Black children denied school entry: 1958
Black children and their parents leave the Alexandria courthouse September 8, 1958 after being denied an injunction against the city continuing to operate Jim Crow schools.
Federal Judge Albert V. Bryan turned down a plea on behalf of 14 Black children for a temporary injunction pending the final trial of the Alexandria case saying, “such a case should mature in the regular way” before admissions to white schools are ordered.
At the time, Virginia state law required the closure of any public school system that admitted Black students to white schools. The requirement was part of Virginia’s “massive resistance” to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decisions outlawing public school segregation.
Schools were finally integrated when Bryan ordered the students admitted after Virginia’s school closure law was voided. An appeal by the school board was denied by another federal judge.
James and Margaret Lomax become the first Black children to attend a formerly all-white elementary school in Virginia February 10, 1959 after a federal judge ordered the city of Alexandria to admit nine plaintiffs.
Alexandria became the four school district to integrate schools in the state. The three previous school districts that had been integrated involved junior high or high schools.
In the denial of the appeal, Judge Simon Sobeloff quickly ruled against the city of Alexandria.
Referring to Alexandria school officials, Sobeloff told their attorneys, “They say they are through with resistance—massive or retail. They are not going to clutter up the courts any longer. You don’t do that. You wait until each plaintiff fights his way through and, when he prevails, you say ‘give us more time.’”
The lead attorney for the children was Franklin Reeves, a long-time civil rights attorney in the Washington, D.C. area.
The schools were integrated without demonstrations or overt student strikes that plagued some other school systems in the area when they integrated. However, there were some minor incidents.
One student was withdrawn by his mother from Hammond and absences were slightly higher at all three schools.
School officials reported that another white supremacist taboo was broken: the five newcomers to the Ramsay elementary school shared tables with other students for lunch while the two students at the Ficklin elementary school did the same.
James Ragland seemed to get the most negative reaction from other students at Hammond Junior High School.
When he sat for lunch at a large table with two white boys, the boys got up and moved to another table. In another instance two white boys in study hall moved their desks to rear of the room when he sat down.
When a boy gave Ragland a copy of the school newspaper to read on his first day, another youth grabbed it away.
However, during the press event, Ragland told reporters that “Everybody was friendly and nice.”
Virginia was one of a number of southern states that openly defied the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools.
In the late 1950s, the state of Virginia started its policy of “massive resistance” that involved closing any public school that integrated and providing state aid to all white private schools.
It would take Alexandria until the fall of 1968 to achieve at least token integration at all its schools.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskWK3q68
Photo by Gene Abbott. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Black children denied school entry: 1958
Black children and their parents leave the Alexandria courthouse September 8, 1958 after being denied an injunction against the city continuing to operate Jim Crow schools.
Federal Judge Albert V. Bryan turned down a plea on behalf of 14 Black children for a temporary injunction pending the final trial of the Alexandria case saying, “such a case should mature in the regular way” before admissions to white schools are ordered.
At the time, Virginia state law required the closure of any public school system that admitted Black students to white schools. The requirement was part of Virginia’s “massive resistance” to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decisions outlawing public school segregation.
Schools were finally integrated when Bryan ordered the students admitted after Virginia’s school closure law was voided. An appeal by the school board was denied by another federal judge.
James and Margaret Lomax become the first Black children to attend a formerly all-white elementary school in Virginia February 10, 1959 after a federal judge ordered the city of Alexandria to admit nine plaintiffs.
Alexandria became the four school district to integrate schools in the state. The three previous school districts that had been integrated involved junior high or high schools.
In the denial of the appeal, Judge Simon Sobeloff quickly ruled against the city of Alexandria.
Referring to Alexandria school officials, Sobeloff told their attorneys, “They say they are through with resistance—massive or retail. They are not going to clutter up the courts any longer. You don’t do that. You wait until each plaintiff fights his way through and, when he prevails, you say ‘give us more time.’”
The lead attorney for the children was Franklin Reeves, a long-time civil rights attorney in the Washington, D.C. area.
The schools were integrated without demonstrations or overt student strikes that plagued some other school systems in the area when they integrated. However, there were some minor incidents.
One student was withdrawn by his mother from Hammond and absences were slightly higher at all three schools.
School officials reported that another white supremacist taboo was broken: the five newcomers to the Ramsay elementary school shared tables with other students for lunch while the two students at the Ficklin elementary school did the same.
James Ragland seemed to get the most negative reaction from other students at Hammond Junior High School.
When he sat for lunch at a large table with two white boys, the boys got up and moved to another table. In another instance two white boys in study hall moved their desks to rear of the room when he sat down.
When a boy gave Ragland a copy of the school newspaper to read on his first day, another youth grabbed it away.
However, during the press event, Ragland told reporters that “Everybody was friendly and nice.”
Virginia was one of a number of southern states that openly defied the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in public schools.
In the late 1950s, the state of Virginia started its policy of “massive resistance” that involved closing any public school that integrated and providing state aid to all white private schools.
It would take Alexandria until the fall of 1968 to achieve at least token integration at all its schools.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskWK3q68
Photo by Gene Abbott. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.