Virginia, Charlottesville
Lane High School. French Jackson, Donald Martin, John Martin.
Venable Elementary School. Charles E. Alexander, Raymond Dixon, Regina Dixon, Maurice Henry, Marvin Townsend, William Townsend, Sandra Wicks, Roland T. Woodfolk, Ronald E. Woodfolk.
On September 8, 1959, three African American children bravely entered Lane High School by order of U.S. District Court Judge John Paul. With the assistance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the children’s parents sued the Charlottesville City School Board for equal access. Their fight began in 1955, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision of the 1954 case, Brown v Board of Education. Parents took action to fulfill their civil rights by petitioning the Charlottesville School Board to transfer their children from the segregated Jefferson Elementary School and Jackson P. Burley High School. The School Board chose to take no action on the petition request In 1956, Judge Paul ruled that Charlottesville must integrate Lane High School and Venable Elementary School. The School Board filed several appeals contesting the decision to comply with integration. Using the strategy of “massive resistance,” Governor James Lindsey Almond, Jr. ordered the closure of Lane and Venable on September 19, 1958 to prevent the integration of the Charlottesville City Schools. When schools in Charlottesville reopened in February 1959, the School Board provided space in the Board office for students to take classes while they determined how to proceed with a plan for integration. On September 5, 1959, Judge Paul ordered the immediate transfer of twelve students who became known as “The Charlottesville Twelve.”
(African Americans • Civil Rights) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.