and attorneys who filed desegregation suits, and generally engaged in racist activities whose legality and overtness would today appear highly questionable ("Get NAACP Group," 1957; "Norfolk Lawyers Probe Group," 1957; "Plaintiffs in Norfolk Suit," 1957). The Inquisition's efforts, however, proved unsuccessful. Subsequently, the Norfolk school board (the defendants in the case) fell back on the arguement that the plaintiffs had not exhausted the administrative remedies (i.e., filing a grievance compliant with the board) afforded them. The board further contended that admittance of Black students into all-White schools would not only be detrimental to the psyche of the Black students, but would violate Section 129 of the Virginia state constitution, which mandated the establishment and maintenance of efficient schools. Despite the school board's efforts to have the case dismissed on frivolous and impractical grounds, District Judge Walter Hoffman held that the Pupil Placement Act was unconstitutional on its face. He further instructed the board to integrate all six of its junior and senior high schools ("Education: Public Schools-Virginia," 1957; Henderson, 1958).

Shortly after the Fourth Circuit court's decree, the attorney for the Norfolk school board filed an appeal in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court as a means of delaying the enforcement of Judge Hoffman's order (Brook, 1958a). Although the appeals court judge concurred with the original decree, the board's tactic successfully delayed the enforcement of the ruling until the beginning of the 1958-59 school year. Hence, despite the strenuous efforts of the Norfolk NAACP's lawyers to obtain a specific court mandate for desegregating Norfolk's all-White public schools, the forces of massive resistance temporarily prevailed.