Massive resistance

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Massive Resistance was a policy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. on February 24, 1956 to unite other white Virginian politicians and leaders in taking action to prevent school desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954.

Harry Byrd, a former Governor of Virginia, and the senior U.S. Senator, was the leader of the powerful Byrd Organization. From the mid 1920s until the late 1960s, the Byrd organization effectively controlled the politics of the state through a network of courthouse cliques of local constitutional officers in most of the state's counties. However, its greatest strength was in the rural areas, and it never gained a significant foothold in the urban areas, nor with the emerging suburban middle-class of Virginians after World War II.

To implement massive resistance, in 1956, the Virginia General Assembly passed a series of laws . One of these laws forbade any integrated schools from receiving state funds. Another of these laws established a three-member Pupil Placement Board that would determine which school a student would attend. Of course, the decision of these Boards was based almost entirely on race. Another facet of these laws was the creation of tuition grants which could be given to students so they could attend a private school of their choice; again, in practice, this meant support of all-white schools that appeared as a response to forced integration (the "segregation academies.")

Later in 1956, the NAACP then filed lawsuits around the state in response to these laws in an attempt to force integration of Virginia schools. By 1958, things had come to a head. Federal courts ordered schools in Warren County, the cities of Charlottesville and Norfolk and Arlington County to integrate.

In response, Virginia Governor James Lindsay Almond, Jr. ordered the closings of Warren County High School, of two Charlottesville schools, Lane High School and Venable Elementary School, and of six schools in Norfolk. While Warren County and Charlottesville were able to cobble together education for their students, Norfolk, being a larger school system, had a harder time, and one-third of the affected students did not attend any school. Several white parents in Norfolk began agitating against the schools remaining closed.

In January 1959, the Virginia Supreme Court declared most of the General Assembly-passed massive resistance laws unconstitutional, ending massive resistance at the state level. In landmark speech, Governor Almond publicly reversed the defiant stance taken only a few months earlier. Schools that had been closed were re-opened in February. In 1960, the original three members of the Pupil Placement Board resigned, and the Board was ended by the General Assembly in 1966.

When Warren County High School re-opened, it was ironically as an all-black school, as no white students attended. Their parents had opted instead to send their children to the John S. Mosby Academy, one of many "segregation academies", which were private schools opened throughout the state as part of the massive resistance plan. Over the course of the 1960s, white students gradually returned to Warren County High School and the Mosby Academy was closed, eventually becoming the county's middle school. Lane High School and Venable Elementary School also re-opened in February 1959.

When faced with an order to integrate, Prince Edward County closed its entire school system in September 1959 rather than integrate. The county kept its entire school system closed until 1964. White students were able to get educated at the Prince Edward Academy, which operated as the de facto school system, enrolling K-12 students at a number of facilities throughout the county. Even after the re-opening of the public schools, the Academy remained segregated, losing its tax-exempt status in 1978. In 1986, it accepted black students. Today it is known as Fuqua School.

Other counties, such as Surry County chose to close only their white schools. White students attended the Surry Academy, and blacks continued to attend the public schools. Other segregation academies that were formed included Tomahawk Academy (in Chesterfield County), Huguenot Academy (in Powhatan), Amelia Academy, Isle of Wight Academy, Brunswick Academy, Southampton Academy, Tidewater Academy in Sussex County, and York Academy (in King and Queen County).

The public schools in counties in the western part of the state where there were fewer blacks were integrated largely without incident in the early 1960s. Notably, there were no incidents in Virginia which required National Guard intervention.

Massive resistance was initially replaced by a "Freedom of Choice" plan, under which families and students could opt to attend the public schools of their choice. However, fear, lack of transportation, and other practical considerations kept most public school students both black and white, in largely (or completely) segregated schools.

By 1968, the continued slow pace of integration was frustrating the federal courts. In New Kent County, most black students voluntarily chose to attend the George W. Watkins School instead of New Kent High School. However, Calvin Green, a black parent, sued the county school system to force a more radical desegregation scheme. In its decision, the U.S. Supreme Court laid the ground for desegregation busing plans that caused controversy in Virginia, but more famously in Boston.

The Richmond City Public Schools had attempted various schemes to avoid integration such as dual attendance zones and the "Freedom of Choice" Plan, but in 1970, District Court Judge Robert Merhige, Jr., ordered a desegregation busing scheme established to integrate the city schools. During the years immediately preceding, after an unsuccessful annexation suit against Henrico County to the north, the city successfully annexed 23 square miles of neighboring Chesterfield County to its south on January 1, 1970 in what was later determined in federal courts to be an attempt to stem the white flight that was occurring, as well as dilute black political strength. However, beginning the following school year, thousands of white students did not go to the city's schools, instead attending existing and newly formed private schools and/or moving outside the city limits.

In the federal courts, a forced consolidation of the Richmond City, Chesterfield County and Henrico County public school districts was proposed and approved by Judge Merhige in 1971, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned this decision, barring most busing schemes that made students cross county/city boundaries. (Note: Since 1871, Virginia has had independent cities which are not politically located within counties, although some are completely surrounded geographically by a single county. This distinctive and unusual arrangement was pivotal in the Court of Appeals decision). Richmond City Schools then went through a series of attendance plans and magnet school programs. By 1986, Judge Merhige approved a system of essentially neighborhood schools, ending Virginia's legal struggles with segregation.

In 1970, the Norfolk City Public Schools and several other Virginia communities were also subjected to busing schemes, also returning to more or less neighborhood school plans some years later.