Quick Facts

•  Norfolk, Virginia was founded in 1682

• January 19, 1959, the Virginia State Supreme Court and the Federal District Court declared that the school closings in Norfolk were unconstitutional.

• February 2, 1959, 17 of 150 African American students were admitted to six of Norfolk’s all-White schools

• Black teachers made less than their similarly trained White counterparts.

• White and Black schools in Virginia approached equality in terms of buildings, curricula, qualifications, and teacher salaries because of Briggs v. Elliott and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County

• Massive Resistance tactics promoted by Senator Harry F. Byrd should read Massive resistance tactics to desegregation were promoted by Senator Harry F. Byrd.

• Ashland Hall, the first White public school in Norfolk, was established in 1857.

• Margaret Douglass, a White woman from South Carolina , was imprisoned for a month in the city jail for teaching free black children to read the Bible. Douglass was apparently unaware that, after Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831, Virginia outlawed not only the teaching of slaves, but the teaching of any black person to read or write