Prince Edward Board of Supervisors passes resolution regreting school closing

I was very schocked and happy when I read this article in the Richmond Times Dispatch. The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors who are usually in the news for the foolish things they do such as the land deal gone bad, have finally done something worth commending. The Board voted to pass a resolution 7-1 apologizing for the role the county played in the school closing from 1959-1964 which was apart of the countys effort not to seperate the schools.

Prince Edward officials regretful
Supervisors' resolution says school closings from 1959 to 1964 were wrong

Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 - 12:08 AM

By DIONNE WALKER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Officials in Prince Edward County -- once ground zero for Virginia's Massive Resistance against school integration -- are expressing regret for the push that shuttered classrooms rather than let black children share them with whites.

The county's eight-member Board of Supervisors voted 7-1 Tuesday night to approve a resolution aimed at mending lingering tensions in the region where, in 1951, a group of black teenagers walked out of classes to protest separate but unequal facilities.

The resulting court case was bundled with others to form Brown v. the Board of Education and ultimately helped desegregate schools; later, county officials responded to a desegregation mandate by chaining public schoolhouses and sending white students to private schools. Their nine-year resistance was the longest in the nation.

Tuesday's resolution called the physical closing of schools from 1959 to 1964 wrong, and expressed remorse for "how those locked doors shuttered opportunities and barricaded the dreams our children had for their own lifetimes." It goes on to express sorrow for "all wounds known and unknown."
"The county was instrumental in what happened in the entire commonwealth and the nation as a whole," County Administrator Wade Bartlett said. "We're just trying to move forward from that."

The resolution comes as officials in Richmond prepare to unveil a civil-rights memorial honoring Barbara Johns, the 16-year-old who led the original walkout. Officials will unveil the stone slab ringed with images of Johns and other civil-rights pioneers on the state Capitol grounds July 21.
"It has come full circle," said Rita Moseley, 61, one of thousands of students forced from schools.
Frustrated with going to school in a subpar building with cramped classrooms and inadequate supplies, students walked out of Moton High School in Farmville on April 23, 1951.

They later partnered with attorneys, including Richmonder Oliver W. Hill, to take the case and others to the Supreme Court. The case resulted in the landmark 1954 ruling that struck down school segregation.

Virginia responded with what was dubbed Massive Resistance -- a systematic refusal to desegregate schools. By summer 1959, Prince Edward had chained the doors to local schools.
After a 1964 ruling forced the county to reopen schools, thousands of students like Moseley were left playing catch-up. She finished her bachelor's degree this May, using money from a state-established scholarship fund to aid victims of Massive Resistance.

Wording from the resolution will be included on a memorial slated for construction in front of the county courthouse. A perpetual light, to be unveiled atop the courthouse in conjunction with the Richmond memorial, will honor the late Johns and her classmates.