Prince Edwards schools desegregated, white parents went back to the supervisors to make their position clear. They presented a petition signed by more than four thousand county residentshalf the countys white population. It read:
We, the undersigned citizens of Prince Edward County, Virginia, hereby affirm our conviction that the separation of the races in the public schools of this county is absolutely necessary and do affirm that we prefer to abandon public schools and educate our children in some other way if that be necessary to preserve separation of the races in the schools of this county. We pledge our support of the Board of Supervisors of Prince Edward County in their firm maintenance of this policy.
Virginias leaders were also working to support the county. Governor Stanleys Gray Commission, which consisted exclusively of white male legislators, many of whom represented Southside, concluded in a November 1955 report that segregation was best for both races and that compulsory integration should be resisted by all proper means in our power. Blacks would be humiliated sharing a classroom with whites, they determined.
The commission recommended that the states school attendance laws be amended to ensure that children were not required to attend integrated schools, that state funds be allocated for tuition grants to families who opposed integrated schools, and that local school boards be authorized to assign white and black children to schools on a student-by-student basis. Later that year, Governor Stanley called the general assembly into special session, seeking a statewide referendum to amend the state constitution in order to allow public funds to go to private schools. In January 1956, voters backed the initiative.
As desegregation suits were filed in other Virginia localities, Harry F. Byrd continued to protest integration, promoting a Southern Manifesto that denounced the Supreme Courts decision as a clear abuse of judicial power and discouraged the state from implementing the decision, which he said was contrary to the Constitution. He secured the signatures of nearly a hundred Southern congressmen who agreed with him. I think that in time the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South, Byrd said.
In Virginia, he was preparing to do even more. With recommendations from the governors commission in hand, Byrd crafted a massive resistance strategy that became the battle cry of the South, and he met with Stanley and Gray to discuss thirteen proposed bills. The package of laws was approved in August by a narrow margin in a special session of the state assembly. Most extreme was the law that enabled the state to cut off funding and order the closure of any public school that prepared to integrate.
FOR FOUR YEARS FOLLOWING THE Brown decision, Prince Edward County and other localities in the state of Virginia managed to avoid desegregating schools because of the Supreme Courts failure to address enforcement and the slow pace of the lower courts. Groups like the Defenders had gained traction, in part, because Eisenhower did not publicly support Brown.
However, his administration had not argued against desegregation and had quietly integrated the schools that military children attended. The president also believed that preserving public order was his obligation, prompting him to act in Arkansas in 1957.
In 1955, the local school board in Little Rock had adopted a plan to integrate Central High School. When nine black students prepared to enroll in the all-white high school two years later, Arkansass governor, Orval Eugene Faubus, a segregationist, ordered the National Guard to surround the high school, saying blood will run in the streets if black students attempted to enter the school. A mob of white people shouted, Niggers, go home! as the black students arrived on September 4, and National Guard troops
We, the undersigned citizens of Prince Edward County, Virginia, hereby affirm our conviction that the separation of the races in the public schools of this county is absolutely necessary and do affirm that we prefer to abandon public schools and educate our children in some other way if that be necessary to preserve separation of the races in the schools of this county. We pledge our support of the Board of Supervisors of Prince Edward County in their firm maintenance of this policy.
Virginias leaders were also working to support the county. Governor Stanleys Gray Commission, which consisted exclusively of white male legislators, many of whom represented Southside, concluded in a November 1955 report that segregation was best for both races and that compulsory integration should be resisted by all proper means in our power. Blacks would be humiliated sharing a classroom with whites, they determined.
The commission recommended that the states school attendance laws be amended to ensure that children were not required to attend integrated schools, that state funds be allocated for tuition grants to families who opposed integrated schools, and that local school boards be authorized to assign white and black children to schools on a student-by-student basis. Later that year, Governor Stanley called the general assembly into special session, seeking a statewide referendum to amend the state constitution in order to allow public funds to go to private schools. In January 1956, voters backed the initiative.
As desegregation suits were filed in other Virginia localities, Harry F. Byrd continued to protest integration, promoting a Southern Manifesto that denounced the Supreme Courts decision as a clear abuse of judicial power and discouraged the state from implementing the decision, which he said was contrary to the Constitution. He secured the signatures of nearly a hundred Southern congressmen who agreed with him. I think that in time the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South, Byrd said.
In Virginia, he was preparing to do even more. With recommendations from the governors commission in hand, Byrd crafted a massive resistance strategy that became the battle cry of the South, and he met with Stanley and Gray to discuss thirteen proposed bills. The package of laws was approved in August by a narrow margin in a special session of the state assembly. Most extreme was the law that enabled the state to cut off funding and order the closure of any public school that prepared to integrate.
FOR FOUR YEARS FOLLOWING THE Brown decision, Prince Edward County and other localities in the state of Virginia managed to avoid desegregating schools because of the Supreme Courts failure to address enforcement and the slow pace of the lower courts. Groups like the Defenders had gained traction, in part, because Eisenhower did not publicly support Brown.
However, his administration had not argued against desegregation and had quietly integrated the schools that military children attended. The president also believed that preserving public order was his obligation, prompting him to act in Arkansas in 1957.
In 1955, the local school board in Little Rock had adopted a plan to integrate Central High School. When nine black students prepared to enroll in the all-white high school two years later, Arkansass governor, Orval Eugene Faubus, a segregationist, ordered the National Guard to surround the high school, saying blood will run in the streets if black students attempted to enter the school. A mob of white people shouted, Niggers, go home! as the black students arrived on September 4, and National Guard troops
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