Forum focuses on the struggles of a half-century ago

Virginia first lady Anne Holton (right) listens as her father, former Gov. Linwood Holton, talks about the landmark moment when he enrolled his children in Richmond public schools.

By: Jim Nolan | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: July 17, 2009

A symposium at the state Capitol in Richmond on the era of massive resistance in Virginia highlighted the struggles of young students -- and the heroes and villains in the efforts to integrate the state's public schools following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education.

In his inaugural address in 1970, Gov. Linwood Holton declared that the policy of massive resistance -- a concerted effort to by the state and local governments to resist integration -- was over. Holton later sent his children to public schools in Richmond.

This morning, Holton and one of his children, Virginia's current first lady, Anne Holton, attended the event, sponsored by the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Holton said that early on in the struggle, disagreeing with massive resistance was a risky move for elected officials at the time, given the power of the political machine of Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr.

"If you vocalized any moderate position you were likely to be buried politically," he said. Villains, he said were many, later identifying Byrd by name. But it was more the mindset of many that kept the policy alive. They were people "who could not accept the fact that black people were the same as white people."

Newspapers in Virginia at the time, including the Richmond News Leader and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, helped shape the public discourse and lend editorial weight behind the segregationist policy.

The heroes, said Leroy Hassell, chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court and a fellow panelist, were the children and their parents, who persevered under the most difficult circumstances in the early days of the struggle.

"There was fear. There was intimidation. There was uncertainty," said Hassell, who was a 5-year-old growing up in Norfolk when the struggle began.

"But in spite of the fear, in spite of the economic pressures, they did not fold and go home," Hassell said.

"Had they gone home, the battle would have been over and we would not have realized our share of the American Dream."

Much of that dream remains to be fulfilled, said the panelists who participated in the morning discussions, moderated by University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato.

Disparities in funding and the diversity of public schools remain, as well as a reluctance in public life to openly discuss race and the need for greater diversity in public institutions.

The conference is set to conclude this afternoon, kicking off with a keynote address by a descendant of slaves -- the nation's first elected African-American governor, L. Douglas Wilder.