What is Desegregation? How did it play out in Fredericksburg?

Library of Congress-African American school children entering the Mary E. Branch School at S. Main Street and Griffin Boulevard, Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia

“If God is for us, who can be against us” was the unofficial slogan of many African Americans throughout the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s [1]. The Civil Rights was a pivotal period in U.S. African American history that altered society as we know it. Although many people think that most of the pivotal moments in this movement were present in the Deep South, it was in Virginia that the NAACP filed more lawsuits than any other state [2]. Regardless of location, one of the main goals of the Civil Rights Movement was to eliminate racial segregation in public spaces. Racial segregation can be defined as the practice of restricting people to certain circumscribed areas of residence or to separate institutions (e.g., schools, churches) and facilities (parks, playgrounds, restaurants, restrooms) on the basis of race or alleged race [3]. Encouraged by the Plessy v. Ferguson case in 1896, which justified separate but equal public accommodations for white and colored races, racial segregation was a great source of conflict and spaces for African Americans that were in poor condition that made one question whether these were truly “equal” to the spaces occupied by their white counterparts.

Once the doctrine of “separate but equal” was ruled unconstitutional decades later as a result of the foundational Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, efforts to desegregate public spaces started to gain momentum. Desegregation is defined as the elimination of laws, customs, or practices under which people from different religions, ancestries, ethnic groups, etc., are restricted to specific or separate public facilities, neighborhoods, schools, organizations, or the like [4]. The ultimate goal of desegregation was to integrate or bring the segregated classes, institutions, and other public spaces into one unified system [5].

Although desegregation was allowed and some instances ordered to begin, most states were digging their heels in. According to the Georgetown Law Library, “Desegregation did not happen overnight. In fact it took years for some states to get on board, and some had to be brought on kicking and screaming” [6]. Naturally, with this mindset possessed by a good amount of states, with desegregation came conflict as many were resistant to this change that others had been hoping to see come to pass for decades. Especially in deep south states, this change had to occur with military and police intervention due to the hostility and resistance from white community members. Other states, including Virginia, looked at this tension wondering if this opposition would replicate in their states as well. In Virginia, the Fredericksburg region took seven years to begin the process of desegregation. Although they didn’t experience as much physical opposition as the little rock example, opposition was found in the decisions of the school boards and city councils to prolong integration that was long overdue. Tensions were building in the city years before the first black students walked the halls of Stafford Elementary School and even before Brown v. Board of Education was decided on, which leads into our next section.


<<About                                                         Tensions Leading Up To Brown Vs. Board>> 


Works Cited:

[1] Front Porch Magazine Editorial Staff. (2006, September). At the Civil Rights Movement in VA. Front Porch Magazine.

[2] Ibid.

[3] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2017, June 22). Racial Segregation. Retrieved November 5 , 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/racial-segregation

[4] Desegregation. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 6, 2017 from Dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/desegregation

[5] Integrate. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 6, 2017 from Dictionary.com website http://www.dictionary.com/browse/desegregation

[6] Editors of the Georgetown University Law Library. (2017, October 27). A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: Desegregation. Retrieved November 05, 2017, from http://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=592919&p=4172700

“Toward The Dream Timeline.” The Free Lance Star, 13 Dec. 1988, Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

“School Integration & Civil Rights Timelines.” Stafford County Schools. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

L., & O’Halloran, T. J. (n.d.). [African American school children entering the Mary E. Branch School at S. Main Street and Griffin Boulevard, Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/%28African_American_school_children_entering_the_Mary_E._Branch_School_at_S._Main_Street_and_Griffin_Boulevard%2C_Farmville%2C_Prince_Edward_County%2C_Virginia%29_%28LOC%29_%2815356487161%29.jpg

I., & S. (n.d.). [Article in the Daily Picayune, New Orleans, announcing the arrest of (Homer) Adolphe Plessy for violation of railway racial segregation law. The case would go to the US Supreme Court as Plessy v. Ferguson.]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Plessy_Daily_Picayune_9_June_1892.jpg

P. (n.d.). [Ralph Bunche High School, King George, Virginia, October 2012]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Ralph_Bunche_High_School_Oct_%6012.jpg

W. (n.d.). [Walker-Grant School. Built in 1935, this was the first Black high school in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Walker-Grant_School.JPG

T., & F. (n.d.). [Judgment, Brown v. Board of Education, 05/31/1955]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Judgment%2C_Brown_v._Board_of_Education%2C_05311955.gif

Pelligrini, M., & R. (n.d.). [A section of lunch counter from the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s where the Greensboro sit-ins began is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. A section of lunch counter now appears in the display of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History. Counter from the Greensboro sit-ins. ]. Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Greensboro_sit-in_counter.jpg