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 October 27, 1958, a number of White Norfolk students and their parents, frustrated by the school closings, filed suit against Governor Almond, the state attorney general, and Norfolk school officials in the federal district court in Norfolk (Ruth Pendleton James et al. v. J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., et al., 1958). The plaintiffs in James argued that closing the schools violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The three-judge court concurred and ruled in their favor on January 19, 1959 (Dabney, 1971). They further declared that the state could not take away control of the schools from local officials, and that public schools were to be made available to all children in the state, regardless of race. Significantly, however, the court noted that it "was not directing the reopening of schools, but rather was declaring the governor's school-closing proclamation void" ("Education: Public Schools-Virginia," 1959, pp. 45-46).

On the same day that the Norfolk federal court handed down its ruling in James, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, in Harrison v. Day (1959), voted five-to-two that closing the schools to prevent integration violated Section 129 of the state's constitution, which required the state to maintain an "efficient" school system (Campbell et al., 1960). The massive resistance movement was apparently losing steam; Governor Almond, however, was recalcitrant. In a radio announcement just a few days later, he proclaimed, referring to his state's and the South's massive resisters, "We have just begun to fight" (Dabney, 1971, p. 542). The governor would soon have to eat those words and declare the failure of massive resistance not long afterwards.

After the James and Harrison decisions were handed down, the handwriting was on the wall. Apparently, the citizens of Norfolk were determined to resolve the matter of desegregation quietly and relatively peacefully. On February 2,1959, the Norfolk 17 quietly entered Norfolk's formerly White junior and senior high schools (Murray, 1988; "Key Participants," 1958). Six of the 17 were admitted to Norview Junior High School, 6 to Norview Senior High, 2 to Blair Junior High, and 1 each to Northside Junior High and to Granby and Maury senior high schools.

Despite the earlier expressed anti-integration sentiments of many Whites, no violent outbreaks occurred as a result of the Norfolk 17 desegregating the city's schools. There were a few minor incidents, however. A Black figure was hung in effigy in front of Granby High School, and a cross was burned in the Norview Senior High School football field where it could be seen by the Black residents of the nearby Coronado area (Stem, n.d.; White, 1992). Additionally, to demonstrate their resentment of Black efforts to desegregate White schools, four White students entered all-Black Booker T. Washington high school and asked to enroll. They claimed that they wanted to play football for the school (Campbell et. al., 1960; "Try to Enter Booker T.," 1958). According to Patricia Godbolt-White, one of the Norfolk 17, "Most of the teachers were really nice to us, in light of what was going on ...It was the students who were a problem" (Patricia Godbolt-White, personal commuication, December 1, 1995).