Project Contract

If God is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us: School Desegregation in The Fredericksburg Region

Mission Statement

 

 

• The overall goal of the project is to explore how the process of desegregation played out throughout the school systems in the Fredericksburg region and to see what resulted from the conflict and conflict resolution that occurred on the path to full integration. Although Brown v. Board of Education ruled in 1954 that separate but equal spaces (schools included) were unconstitutional, the school systems within and surrounding the city of Fredericksburg did not start toward the goal of integration until 1961. In that seven-year gap, many were opposed to desegregation and tried to prevent it from occurring and tensions rose as African American students started to band together in protest, desiring to finally see change come. With Stafford County as the forerunner, the schools in the city of Fredericksburg, Caroline County, Spotsylvania County, King George County followed suit. With each county’s take at desegregation came opposition, which led to protests, lawsuits, and many other forms of conflict. Though obstacles arose as communities were torn apart on what was right for their children’s well-being, full integration eventually was realized in 1964 with Stafford and the rest fell in line in the years following.  

• The intended audience of this project is the people of the Fredericksburg area communities. This example of conflict resolution is important because of its relevance in current society and what the public can gain from remembering this period of history. In present day U.S., racial tension is still in existence in various forms. Where the conflict surrounding integration centered on racial discrimination in education, today racial conflict extends beyond education to include housing, the law, the economy, and many other areas. Specifically in Fredericksburg, there has been recent dissension on how to preserve and remember some of the more darker areas of our history including slavery and the Civil War. By reflecting back on the period of desegregation, the Fredericksburg area communities can learn from the past and gain some applicable insights when it comes to conflict resolution. This period of Fredericksburg’s history has not been brought beyond the archive’s wall to the public. With a website centered on this moment in Fredericksburg history, many will be able to easily access primary source documents and pictures in order to be taken back to a time where segregation was a slowly crumbling reality. Especially for the students who walk the halls of these schools on a daily basis, this will give them a connection to the students who walked before them.

 

• The basic structure of the website will be as follows. The website will open up with a timeline detailing the events that occurred leading up to and during the process of desegregation in the Fredericksburg region. The information on the pages following will be structured in a narrative form. The next page will begin with discussing the Brown v. Board of Education and the tensions in the area prior to the enforcement of desegregation. In a subpage branching off of this page, one of the most common forms of protest during this period preceding the court decision will be discussed in depth: lunch counter sit-ins. From there, the next page will address the conflict that occurred in Stafford county, the first school system to desegregate in the Fredericksburg area. It will go in-depth on the process the students and city council went through to reach conflict resolution in the form of full integration. The following page will discuss how the other school systems followed Stafford’s example and some of the conflict they faced in reaching the resolution of integration. After the conflict and conflict resolution in the school systems are examined, the next page will factor in the students’ perspectives about their desire and struggle for integration to be realized and how integration impacted their lives long-term. A subpage will then branch off of this page that will give a personal analysis of the lesson learned from this example of conflict: some conflict, though it may be difficult, opens doors of opportunity and brings about positive change in the community it affects. The website will then conclude with a page discussing how some of the communities experienced conflict in recent years when it comes to remembering this period of conflict and will give a specific example that occurred in King George County surrounding Ralph Bunche High School. Throughout the pages, we hope to have primary sources that visitors to the site can observe to get a glimpse into the period such as local photos and newspapers involving desegregation in the city and the surrounding region.

Tools We Plan to Use

• • The WordPress theme of the website will be “Sparkling”. This theme allows the features and layout of the website to be best utilized. This theme was chosen because of the ability to have a sidebar menu.
  • The WordPress layout of the website will have a main page consisting of a photo, timeline, and sidebar menu. The main page will have a picture of the newspaper article photograph of a black woman involved in a demonstration against segregation holding the sign “If God is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us”. This picture will be very impacting to the audience on how heavy the lack of desegregation was for the black students. The sidebar menu will list all the pages and subpages, so the audience will be able to go to the appropriate section to get more information. When navigating the website the sidebar menu will appear the whole time, so there is a continuity on the story of desegregation in Fredericksburg. This also allows the website user to go out of order of the story, and go back in order when they need to. There will be a timeline on the main page to help give a visual aspect for the audience to help with the telling of the story. The timeline helps give a bearing on the amount of time it took for desegregation to happen in Fredericksburg.

 

• The tools used for the photos and the newspapers will be the copier and scanner. The copier will help in being able to have better access to the articles found. The scanner allows the use of a direct file of the articles to be put on the website. Once the photos are scanned, then WordPress allows with the “insert media” feature to input the pictures in the pages of the website. This is important because the scanned articles will show the direct source of where the information is from. This will help legitimize the information, and the articles will help give a visual on how people were feeling during the desegregation period.

 

• The program that will be used for the timeline is Knightlab. This will help the audience see an overview narrative of our project, and then be able to go to the sidebar menu to go more in depth with the dates discussed in the timeline. The timeline will have some photographs from the desegregation time period to help compliment the wording  in telling the story. It is important to have the program Knightlab because it gives an interactive experience for the audience to study the topic being presented. A timeline is eye-catching, and will automatically get the audience intrigued. There is not a interactive timeline for this topic that brings all of the moments in this period of history together, so the project will fill that gap for the Fredericksburg community by providing a common space where they can access this information and see it in a new light.

 

Schedule of Milestones (When Critical Pieces are Ready to Present)

 

• • October 5: Visit the heritage center and revisit the Virginiana Room and campus library to gather research materials in the form of newspaper articles from The Free Lance Star and photographs of the events related to the conflict. Permission is requested for photos from The Free Lance Star.

 

• October 12: All research materials gathered.

 

• • October 19: All newspaper articles are evenly divided based on their relevance to the pages assigned to each individual to be read and have notes taken on.
  • October 26: All research materials are analyzed and dates for timeline are organized and ready to be inserted. Photos of schools involved are taken and edited.
  • November 2: Skeleton of website is made and timeline is completed.

 

• November 9: All information is inserted to the website and draft is completed.

 

• • November 16: Perform revisions to website based on professors’ feedback.
  • November 21: Finalize website.

 

• November 30: Website is submitted.

 

• December 5/7: Presentations.

 

Delegation of Responsibilities:

 

Kailee: The Timeline (Main Page), Student Perspectives Page (Subpages on JMHS Student Perspective and Lessons Learned From This Conflict), Present Day Conflict Surrounding Remembering Desegregation: An Example in King George Page

 

Alyssa: Skeleton of Website, Tensions Leading up to Brown V. Board Page (Subpage on Lunch Counter Sit-ins), Stafford County Desegregation Page, Other Schools Follow Stafford’s Example Page

 

Both: Bibliography

 

 

Works Cited:

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