Literature and Information

Background

Civil Rights

The Civil Rights Movement began after World War II. Soldiers of different races fought side by side, were wounded, and died fighting for our freedoms. Following the war, blacks gained power and realized the great injustice in the fact that they could die for their country, but they were prevented from voting.

The fight for Civil Rights gained momentum in 1954, when the Brown v. Board of Education court decision ruled that “separate but equal” classrooms were unconstitutional. The Brown decision called into question the segregation that was taking place in society. There were segregation and inequities throughout the country, but it was more noticeable in the South, where the Jim Crow Laws had a tight grasp. When the Brown v. Board decision was handed down, the South decided to resist the change.

Rosa Parks had had enough. She was tired of the injustice, and refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She had refused to give up her seat before, but on December 1, 1955 she was arrested. Her courageous defiance became an iconic moment in the struggle for equality.

Rosa Parks’ peaceful protest inspired the Montgomery bus boycott. During the boycott, blacks chose to walk or ride in private cars instead of using public transportation.

The boycott was intended to last one day. However, it was so successful that a meeting was held on December 5, 1955, in Hull Street Church, where 26-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. was the pastor. He gave a powerful, motivational speech rallying the people to carry on with the boycott. Whites had blacks arrested for boycotting, based on an old law prohibiting boycotts. In fact, on February 21, 1956, nearly 90 blacks were arrested including King. The arrests brought national attention to King and Montgomery. The boycotts were spread to Dallas, Richmond, and Little Rock. Violence spread and the Klan marched. After 11 months of boycotts, the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled bus segregation in Montgomery unconstitutional. The date was November 13, 1956.¹

Fast-forward ten months later to Little Rock, Arkansas. The date was September 5, 1957. It was the first day of school, normally a time filled with excitement, but not at Central High in Little Rock. Nine black students were scheduled to attend. Due to miscommunication, eight of the nine met up and traveled together with their parents and minister only to be turned away by the National Guard. Elizabeth Eckford, number nine, found herself confronted by an angry mob. Fortunately for her, a white woman stepped out of the crowd, shepherded Eckford through the crowd, led her onto a bus and to the safety of her home. Her parents and the NAACP returned to the courtroom. The National Guard was removed by mid-September, so the city police provided the security. The black students arrived through a side door. The crowd got unruly and attacked the black supporters. The black students were hustled out and put into police cars. The country watched the struggle on TV. President Eisenhower reacted by sending in paratroopers. The courts decided that mob rule could not overrule court decisions. When the Little Rock Nine finally attended Central High, the police accompanied them throughout the school building. Despite the protective presence of authority the students still faced harassment.²

Rather than continuing on with the integration of Central High, the Governor of Arkansas chose to close the school in the fall of 1958. This strategy of resistance would also be implemented in Virginia.

Harry F. Byrd, Sr. was a powerful senator whose political organization known as the Byrd Machine controlled politics in Virginia. Byrd was one of 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives to sign the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, which was known as the Southern Manifesto. The document challenged the power of the Supreme Court and made the claim that the federal government was not adhering to the system of checks and balances as intended by the founding fathers in the Constitution. The Manifesto claimed that the U.S. courts were overstepping their power and did not have the right to make decisions about education, since the states and the people should determine how to educate children locally.

In reading the Southern Manifesto, the content seems so foreign and the viewpoint so difficult to understand. But, as I read over the Southern Manifesto and interpreted it as a utopian piece, it made more sense. As a utopian piece I was able to view it through the eyes of southern politicians and saw their perfect world as one where blacks and whites were kept separate. By using the utopian context to frame my thinking I was able to make connections that I otherwise would not have made. Through this experience, I see the value in having my students read a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction arranged around different themes. As I read over and analyzed one particular paragraph from the Manifesto, I found so many thoughts and feelings racing through my head.

The Manifesto states, “This unwarranted exercise of power by the court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the states principally affected.”³

The idea that the court decision is causing the chaos and, “It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races,”⁴ reveals that the politicians are living in a fantasy world. Certainly the black people would not view their relationships with the white people as “amicable” in 1956 especially in the south.

Then the Manifesto goes on to say, “It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding.”⁵

As I read this line, my mind was boggled at how these politicians, whose motivations were so sinister and racist, can rationalize and blame the courts for planting the hatred. The politicians’ claim that there was “friendship and understanding,” causes cognitive dissonance. How could they possibly see the south in 1956 as a place with “friendship and understanding” or “amicable relations between the white and Negro races?” I guess in the eyes of the white politicians the times were peaceful because the blacks were being held down and were not challenging the injustices of society. When viewed in this manner, I can then see how in the eyes of the southern politicians the courts were creating the hatred and the chaos. While I can see their viewpoint with close reading and analysis, I am just in shocked that this really was the mindset of the times.

With an understanding of this mindset, it is easier to understand how and why Harry F. Byrd, Sr. would promote a policy of “Massive Resistance” against the integration of schools. Massive Resistance was essentially a series of laws passed in 1956 with the intent to block school integration. A Pupil Placement Board was created to determine where students should go to school. An example is if the parents of a black student completed an application for pupil placement requesting that their child attend a predominantly white school which was in fact closer to their home, the Pupil Placement Board would either accept or deny the request. As you would guess, the applications moved very slowly through the system, and the majority of them were denied.

Another law provided private school tuition vouchers. Not surprisingly, these were granted to whites and not blacks. Whites who did not want to send their children to a school that allowed black children would use a voucher. Also when the public school in the area was closed to avoid integration, the voucher provided white families with an affordable educational option.

The law that would have the greatest impact on some Virginia schools was the one that allowed the state to cut off state funding and to close any school that attempted to integrate.

Schools in Charlottesville, Warren County, Norfolk, Farmville, and other towns closed schools to avoid integration. The Federal Courts repeatedly deemed school closures unconstitutional. On February 2, 1959, the days of Massive Resistance ended. Schools in Norfolk and Arlington integrated “without incident”.⁶

Prince Edward County

Farmville, a sleepy little town about 75 miles southwest of Richmond, Virginia in Prince Edward County, provides a great case study. Black students attended Robert Russa Moton High School, while white students attended the newer, more well-equipped Farmville High School. In 1951, Moton High School was overcrowded with 450 students housed in a school meant for 180.⁷ Students had classes in adjacent “Tar Paper Shacks,” and they received handed-down books, science equipment, and uniforms from Farmville High School.⁸ On April 23, 1951, hand-written notes requesting the teachers to bring their students to the auditorium appeared on the teachers’ desks. The principal was out of the building, and the students had placed the notes on the teachers’ desks. Once the students were assembled, the teachers realized they could not get the students back to class. A quiet, sixteen-year old student named Barbara Johns had organized the assembly. She enlisted the help of 20-year-old John A. Stokes, and his twin sister, Carrie Stokes, who was the student council president. (John and Carrie did not start school until they were eight since the black school did not have buses). Johns spoke to the students about the inadequate school conditions and encouraged the student body to go on strike until the county agreed to build them a new school. The students complied with Johns’s request and marched out of the auditorium. Some of the students had protest signs they had concealed.⁹

Following the strike, the organizers of the strike met with the school board and the superintendent and laid out their demands. Reverend L. Francis Griffin, pastor of the First Baptist Church, worked to convince the school board to build a new school. Barbara Johns and Carrie Stokes reached out to Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson, two attorneys affiliated with the NAACP, and requested that they take their case. The lawyers agreed as long as the students had their parents’ support and were willing to not only fight for a new school, but also challenge the constitutionality of segregated schools. Meetings were held in the First Baptist Church with the NAACP and community members. After debating the idea, the community embraced it and decided to support the students and the case.¹⁰

On May 23, 1951, Oliver Hill, Robert Carter, and Spottswood Robinson III filed suit.¹¹ The Davis v. Prince Edward County case was heard in federal district court, but more importantly it was one of five cases that were lumped together in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson are from Richmond. There are court buildings named for them. There is also a monument honoring the Moton students on the lawn of Virginia’s capitol building in downtown Richmond.

On May 17, 1954 the Brown v. Board decision was issued stating that segregation was unconstitutional. On May 31, 1955, the second Brown v. Board decision ordered the schools should be integrated with, “all deliberate speed.” This was unclear and Virginia took it to mean deliberately slow.

Despite the two Brown v. Board decisions, Prince Edward County would not let go. The county embraced the Massive Resistance Movement, and closed the schools for five years. The schools were closed from 1959-1964. As a part of Massive Resistance, white families were offered vouchers to send their children to Prince Edward Academy, which was founded in 1959. Some black families chose to send their children away to live with relatives in other towns, cities, and states so they could attend school. Others did not attend school for five years.

Passive Resistance, another method to avoid integration, followed the Massive Resistance Movement, and was prevalent in Richmond. The Pupil Placement Board could decide who should attend schools and would assign “token” black students to predominantly white schools. In 1963, with approximately 26,000 blacks in Richmond, only 312 were integrated into white schools.¹² At my current school, Mary Munford, L. Douglas Wilder was the token black student. He was from a middle class family and went on to become the first black governor in the United States. He is one of the famous Virginians my students need to know.

By 1964, five years after the end of Massive Resistance, only five percent of black students in Virginia were attending integrated schools.¹³ So, as you can see, Passive Resistance was working well to prevent the integration of schools.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir written in verse by Jacqueline Woodson. She brilliantly tells the story of her life from living with Jim Crow Laws through the Civil Rights Movement. She travels between South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York. She brings in her personal experiences growing up as a Jehovah Witness and speaks to her difficulties in school. She always enjoyed writing in school, and has written a beautiful free verse account.

I chose this book as the anchor text because I wanted a literary non-fiction work that was accessible for my fourth grade students. The vocabulary is not too difficult, the free verse makes the pages look less daunting, and it connects with the topics of my units. Jacqueline Woodson is a well-accomplished author and the book has won the Newbery Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and was a National Book Award finalist. Two reasons why this book is such a great choice for my students is because it has so much history intertwined it is told from the perspective of a young girl.