Here's Where It Gets Interesting - 154. Momentum: The Ripples Made by Ordinary People, Part 9

Episode Date: July 13, 2022

Today in our special series, Momentum: Civil Rights in the 1950s, Sharon begins by picking up after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was released. The courts ordered for integration “with all deliberate speed” which meant slowly and over time. This vague order left room for schools to drag their heels or ignore the ruling all together. A young student activist in Farmville, Virginia, Barbara Johns, organized and led a student strike, peacefully engaging with administrators to provide students with equal facilities, and later, integration. Fearing for her safety from angry community members, Barbara’s parents sent her out of town to finish high school. But Farmville wasn’t the only community that resisted integrated schools, and White Citizens’ Councils sprang up across Southern states. Many whites felt that integration was taking away states’ rights and causing chaos between the races.  Nevertheless, integration persisted as school districts and states lost cases in courtrooms across the country. Time and again, who do we see being the catalyst for civil rights change? Who pushed for brighter futures for themselves? Children. Next time, Sharon will introduce us to another young girl whose act of defiance and bravery lead to a tidal wave of change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends. Welcome. Welcome to the ninth installment of our special series called Momentum, which examines ordinary Americans and how they impacted the struggle for freedom in the civil rights movement. I'm Sharon McMahon, and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. In previous episodes, we talked about the people who gave their time, their names, and their lived experiences to help the effort to desegregate schools in the Brown v. Board of Education case. We also discussed Earl Warren and his role in creating a unanimous court in May of 1954. And now let's talk about what happened after the Brown versus the Board of Education decision was released. Did every state rush to integrate schools? Did they create comprehensive plans to make sure that all children had equal educational opportunities?

The simple answer is absolutely not. After the Brown opinion was released, the court ordered a second hearing. The first opinion that was released in Brown v. Board of Education went over the whys of this matter, why it was important to integrate schools. The second hearing focused on the how. How were schools around the country going to integrate? It wasn't just as simple as telling everybody like, okay, y'all get together and go to the same schools now. The Supreme Court realized that different regions of the country were going to require different approaches. So nearly a year later, in 1955, they heard what people now call Brown versus the Board of Education 2. In the opinion, they ordered schools to integrate with all deliberate speed. What does the phrase with

all deliberate speed mean to you? You might hear it and think, quickly and deliberately speed things along, right? Or maybe be speedy with your integration. Deliberately be speedy. That's what I thought when I first heard it, by the way. But that is not what the Supreme Court meant, and it is certainly not how segregationists in the South perceived it. perceived it. Deliberate in this context meant slowly, slowly and deliberately, slowly integrate schools. With all deliberate speed meant figure out a plan and over time make it happen. And that is exactly what segregationists set out to do. As they were creating plans for school integration, civil rights activists and lawyers made various proposals, many of which were rejected time after time. One lawyer who was exasperated asked, well, what do you think would be a reasonable time frame? This is, by the way, in 1955. And the opposing council

came back and said, 2020. I'm not even making that up. They proposed having completed school integration in the year 2020, beginning with the year 1955. So with all deliberate speed could be interpreted in so many different ways. Is 1956 fast enough? Is 2010 fast enough? What does that even mean? But the honest truth is to many segregationists it meant nothing. They chose to close their schools entirely. I have a podcast episode called The Lost Year. It is episode six, and it goes into the battle for school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock Nine were very prominent. They were on magazine covers.

The military was involved. President Eisenhower was involved. But many people forget about the Prince Edward County public schools in Virginia. Prince Edward County launched a campaign that they called Massive Resistance, and they completely ignored the Supreme Court's ruling to integrate schools. One are the cases that later became part of the Brown versus the Board decision? And in a previous episode, I told you about how the case became called Brown versus the Board, had to do with alphabetical order of multiple cases that were consolidated together. And so one of the cases that became part of this all-encompassing,

this umbrella of the Brown versus the Board of Education decisions was about Moton High School in Prince Edward County, Virginia. In the early 1950s, in a small town in Prince Edward County called Farmville, there were two high schools, a school for black children and a school for white children. The white school had things like a gymnasium and a cafeteria and an infirmary and other resources, and Moton High School, which was reserved for black students, had none of these things. In fact, it had 450 students crammed into a building designed for 180. The former principal described how there were always two or three classes being held at all times in the auditorium. There were classes that were held in tar paper shacks.

And sometimes classes were held in school buses. Members of the black community in Farmville and the local NAACP chapter worked hard to get a new school built, but the powers that be refused to allocate land or money to make it happen. This was exceptionally frustrating to a 16-year-old girl named Barbara Johns. to a 16-year-old girl named Barbara Johns. Barbara Johns came from a family of outspoken civil rights advocates. Barbara's mother later said that anything she believed and she was determined to continue to believe in, if you wanted to change her mind, you had to give her a lot of reasons.

In other words, Barbara was not easily talked out of things. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together, we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind-the-scenes stories, hilarious guests, and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve!

It is my girl in the studio! Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies

rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.

So Barbara went to one of her teachers, whose name was Inez Davenport, and she told her about how frustrating it was that this school that she was going to and that Ms. Davenport worked at didn't even have one single microscope to use in biology class. And so after listening to Barbara, Ms. Davenport said very simply, why don't you do something about it? And that question, that question just really resonates with me. Why don't you do something about it? just really resonates with me. Why don't you do something about it? Barbara decided that she would go on strike and she would encourage other students to do the same thing. And so one morning, she planned to have notes delivered to every teacher's classroom. And the notes said that the class needed to come immediately to the auditorium

for an emergency meeting. And once everybody was in the auditorium and they were seated, they said the Pledge of Allegiance, Barbara stood up and asked all of the teachers to leave. Barbara then rallied other students and encouraged them to go on strike with her until they got what they wanted, which was a new school building. It was actually not very hard to convince all of the other students to be on Barbara's side and to engage in a school strike. And after the meeting, instead of going back to class, they stayed on campus and they made signs. And they held up these signs and they said things like, we're tired of tar paper shacks. We want a new school. And of course, word got around. Of course,

all of the adults were not just like, oh, well, that's fine. No problem at all. Of course, the superintendent heard about it. And the next day he met with students and he was convinced the students had been set up by adults to engage in the strike. He didn't want to believe that it was Barbara's idea. So he told them that if they didn't all go back to class, they would be expelled and he would fire all of their teachers. But the meeting ended with him compromising and saying, fine, we'll build a new school. Barbara said that their goal was not school integration, it was equal facilities. She never dreamed that her idea for a strike would later become one of the catalysts of Brown versus the Board of Education. So the students decided to contact the NAACP for help.

NAACP for help. The NAACP chairs later said the students were so intent and they handled themselves so well that the chairs of the NAACP said, we will help you as long as your parents support your efforts. And they also said something else. No one could be content to stop with better facilities. The goal had to be school integration. And so the students agreed. They ultimately returned to school. And the NAACP held a parent meeting in the auditorium. Over a thousand parents arrived. auditorium. Over a thousand parents arrived, and at the end of the meeting, the parents agreed to approve whatever actions the NAACP thought was necessary. Now, as you can imagine, these actions didn't go over particularly well. Businesses in Farmville began to retaliate against people involved in this lawsuit. They refused to give them credit at different stores, or they refused to even serve them. They wouldn't allow them to

shop there anymore. A cross was burned on the lawn of Moton High School. In fact, Barbara's safety was so at risk that her parents had to send her away from Virginia to live with relatives in Alabama, and she finished high school there. Prince Edward County denied the NAACP's request to integrate schools, but they suddenly found the money to build a new high school. After it opened, high school. After it opened a little less than two years later, many white residents of Farmville were puzzled about why the black students and their families didn't drop the lawsuit. They said things like, we gave them what they wanted, a new school, why didn't the lawsuit go away? And so we know that, of course, this case went to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court found that schools must be integrated. And after they released that opinion, one of the senators

from Virginia, Harry Bird, said that the Supreme Court's decision was the most serious blow struck against the rights of states in a matter vitally affecting their authority and welfare. He said, in Virginia, we are now facing a crisis of the first magnitude. That was how much he disagreed with the concept of school integration. After the Supreme Court decision, white citizens councils sprang up all over the country, mostly full of affluent white families who opposed the integration of schools. And eventually, around 60,000 people belonged to one of these white citizens councils around the country. And their main goal was to actively work to keep the races separated. After Brown v. The Board of Education II, one of these white citizens councils held a meeting in Prince Edward County and about 1,300 people showed up.

And the council presented their plan to the crowd. They said that if a court ordered us to integrate, we'll simply close the schools. And Senator Byrd and other Southern members of Congress signed onto a document called the Southern Manifesto, which said in part, this unwarranted exercise of power by the court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the states principally affected. It's destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It's planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding. We commend the motives of those states which have declared the intention to resist forced integration. And I mentioned in episode eight that these themes of

people who believe something different than us are creating chaos, confusion, strife. That belief was pervasive amongst segregationists. They viewed what Black Americans were doing as, you're just trying to stir up trouble. You're just trying to create chaos. You're just trying to create division. We've been getting along up until now. That was the message that was communicated over and over and over in many spaces. And so the Virginia General Assembly, which is the legislature of the state of Virginia, passed a set of laws known as the Stanley Plan, which gave the governor power to close any schools that decided to integrate and to remove their state funding. So it basically said,

you are not allowed to integrate, and if you do integrate, you will get no more money from us. Virginia then proceeded to lose a series of court battles. This county lost in court, that city lost in court, and slowly schools around the state were being forced to integrate by court order, except for Prince Edward County. Prince Edward County decided instead that it was going to close the public schools and form private schools. And the private schools were only going to be available to white students, and they were going to give white parents tuition vouchers and property tax credits so that their children could attend. No such provisions were made for Black students. Now, it's not like every single white person

living in Prince Edward County in the 1950s was rich. There were many poor white families, and this actually impacted poor white families as well. Because even though they were being given credits on their property taxes and being given vouchers, sometimes a poor family would receive a bill for $250 for a school bus. And it was beyond what they could afford. And so this plan negatively impacted the community at large. And they didn't just affect school children, they affected entire families. Some parents had to enroll their children in the state welfare system, meaning signing over custody of their children so that their children could be placed with foster families in other parts of the state to be able to attend school.

Some parents had to send their children out of the county to go to school, driving very long distances to make sure that they had somewhere to go. Others had to send their children to live with relatives that were far away. several women started grassroots schools in homes and churches but they didn't want to make them into full-fledged private schools because they feared that if they created private schools it would impact the NAACP's lawsuit one student's father rented an empty dilapidated house just across the county line to establish the fact that he lived there. And then every morning he would drop his children off at this empty house so that a school bus could pick them up from the empty house and take them the rest of the way to school. to school. Prince Edward County closed its schools not for one year, like the students in Little Rock experienced, but for five years. For five years, Prince Edward County, Virginia, denied even the most basic of educations to their Black residents. This fact was very disturbing to the new Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s.

He gave a speech and said, sadness and irony that outside of Africa, south of the Sahara, where education is still a difficult challenge, the only places on earth known not to provide free public education are Communist China, North Vietnam, Sarawak, Singapore, British Honduras, and Prince Edward County, Virginia. Who made the changes that were needed to integrate schools? Children. Children helped integrate schools. Had it not been for Barbara Johns being willing to organize a strike, they would have likely never gone on to be part of the Brown versus the Board of Education

decision. It was children who were steadfast in their commitment. They used a three-pronged approach that we now know is a highly effective tool for creating change. Collective action, sustained commitment, and a determination to see change happen. It was children, ordinary children, who made the changes. ordinary children who made the changes. And in Alabama, it would be a 15-year-old girl who refused to give up her seat on a bus that would begin that momentum of collective action, of sustained commitment, and of a determination to achieve change. And yes, I said a 15-year-old girl. I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon Says So podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review?

Or if you're feeling extra generous, would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. I'll see you next time.