The whole concept of ‘massive resistance’ is unsettling and haunting. Indicative of this was the visceral reaction that almost all prominent Virginia politicians had to the prospect of desegregation. Harry Byrd and others would have rather closed all public schools than integrate, as evidenced by the Stanley Plan. It is terrifying to me that they would have clung to white supremacist’s ideals and let public education fall completely to the wayside. In this case, practicality, compromise, and progressive thinking were thrown out of the window in favor of hateful policies. It is amazing to read quotes from these men decades later – what was once considered standard conservative policy would in today’s society be looked at as rampaging racism, and hopefully would be punished by equitable voters. As a history guy, I like to take lessons from this; remember the past so we can look at our present-day society with informed perspective.
While reading Pratt I found much of the information to be hard to swallow. We all knew about Brown vs Board of Ed before reading this text, and were aware that there was strong resistance to desegregation in the South in the years that followed. However, as the statistics of the post-Brown era were disclosed, which clearly demonstrated that integration was not happening, even after massive resistance was politically abandoned, I began to wonder how different these stats were from modern day distributions of race. According to the 2010 census, the city of Richmond is 50.6% black, 40.8% white, 6.3% Hispanic or Latino, 3.6% mixed race, and 2.3% Asian. During the 2009-2010 school year, RPS enrollment was 85% black, 8.2% white, 5.6% Hispanic, and <1% Asian. Its clear that most white families residing in Richmond are not choosing the public school system. We have to ask ourselves, was integration ever successful? I think the most upsetting aspect of this account so far is the brazen methods used by the court system to maintain the status quo of segregated schools. The realization of how pervasive racism, white supremacy, and segregationist ideals were throughout our society and legislative discourse, and not very long ago, is upsetting at best. I had seesawing emotions while reading, wavering back and forth between despondency and hopefulness. It’s hard to have confidence in humanity and the inherent goodness of people when reading about the hard fought institutionalization of racism and segregation. On the other hand, while growing up when I was learning about segregation it was hard to imagine that it was once illegal for black and white children to go to school together. As a child I didn’t fully grasp the political, historical, and social underpinnings of segregation, but I knew it was wrong and immoral. I believe a child’s inability to rationalize bigotry and discrimination speaks to that inherent goodness of people. Perhaps my own children’s generation will have a hard time imagining that an achievement gap once existed, or that race relations was a prevailing issue in public education in the beginning of the 21st century. Or perhaps they will wonder why it is still that way. I hope for the former.
Both of you guys have really hit the nail on the head. As Ryan points out, the notion of "massive resistance" and the other ridiculously extreme measures taken by Sen. Harry Byrd and his cronies are indicative of a sense of entitlement that is completely foreign to me, yet I am separated from those times by a mere half century. Christina's statistics show that our city is still entrenched in a state of tokenized desegregation, despite the best efforts of reformers, families, and individuals.
What of this sense of entitlement, then? These men went to such extremes to marginalize an entire group of people based solely on skin color because they wanted to preserve their way of life. They literally believed with every bone in their body that integration would corrode their families' moralities and sensibilities, eventually corrupting their white children and therefore ensuring the demise of whites everywhere. Or, did they really believe this? I think that they worked themselves into such a frenzy that they realized they would be admitting that they were wrong if they budged, even a tiny bit. The reason I believe this is because of Gov. Stanley's initial approach to the issue of desegregation, which, the Pratt text states, was far less radical than massive resistance. Once the idea of desegregation had been allowed to ferment in white political circles, the politicians, drunk on power, began to bring the hammer down on any potential agent of change. What a sea change! Sacrificing entire school districts in the name of segregation is absurd.
I went to middle and high school in Mechanicsville, VA, a suburb to the northeast of Richmond that began to really take shape in the 1950s and 1960s. I have seen the results of the white flight to the suburbs that Pratt speaks of in the text. Mechanicsville, Glen Allen, and the West End are all bustling centers of upper middle class traditions. High-end malls and restaurants line Broad Street, Brook Road, and the Mechanicsville Turnpike. Richmond’s racially conscious planning during the time of men like Byrd and Stanley is still evident, and that is sad.
To wrap things up, I’d like to say that to me, the saddest part of all of this is the effect that such politicking likely had on the children. I’m no authority, but I’ll bet that facing such blatant racism as a young kid in Richmond had some pretty negative effects. What’s more is that on both sides of the argument, the kids had no voice in any of what was happening. Black children were forced to face issues beyond their scope of maturity as they were the tokens of desegregation, and white children were told that their classmates were inherently bad and savage. I’m willing to bet that, without the omnipresent issue of segregation and race, white kids and black kids would have enjoyed playing together just as much as any two white kids or any two black kids enjoy playing together.
One thing that troubles me greatly is how UNsurprised I am by the information in this book, even though I have heard none of it before; my own resignation, the “well, of course this is the way it went and this is how it turned out,” feeling. I can't decide if that's being jaded or being realistic. Erg, I hope it's jaded. The feeling is augmented by the fact that Old Rt 7 in Loudoun and Clarke Counties is known as the Harry Flood Byrd highway. We named a highway for this bigot? Great.
To add onto Christina's numbers, I noticed that somehow Fox and Mary Munford manage to buck the trend and have white majorities. This just adds to the feeling of geographic segregation leading to school segregation that pervades the beginning of Pratt. Why is it the case that these two schools are unique? Do more white parents from all over the city try to get their kids into these schools and have the means to get their kids to the building each day? I certainly hope this is the reason, and not a selection committee that systematically weeds out children of color and lower SES.
Josh, to your point, many locations throughout Richmond and Virginia remain shrines to the bigots of our past. Mills E. Godwin High School comes to mind, although still a predominately white demographic. I am sure with further research there are many street names and neighborhoods in Richmond still named for these people, and I am sure they can be found ironically in the parts of Richmond with the highest black populations. Anybody know of any more examples? I can't imagine what it must feel like for a black Richmonder to attend a school or live on a street dedicated to the very people who opposed him. Unfortunately, like James and Christina have touched upon these issues are still among us. Prince Edward County is still at battle with desegregation. Fuqua School was the private school created during Mass Resistance. (Everyone might recognize that name from School Closings during snow days. They are always out!) Fuqua School is still open and almost completely white, while Farmville is now predominately black. Fuqua School remains the school for the "good side of town" and everyone in Farmville knows it. They did not allow black students until 1986.
If you have time ,check this article out from the Washington Post about race at Fuqua last year. It will give you an idea about the continued struggles in Prince Edward. It is good.
Marie here Jonathan's and my posting crossed in the mail. I must have been editing in Word when he hit send. After I hit send I read his posting. Our similar connection about Mills Godwin and Prince Edward are uncanny as we worked independently. It may show that great minds - well you know.
At some point we Residents should share some personal perspectives about our elementary and high school experiences.
Marie here. The practice of Massive Resistance by Virginia is unsettling but not surprising. This book shows the extent of the collusion of the political system, realtors, businesses and local government in delaying implementation of Brown and perpetuating segregation. The clandestine meetings, media fanning the flames, all white commissions created to "study the problems created by the courts” and so on reflect poorly on Virginians and humanity. It is so troubling because of the ways that these systems were misused to maintain a way of life which white Virginia had long held and was comfortable with.
The different approaches cited by Pratt and the different plans that were hatched in the years following Brown were in some ways beyond ridiculous. The Stanley Plan, the Pupil Placement Board, Gray Plan that involved the General Assembly in a "13 bill anti integration" action and others show the extent to which those in leadership positions were willing to go to preserve dejure segregation in Virginia. Some of the plans called for Blacks families to jump through so many hoops that they would probably just stay put rather that challenge the system. The willingness to give the Governor authority to "close schools threatened with integration ... remove from the public schools roll", shows the callousness of the leaders of the time. What I noted most about Virginia’s reversion to "passive resistance" was the sinister way they avoided some of the overt confrontations such as those at Central High in Arkansas. Politicians seemed to think that the slow subtle approach would allow for the issues to go away or for other methods to work forestalling having to integrate. The underhanded methods that involved the real estate community and the steering of residents by race generated or perpetuated residential segregation that translated into geographical areas that essentially guaranteed continued segregated school up until busing was implemented.
Some say that states and municipalities should have been left alone to implement school desegregation. As an optimist at heart, I would like to believe that people would do the right thing because it is the right thing. They had not done so in hundreds of years. One example that shows how these attitudes manifested themselves is that Virginia holds the distinction of a county - Prince Edward - closing schools and having no publicly operated schools from 1957 to 1960.
Frederick Douglas said that “power concedes nothing without a demand, it never has and never will”. Based on the way White Virginians closed ranks to protect their way of life in the education system, it is obvious that without the grassroots push by Black parents, activism on the part of the NAACP and the courts; the entrenched practices would never have cracked.
Josh mentions the highway named for Harry Byrd. There is also a local high school named for Mills Godwin (also noted in the book for his obstructionist efforts) and we cannot forget Richmond’s Monument Avenue - these are our heroes. Go figure.
To me the most upsetting feeling brought on from the Pratt text emerges when I compare this history to present times. I can see how little has changed in some cases and that segregation in public schools continues to be a reality. One example that Christina pointed out is the disparity in the demographics of Richmond City and Richmond City Public Schools.
Another is the controversy that occurred in Wake County, NC recently. Since 1971 the school district had a policy of busing students from different areas of the city to different schools to create a mix of students that represented the population of the city. The NAACP boasted about busing using it as a model success story for social progress until last year when the school board announced its intention to abandon the policy. The idea of neighborhood schools started gaining traction with some community members. In neighborhood schools students attend school with those who live directly around them (i.e. poor with poor, rich with rich). Likely what we will see in upcoming years will amount to the resegregation of public schools in Raleigh.
It’s a complex situation that we have inherited and it is still evolving. Although there’s law saying we can’t segregate schools based on race that ends up happening anyway when we group school zones on neighborhood (especially in cities) which can be function of income.
Side Note: My favorite statue on Monument Ave is Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas.
I simply cannot get over the sheer amount of public opposition to integration. It's not to say I didn't already know about the incredibly and contentious moments during the battle but, to see the amount of effort displayed by the white opposition from a legal standpoint, really caught my attention. Every avenue was pursued from trying to get the black lawyers disbarred to forming boards specifically designed to drag their feet indefinitely. Call me naive but I just can't comprehend how so much hate could exist, and likely still does, all be it improved, within our city. Where were the "good" white people? I understand the book explains they did exist but were scared of the repercussions and of being ostracized, I can't help but think some injustice it too great to sit idly by.
This is my second time reading this book in a year. Like James, I grew up in the Greater Richmond area and am very familiar with the racial structure of the city and it's schools. I also grew up black in the city, and based on conversations within that community, knew much of what Pratt wrote, simply through word of mouth. Although, the book ends in 1989, the majority of the problems stated within its covers are still VERY pertinent to the structure and feel of the city today.
What surprises and saddens me most about the book and the state of the city of Richmond, is how many people live in ignorance of its racial history. People are always proud to discuss our heritage as the capital of the Confederacy, but quick to hush people about the racial problems of the city; usually, by stating that people who bring up those issues are racist themselves, race-baiting, or harping on an issue that they deem to be no longer "relevant." This ignorance, a lot of it willful ignorance, is what disturbed me the most when thinking about this text. How can we improve upon a problem, when many people of the city refuse to acknowledge the problem to begin with? The answer is simple: you cannot.
As a future social studies teacher, I, like Ryan, am desperate to bring things like Pratt's book to the forefront of our discussions as a community. Understanding our history not only prevents us from making mistakes in the future, but allows us to correct our present world. People need to stop being allowed to hide behind BS excuses and be made to face the fact that we are living in a self-segregated community, where children are suffering as a result. Place the blame where you will, but no matter how you look at it we have a problem. I feel like Pratt's book is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.
It was really interesting to hear about Lewis Powell. I knew of him because in the late sixties and early seventies my paternal grandparents lived next door to him on Rothesay Circle in the west end. As such my mother has always told me about him and how he was a Supreme Court Justice, but nothing about his involvement with the Richmond School Board. When his name first came up in the reading I felt sick to my stomach because I figured he was going to be as despicable and bigoted as the rest of the powerful white men mentioned. I was a bit relieved that the second chapter had that section clarifying that though he did not help with integration (and arguably could not, due to state control), he may not have actively obstructed. He was quoted to say that he wasn't racist, just used to the way things were, which may be the case. However, I happen to know a family anecdote that makes me question his lack of racism.
First of all, my father's family was from the north and living in Richmond they stuck out for being yankees. When it came time for my grandparents to move, they were considering selling their house on Rothesay Circle to a black family. The neighborhood got together and bought the house out from under that family for some inflation of the price in order to keep black people out of their neighborhood. Now I don't know for sure, but it seems likely that as part of the rather small neighborhood Lewis Powell was involved in this buy-out, evidencing that he was perhaps more willing to discriminate actively than he self described.
I mean, it seems perfectly possible too that he was just neutral in this matter as well as the school integration a decade before, that he was just a man interested in the status quo. I still feel pretty uneasy about him though.
also- I found this passage absolutely fascinating:
"Whites feared that if blacks could demonstrate that they could excel in any field of endeavor if given opportunities equal to those whites received, then they would prove once and for all that their exclusion from white society was based, not on their innate racial inferiority, but on whites' ingrained racial prejudice. Hence, the notion of racial inferiority would be exposed as a vicious lie, and segregation could no longer be justified."
Though I mildly understand the reasons and politics behind why white parents moved their children out of the city schools after the Brown decision, I find it difficult to understand why some of those traditions are still in place today. The part that is intriguing to study and examine is how those decisions that were made in the segregated past are still guiding Richmond Public schools. Many white parents living in the city would prefer to have their children go to schools where there is a mixture of all races. There is nothing wrong in not sending your kid to a predominantly black or predominantly white school. As a parent you want your child to be exposed to all races, not just a dominant one. The “monster” that has been created in years of segregation are these schools that were built purposefully in a neighborhood dominated by a single race. And even when there is some demographic change in a particular neighborhood, it doesn’t usually reflect in the schools. To change the system we are in would require effort from those communities most affected by this broken system. I don’t know if the people here are ready to integrate as we would like. Being that racism is much less visible (still heavily present) now there is little argument not to integrate properly without sounding silly or unintelligent. Why not redraw the school districts to cover parts of many neighborhoods rather than a single neighborhood?
Being new to Richmond, I had no idea what massive resistance was, so reading Pratt's book has been very eye opening for me. For me, the most upsetting thing was the elaborate lengths that were taken to avoid the integration of blacks and whites in the school system, and the lack of subtlety with which these measure were put into place. I was frankly shocked that the state would actually make laws and create entire "Boards" solely for the purpose of continuing integration. I also found the idea of tokenism to be interesting. Once it was explained, it seemed to almost be the obvious solution to avoiding integration. Sadly, I don't think the idea of tokenism ever really ended, although today it might be expressed in a much less obvious form.
Growing up in the Detroit area, I have been surrounded by a much less obvious form of resistance to integration that is still extremely prevalent today. When Detroit Public Schools began to integrate it's schools (busing) the whites fled to the suburbs. They very quickly segregated the schools themselves, simply by moving to new school districts, and this persists strongly today. Currently Detroit is 83% black, 10.6% white. Its public school system is 88% black, 2.5% white. It has been called the nation's most segregated city in both the Huffington Post and Time Magazine. Coincidence that Detroit Public Schools also has some of the most dismal test scores in the nation? And this self segregation is persisting even today, as white families continue to flee further and further north to avoid the city. From my experience at least, segregation is still very much alive.
As many of you have already said, one of the most disturbing aspects of the Pratt text so far is the lengths to which politicians were willing to go to resist integration. I mean, I expected to read about resistance, but the fact that a series of laws was put into place to blatantly oppose a Supreme Court ruling is still pretty shocking.
Another thing that stuck out to me, in the first chapter especially, was the use of the States Rights argument by Virginia politicians to mask the fundamental issues at play in the Brown decision. It seems as if Southerners, when holding a controversial opinion, always hide behind the facade of defending the rights of the states. To me, this seems like a pretty weak argument that people would have easily seen through, but that was apparently not the case.
Also, I think the quote that Emily posted is spot on, but I wonder if most Southern whites ever actually allowed themselves to ponder such things...
I really see the issues in posting so late in the game. A lot of my concerns about the text have already been expressed very articulately and I won't rehash what my classmates have already outlined. I will, however state which points were the most disturbing to me. Like just about everyone before me has said, it was so surreal to read the elaborate lengths not only Virginia went through, but Richmond did as well to avoid integration. Everything that was proposed as anti-integration made me a little sick to my stomach and I just couldn't believe the strength of those lengths. Massive resistance? Making entire districts suffer just to avoid having black children join in a classroom, a school bus, any extra curricular activity is not only extreme, but it makes me wonder how they could have gotten away with it so long without interference at the highest level of government. Virginia blatantly went against everything that the Supreme Court was ruling and constantly finding ways to push back. Kind of similar to Derek, I was wondering about any other sides to the story that weren't really explored in depth because it couldn't all be bad right? It's hard to believe that there was no hope, and knowing that a lot of the racial background in Richmond is pretty similar today as it was fifty years ago, I was concerned about other voices that may have kept this text from sounding so fatalistic. I'd like to believe that I am not going into a school system that isn't as dire as it sounds. But the reality is that I just may be.
What MOSTLY shook me up about the first two chapters, though, was very similar to Josh. Like him I had never read this text before and as I was going and the state of affairs was getting worse and worse in the book I just shook my head and kept going. I wasn't surprised. I was phased by it, but no I was not surprised by the things that I read. Maybe it is because there is evidence of it when I look for it and think about it, or maybe it has to do something with DC's racial background that has been really candy coated while learning DC History in middle school, but the fact that I wasn't shocked at all says something about what I already know about racial segregation and racism.
I, as my classmates, was most shocked by the extent and nature of the resistance to integration. It was hard for me to wrap my head around politicians and community leaders so openly scheming to beat integration laws. While racism and school segregation are clearly still problems today, it seems that the dialogue has greatly changed. We still have major segregation problems across the country, but the conversation surrounding this issue seems to be focused on zoning/money matters. I can understand the challenge of including race in socio-economic conversations without implying that these identifying factors are inextricably linked, but unfortunately we have not eliminated such correlation from our society. Huso suggested redrawing school boundary lines to create more racially diverse schools. If I had children, I would want them to attend a school with a diverse student population, racially and otherwise. However, I would be concerned about the funding issues that may come with redrawing tax boundary lines. As a soon-to-be teacher, I hope that I will care about other peoples' children as if they were my own. In reality, I'm not sure if this is reasonable to expect of myself or of parents who may need to compromise the resources available to their own children in the name of improving education for all. Education is both a public and a private good, and peoples' definitions of optimum education for their children and the public are often not aligned.
After reading these two chapters, I'm very interested in reading Marie's paper!
The whole concept of ‘massive resistance’ is unsettling and haunting. Indicative of this was the visceral reaction that almost all prominent Virginia politicians had to the prospect of desegregation. Harry Byrd and others would have rather closed all public schools than integrate, as evidenced by the Stanley Plan. It is terrifying to me that they would have clung to white supremacist’s ideals and let public education fall completely to the wayside. In this case, practicality, compromise, and progressive thinking were thrown out of the window in favor of hateful policies. It is amazing to read quotes from these men decades later – what was once considered standard conservative policy would in today’s society be looked at as rampaging racism, and hopefully would be punished by equitable voters. As a history guy, I like to take lessons from this; remember the past so we can look at our present-day society with informed perspective.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Pratt I found much of the information to be hard to swallow. We all knew about Brown vs Board of Ed before reading this text, and were aware that there was strong resistance to desegregation in the South in the years that followed. However, as the statistics of the post-Brown era were disclosed, which clearly demonstrated that integration was not happening, even after massive resistance was politically abandoned, I began to wonder how different these stats were from modern day distributions of race. According to the 2010 census, the city of Richmond is 50.6% black, 40.8% white, 6.3% Hispanic or Latino, 3.6% mixed race, and 2.3% Asian. During the 2009-2010 school year, RPS enrollment was 85% black, 8.2% white, 5.6% Hispanic, and <1% Asian. Its clear that most white families residing in Richmond are not choosing the public school system. We have to ask ourselves, was integration ever successful?
ReplyDeleteI think the most upsetting aspect of this account so far is the brazen methods used by the court system to maintain the status quo of segregated schools. The realization of how pervasive racism, white supremacy, and segregationist ideals were throughout our society and legislative discourse, and not very long ago, is upsetting at best. I had seesawing emotions while reading, wavering back and forth between despondency and hopefulness. It’s hard to have confidence in humanity and the inherent goodness of people when reading about the hard fought institutionalization of racism and segregation. On the other hand, while growing up when I was learning about segregation it was hard to imagine that it was once illegal for black and white children to go to school together. As a child I didn’t fully grasp the political, historical, and social underpinnings of segregation, but I knew it was wrong and immoral. I believe a child’s inability to rationalize bigotry and discrimination speaks to that inherent goodness of people. Perhaps my own children’s generation will have a hard time imagining that an achievement gap once existed, or that race relations was a prevailing issue in public education in the beginning of the 21st century. Or perhaps they will wonder why it is still that way. I hope for the former.
Both of you guys have really hit the nail on the head. As Ryan points out, the notion of "massive resistance" and the other ridiculously extreme measures taken by Sen. Harry Byrd and his cronies are indicative of a sense of entitlement that is completely foreign to me, yet I am separated from those times by a mere half century. Christina's statistics show that our city is still entrenched in a state of tokenized desegregation, despite the best efforts of reformers, families, and individuals.
ReplyDeleteWhat of this sense of entitlement, then? These men went to such extremes to marginalize an entire group of people based solely on skin color because they wanted to preserve their way of life. They literally believed with every bone in their body that integration would corrode their families' moralities and sensibilities, eventually corrupting their white children and therefore ensuring the demise of whites everywhere. Or, did they really believe this? I think that they worked themselves into such a frenzy that they realized they would be admitting that they were wrong if they budged, even a tiny bit. The reason I believe this is because of Gov. Stanley's initial approach to the issue of desegregation, which, the Pratt text states, was far less radical than massive resistance. Once the idea of desegregation had been allowed to ferment in white political circles, the politicians, drunk on power, began to bring the hammer down on any potential agent of change. What a sea change! Sacrificing entire school districts in the name of segregation is absurd.
I went to middle and high school in Mechanicsville, VA, a suburb to the northeast of Richmond that began to really take shape in the 1950s and 1960s. I have seen the results of the white flight to the suburbs that Pratt speaks of in the text. Mechanicsville, Glen Allen, and the West End are all bustling centers of upper middle class traditions. High-end malls and restaurants line Broad Street, Brook Road, and the Mechanicsville Turnpike. Richmond’s racially conscious planning during the time of men like Byrd and Stanley is still evident, and that is sad.
To wrap things up, I’d like to say that to me, the saddest part of all of this is the effect that such politicking likely had on the children. I’m no authority, but I’ll bet that facing such blatant racism as a young kid in Richmond had some pretty negative effects. What’s more is that on both sides of the argument, the kids had no voice in any of what was happening. Black children were forced to face issues beyond their scope of maturity as they were the tokens of desegregation, and white children were told that their classmates were inherently bad and savage. I’m willing to bet that, without the omnipresent issue of segregation and race, white kids and black kids would have enjoyed playing together just as much as any two white kids or any two black kids enjoy playing together.
One thing that troubles me greatly is how UNsurprised I am by the information in this book, even though I have heard none of it before; my own resignation, the “well, of course this is the way it went and this is how it turned out,” feeling. I can't decide if that's being jaded or being realistic. Erg, I hope it's jaded. The feeling is augmented by the fact that Old Rt 7 in Loudoun and Clarke Counties is known as the Harry Flood Byrd highway. We named a highway for this bigot? Great.
ReplyDeleteTo add onto Christina's numbers, I noticed that somehow Fox and Mary Munford manage to buck the trend and have white majorities. This just adds to the feeling of geographic segregation leading to school segregation that pervades the beginning of Pratt. Why is it the case that these two schools are unique? Do more white parents from all over the city try to get their kids into these schools and have the means to get their kids to the building each day? I certainly hope this is the reason, and not a selection committee that systematically weeds out children of color and lower SES.
Feeling paranoid . . .
Josh, to your point, many locations throughout Richmond and Virginia remain shrines to the bigots of our past. Mills E. Godwin High School comes to mind, although still a predominately white demographic. I am sure with further research there are many street names and neighborhoods in Richmond still named for these people, and I am sure they can be found ironically in the parts of Richmond with the highest black populations. Anybody know of any more examples? I can't imagine what it must feel like for a black Richmonder to attend a school or live on a street dedicated to the very people who opposed him.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, like James and Christina have touched upon these issues are still among us. Prince Edward County is still at battle with desegregation. Fuqua School was the private school created during Mass Resistance. (Everyone might recognize that name from School Closings during snow days. They are always out!) Fuqua School is still open and almost completely white, while Farmville is now predominately black. Fuqua School remains the school for the "good side of town" and everyone in Farmville knows it. They did not allow black students until 1986.
If you have time ,check this article out from the Washington Post about race at Fuqua last year. It will give you an idea about the continued struggles in Prince Edward. It is good.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fuqua-school-looks-to-african-american-football-star-to-shatter-racist-legacy/2011/11/05/gIQAKTWKoO_story.html
Marie here
DeleteJonathan's and my posting crossed in the mail. I must have been editing in Word when he hit send. After I hit send I read his posting. Our similar connection about Mills Godwin and Prince Edward are uncanny as we worked independently. It may show that great minds - well you know.
At some point we Residents should share some personal perspectives about our elementary and high school experiences.
Marie here.
ReplyDeleteThe practice of Massive Resistance by Virginia is unsettling but not surprising. This book shows the extent of the collusion of the political system, realtors, businesses and local government in delaying implementation of Brown and perpetuating segregation. The clandestine meetings, media fanning the flames, all white commissions created to "study the problems created by the courts” and so on reflect poorly on Virginians and humanity. It is so troubling because of the ways that these systems were misused to maintain a way of life which white Virginia had long held and was comfortable with.
The different approaches cited by Pratt and the different plans that were hatched in the years following Brown were in some ways beyond ridiculous. The Stanley Plan, the Pupil Placement Board, Gray Plan that involved the General Assembly in a "13 bill anti integration" action and others show the extent to which those in leadership positions were willing to go to preserve dejure segregation in Virginia. Some of the plans called for Blacks families to jump through so many hoops that they would probably just stay put rather that challenge the system. The willingness to give the Governor authority to "close schools threatened with integration ... remove from the public schools roll", shows the callousness of the leaders of the time. What I noted most about Virginia’s reversion to "passive resistance" was the sinister way they avoided some of the overt confrontations such as those at Central High in Arkansas. Politicians seemed to think that the slow subtle approach would allow for the issues to go away or for other methods to work forestalling having to integrate. The underhanded methods that involved the real estate community and the steering of residents by race generated or perpetuated residential segregation that translated into geographical areas that essentially guaranteed continued segregated school up until busing was implemented.
Some say that states and municipalities should have been left alone to implement school desegregation. As an optimist at heart, I would like to believe that people would do the right thing because it is the right thing. They had not done so in hundreds of years. One example that shows how these attitudes manifested themselves is that Virginia holds the distinction of a county - Prince Edward - closing schools and having no publicly operated schools from 1957 to 1960.
Frederick Douglas said that “power concedes nothing without a demand, it never has and never will”. Based on the way White Virginians closed ranks to protect their way of life in the education system, it is obvious that without the grassroots push by Black parents, activism on the part of the NAACP and the courts; the entrenched practices would never have cracked.
Josh mentions the highway named for Harry Byrd. There is also a local high school named for Mills Godwin (also noted in the book for his obstructionist efforts) and we cannot forget Richmond’s Monument Avenue - these are our heroes. Go figure.
This comment has been removed by the author.
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DeleteTo me the most upsetting feeling brought on from the Pratt text emerges when I compare this history to present times. I can see how little has changed in some cases and that segregation in public schools continues to be a reality. One example that Christina pointed out is the disparity in the demographics of Richmond City and Richmond City Public Schools.
DeleteAnother is the controversy that occurred in Wake County, NC recently. Since 1971 the school district had a policy of busing students from different areas of the city to different schools to create a mix of students that represented the population of the city. The NAACP boasted about busing using it as a model success story for social progress until last year when the school board announced its intention to abandon the policy. The idea of neighborhood schools started gaining traction with some community members. In neighborhood schools students attend school with those who live directly around them (i.e. poor with poor, rich with rich). Likely what we will see in upcoming years will amount to the resegregation of public schools in Raleigh.
It’s a complex situation that we have inherited and it is still evolving. Although there’s law saying we can’t segregate schools based on race that ends up happening anyway when we group school zones on neighborhood (especially in cities) which can be function of income.
Side Note: My favorite statue on Monument Ave is Matthew Fontaine Maury, the Pathfinder of the Seas.
I simply cannot get over the sheer amount of public opposition to integration. It's not to say I didn't already know about the incredibly and contentious moments during the battle but, to see the amount of effort displayed by the white opposition from a legal standpoint, really caught my attention. Every avenue was pursued from trying to get the black lawyers disbarred to forming boards specifically designed to drag their feet indefinitely. Call me naive but I just can't comprehend how so much hate could exist, and likely still does, all be it improved, within our city. Where were the "good" white people? I understand the book explains they did exist but were scared of the repercussions and of being ostracized, I can't help but think some injustice it too great to sit idly by.
ReplyDeleteThis is my second time reading this book in a year. Like James, I grew up in the Greater Richmond area and am very familiar with the racial structure of the city and it's schools. I also grew up black in the city, and based on conversations within that community, knew much of what Pratt wrote, simply through word of mouth. Although, the book ends in 1989, the majority of the problems stated within its covers are still VERY pertinent to the structure and feel of the city today.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprises and saddens me most about the book and the state of the city of Richmond, is how many people live in ignorance of its racial history. People are always proud to discuss our heritage as the capital of the Confederacy, but quick to hush people about the racial problems of the city; usually, by stating that people who bring up those issues are racist themselves, race-baiting, or harping on an issue that they deem to be no longer "relevant." This ignorance, a lot of it willful ignorance, is what disturbed me the most when thinking about this text. How can we improve upon a problem, when many people of the city refuse to acknowledge the problem to begin with? The answer is simple: you cannot.
As a future social studies teacher, I, like Ryan, am desperate to bring things like Pratt's book to the forefront of our discussions as a community. Understanding our history not only prevents us from making mistakes in the future, but allows us to correct our present world. People need to stop being allowed to hide behind BS excuses and be made to face the fact that we are living in a self-segregated community, where children are suffering as a result. Place the blame where you will, but no matter how you look at it we have a problem. I feel like Pratt's book is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done.
It was really interesting to hear about Lewis Powell. I knew of him because in the late sixties and early seventies my paternal grandparents lived next door to him on Rothesay Circle in the west end. As such my mother has always told me about him and how he was a Supreme Court Justice, but nothing about his involvement with the Richmond School Board. When his name first came up in the reading I felt sick to my stomach because I figured he was going to be as despicable and bigoted as the rest of the powerful white men mentioned. I was a bit relieved that the second chapter had that section clarifying that though he did not help with integration (and arguably could not, due to state control), he may not have actively obstructed. He was quoted to say that he wasn't racist, just used to the way things were, which may be the case. However, I happen to know a family anecdote that makes me question his lack of racism.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, my father's family was from the north and living in Richmond they stuck out for being yankees. When it came time for my grandparents to move, they were considering selling their house on Rothesay Circle to a black family. The neighborhood got together and bought the house out from under that family for some inflation of the price in order to keep black people out of their neighborhood. Now I don't know for sure, but it seems likely that as part of the rather small neighborhood Lewis Powell was involved in this buy-out, evidencing that he was perhaps more willing to discriminate actively than he self described.
I mean, it seems perfectly possible too that he was just neutral in this matter as well as the school integration a decade before, that he was just a man interested in the status quo. I still feel pretty uneasy about him though.
also- I found this passage absolutely fascinating:
"Whites feared that if blacks could demonstrate that they could excel in any field of endeavor if given opportunities equal to those whites received, then they would prove once and for all that their exclusion from white society was based, not on their innate racial inferiority, but on whites' ingrained racial prejudice. Hence, the notion of racial inferiority would be exposed as a vicious lie, and segregation could no longer be justified."
Though I mildly understand the reasons and politics behind why white parents moved their children out of the city schools after the Brown decision, I find it difficult to understand why some of those traditions are still in place today. The part that is intriguing to study and examine is how those decisions that were made in the segregated past are still guiding Richmond Public schools. Many white parents living in the city would prefer to have their children go to schools where there is a mixture of all races. There is nothing wrong in not sending your kid to a predominantly black or predominantly white school. As a parent you want your child to be exposed to all races, not just a dominant one. The “monster” that has been created in years of segregation are these schools that were built purposefully in a neighborhood dominated by a single race. And even when there is some demographic change in a particular neighborhood, it doesn’t usually reflect in the schools.
ReplyDeleteTo change the system we are in would require effort from those communities most affected by this broken system. I don’t know if the people here are ready to integrate as we would like. Being that racism is much less visible (still heavily present) now there is little argument not to integrate properly without sounding silly or unintelligent. Why not redraw the school districts to cover parts of many neighborhoods rather than a single neighborhood?
Being new to Richmond, I had no idea what massive resistance was, so reading Pratt's book has been very eye opening for me. For me, the most upsetting thing was the elaborate lengths that were taken to avoid the integration of blacks and whites in the school system, and the lack of subtlety with which these measure were put into place. I was frankly shocked that the state would actually make laws and create entire "Boards" solely for the purpose of continuing integration. I also found the idea of tokenism to be interesting. Once it was explained, it seemed to almost be the obvious solution to avoiding integration. Sadly, I don't think the idea of tokenism ever really ended, although today it might be expressed in a much less obvious form.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the Detroit area, I have been surrounded by a much less obvious form of resistance to integration that is still extremely prevalent today. When Detroit Public Schools began to integrate it's schools (busing) the whites fled to the suburbs. They very quickly segregated the schools themselves, simply by moving to new school districts, and this persists strongly today. Currently Detroit is 83% black, 10.6% white. Its public school system is 88% black, 2.5% white. It has been called the nation's most segregated city in both the Huffington Post and Time Magazine. Coincidence that Detroit Public Schools also has some of the most dismal test scores in the nation? And this self segregation is persisting even today, as white families continue to flee further and further north to avoid the city. From my experience at least, segregation is still very much alive.
As many of you have already said, one of the most disturbing aspects of the Pratt text so far is the lengths to which politicians were willing to go to resist integration. I mean, I expected to read about resistance, but the fact that a series of laws was put into place to blatantly oppose a Supreme Court ruling is still pretty shocking.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that stuck out to me, in the first chapter especially, was the use of the States Rights argument by Virginia politicians to mask the fundamental issues at play in the Brown decision. It seems as if Southerners, when holding a controversial opinion, always hide behind the facade of defending the rights of the states. To me, this seems like a pretty weak argument that people would have easily seen through, but that was apparently not the case.
Also, I think the quote that Emily posted is spot on, but I wonder if most Southern whites ever actually allowed themselves to ponder such things...
I really see the issues in posting so late in the game. A lot of my concerns about the text have already been expressed very articulately and I won't rehash what my classmates have already outlined. I will, however state which points were the most disturbing to me. Like just about everyone before me has said, it was so surreal to read the elaborate lengths not only Virginia went through, but Richmond did as well to avoid integration. Everything that was proposed as anti-integration made me a little sick to my stomach and I just couldn't believe the strength of those lengths. Massive resistance? Making entire districts suffer just to avoid having black children join in a classroom, a school bus, any extra curricular activity is not only extreme, but it makes me wonder how they could have gotten away with it so long without interference at the highest level of government. Virginia blatantly went against everything that the Supreme Court was ruling and constantly finding ways to push back. Kind of similar to Derek, I was wondering about any other sides to the story that weren't really explored in depth because it couldn't all be bad right? It's hard to believe that there was no hope, and knowing that a lot of the racial background in Richmond is pretty similar today as it was fifty years ago, I was concerned about other voices that may have kept this text from sounding so fatalistic. I'd like to believe that I am not going into a school system that isn't as dire as it sounds. But the reality is that I just may be.
ReplyDeleteWhat MOSTLY shook me up about the first two chapters, though, was very similar to Josh. Like him I had never read this text before and as I was going and the state of affairs was getting worse and worse in the book I just shook my head and kept going. I wasn't surprised. I was phased by it, but no I was not surprised by the things that I read. Maybe it is because there is evidence of it when I look for it and think about it, or maybe it has to do something with DC's racial background that has been really candy coated while learning DC History in middle school, but the fact that I wasn't shocked at all says something about what I already know about racial segregation and racism.
I, as my classmates, was most shocked by the extent and nature of the resistance to integration. It was hard for me to wrap my head around politicians and community leaders so openly scheming to beat integration laws. While racism and school segregation are clearly still problems today, it seems that the dialogue has greatly changed. We still have major segregation problems across the country, but the conversation surrounding this issue seems to be focused on zoning/money matters. I can understand the challenge of including race in socio-economic conversations without implying that these identifying factors are inextricably linked, but unfortunately we have not eliminated such correlation from our society. Huso suggested redrawing school boundary lines to create more racially diverse schools. If I had children, I would want them to attend a school with a diverse student population, racially and otherwise. However, I would be concerned about the funding issues that may come with redrawing tax boundary lines. As a soon-to-be teacher, I hope that I will care about other peoples' children as if they were my own. In reality, I'm not sure if this is reasonable to expect of myself or of parents who may need to compromise the resources available to their own children in the name of improving education for all. Education is both a public and a private good, and peoples' definitions of optimum education for their children and the public are often not aligned.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading these two chapters, I'm very interested in reading Marie's paper!