Other Schools Follow Stafford’s Example

[Integrated classroom at Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C.]
The outcome of integration in Stafford County propelled the other schools in the Fredericksburg area into action. Almost ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Fredericksburg was going to be fully integrated in the school system. The black students had to fight for their right to be in schools through the law. In March 1962,  desegregation suit against Fredericksburg school officials had been filed in U.S. District Court at Richmond on behalf of the parents of two black students. The two black students were John W. Scott and Clarence Robinson, who are both 13 years old and in the 8th grader at Walker Grant School. They were both denied admission to the predominantly white James Monroe High School, so the School Board was not following the Brown vs. Board of Education decision [1].

The defendants argued that the State Pupil Placement Board “has not devoted efforts toward initiating non-segregation and bringing about the elimination of racial discrimination in the in the public school system..as under the paramount law it is their duty to do so”. The Placement Board denied the students appeals, saying that they lived close to the school they were already attending. This was a way for the School Board to deny black students, and after Stafford High School began integrating, it was easier to integrate knowing that it went over mostly smoothly in another part of the region. Stafford High School was the tester for the rest of the schools.

On June 20, 1962 the Virginia Pupil Placement Board today assigned 27 Negro students to three all-white schools in King George County. The School Board said 61 application were denied. The board admitted eighteen of the applicants to Potomac Elementary School at Dahlgren, eight to King George Elementary School, and one to King George High School. There were not many black students integrating into white schools, and now there are different documented perspectives of the students’ experiences being a part of the integration [2].

<<Stafford County Desegregation                                          Student Perspectives>>

Works Cited:

[1]. The Free Lance Star. (1962, March 8). Race suit filed by 2 city pupils. The Free Lance Star [Fredericksburg].

[2]. The Free Lance Star. (1962, June 20). 27 negroes reassigned in county. The Free Lance Star [Fredericksburg].

Leffler, W., & S. (n.d.). [Integrated classroom at Anacostia High School, Washington, D.C.]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Integrated_classroom_at_Anacostia_High_School.jpg