(NAME-MCE) Black students helped end 'Massive Resistance'

[Bill Howe]

*Black students helped end 'Massive Resistance'*

By STEVE SZKOTAK
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 6, 2008; 6:57 PM

NORFOLK, Va. -- The "Norfolk 17" were honored Sunday at the church that
educated them 50 years ago when six of the city's all-white public schools
closed under Virginia's defiant response to court-ordered desegregation.

Ten of the 14 surviving members of the Norfolk 17 _ who went on to integrate
the public schools, enduring isolation and their classmates' scorn _
attended the service at the First Baptist Church, where they were remembered
as fearless civil rights pioneers in the segregated South.

"We're here to celebrate history," the Rev. Robert G. Murray told the packed
congregation. "All God's children deserve an education."

The 17 were among thousands of black students denied a place in the
classroom during "Massive Resistance," Virginia's state-sponsored answer to
the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared
school segregation unconstitutional.

"There were 17 stories. Each one of us has our own story. My brother died 14
years ago. His story is lost," said Patricia Turner, who along with her late
brother James Turner Jr. was among the 17.

Virginia's Massive Resistance cut funds to any school that dared to
integrate.

Schools were closed and private academies were created to educate white
students who could afford the tuition. The policy primarily affected schools
in Charlottesville, Norfolk and Prince Edward County, which continued its
own homegrown version of school segregation until 1964.

In Norfolk, three all-white high schools and three junior high schools
closed between September 1958 and February 1959 rather than accept black
students.

The Norfolk 17 were turned away from those six schools. At First Baptist
Church, the 17 said they found loving, attentive and demanding teachers.

In January 1959, state and federal courts declared that the school closings
were unconstitutional. The Norfolk schools reopened in Feb. 2, 1959, and the
17 went on to attend the white schools, ending the era of Massive
Resistance.

At school, the 17 were met by angry mobs and insults. Many said they were
isolated from their white classmates during their high school years. The
speakers mentioned Louis Cousins, who was widely depicted in a news
photograph sitting alone in the Maury High School auditorium while white
classmates were seated many rows away.

Cousins attended Sunday's celebration but did not speak.

"These people were alone," said John Charles Thomas, the first black justice
on the Virginia Supreme Court and a product of the Norfolk public schools.
"Every one of them was alone."

Thomas recalled the tumultuous era in which the young members of the Norfolk
17 integrated the city schools. The judge who ordered the schools reopened
had a cross burned on his lawn, he said, and the civil rights movement was
met with violence in many places.

"This was a dangerous time," Thomas said to nods and amens of the
congregation. "Think of the courage that it took for all of them to do what
they did."

Turning to the first two rows of the church, Thomas said, "Norfolk 17, God
knows we're grateful."

Virginia established Brown v. Board of Education Scholarships for people
whose education was disrupted or ended during Massive Resistance. The city
of Norfolk plans to conduct events marking the 50th anniversary of the end
of Massive Resistance next year.





-- 
Bill Howe
Asian Pacific American Coalition (APAC) - http://apaact.com/

13th Annual New England Conference on Multicultural Education (NECME)
October 8, 2008, Connecticut Convention Center - Hartford, Connecticut
http://www.necme.org