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Virginia & the Nation
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Prince Edward County
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1865
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April 9 – Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court
House
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1865
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April 6 – Sailor's Creek, last battle of Virginia campaign
in the Civil War
April 7 – Lee, then Grant, passes through Farmville
July – Freedmen's Bureau starts first school for blacks
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1870
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First public schools in Virginia
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1870
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First public schools in county open on segregated basis
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1896
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Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court Case approves legally enforced segregation,
establishing concept of "separate but equal"
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1897
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W.E.B. DuBois visits Prince Edward County
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1902
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Virginia Constitutional Convention disenfranchises most black
voters
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1920s- 1930s
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Black community petitions for high school grades and better
school facilities
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1930s-
1940s
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NAACP legal battles for equalization in all aspects of education
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1939
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Robert R. Moton High School built with PWA funding, one of
only ten black high schools in rural Virginia
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1948
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Tar paper buildings constructed at Moton High School to alleviate
overcrowding
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1950
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Sweatt v. Painter Supreme Court case changes NAACP
legal strategy from equalization to desegregation
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1951
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April 23 – Student strike at Moton
High School
May 21 – First Prince Edward school
court case filed, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward
County, Virginia
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1952
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Three judge Federal panel rules against
plaintiffs in Davis case. Ruling appealed by NAACP to the
Supreme Court
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1953
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New Moton High School built by county in effort for school
facilities equalization to thwart school desegregation court
case
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1954
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May 17 – Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court case rules "separate but equal" unconstitutional
June 25 – Governor Thomas Stanley states he will use
all legal means to continue segregated school in Virginia
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1954
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Oct – Defenders of State Sovereignty formed to preserve
segregation in schools.
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1955
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May 31 – Brown II Supreme Court case orders
desegregation of schools "with all deliberate speed"
Dec 1 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her
seat on bus in Montgomery, Alabama
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1955
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June – Prince Edward School Foundation formed to develop
private school education program
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1956
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Feb 25 – Senator Harry Byrd, Sr. calls for "massive
resistance" to desegregation
March 12 – Senator Harry Byrd and Congressman Howard
Smith of Virginia introduce the "Southern Manifesto"
in U.S. Congress as a resolution condemning Supreme Court
encroachment on states' rights
Sept – Massive Resistance legislation enacted in Virginia.
State tuition grants created to support private segregation
academy schools
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1956
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More than 4,000 white citizens petition County asking not
to be taxed to support integrated schools
May 3 – Prince Edward Board of Supervisors states that
it will not appropriate money for desegregated schools
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1957
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Sept – Central High School integrated,
Little Rock, Arkansas
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1958
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Sept – Massive Resistance laws invoked; 12,000 children
out of school in Norfolk, Charlottesville, and Front Royal,
Virginia
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1959
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Jan – Courts strike down Virginia’s
Massive Resistance laws.
Feb – Public schools reopen and begin to desegregate
in Arlington, Alexandria and Norfolk
Sept – Desegregated schools open without incident in
Charlottesville, Virginia
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1959
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May 9 – U.S. Court of Appeals orders Prince
Edward to desegregate public schools by September 1
June 26 – Board of Supervisors close public
schools after eight years of court cases and delays
Sept 10 – Public schools are closed and
Prince Edward Academy is opened for white students
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1960
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Feb 1 – Student lunch counter sit-in
in Greensboro, North Carolina
Virginia General Assembly passes revised legislation for tuition
grants to support segregation academy schools
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1960
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American Friends Service Committee begins efforts to send
students out of county for education
Prince Edward County passes local tuition ordinance to support
private segregated education
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1961
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May – Freedom Rider buses travel to South through Prince
Edward County
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1961
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Interracial group "Richmond Committee of Volunteers"
begins educational and recreational activities for out-of-school
children
Virginia Teachers Association organizes summer remedial education
program in Prince Edward
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1962
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University of Mississippi desegregated
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1962
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March 28 – Martin Luther King, Jr. visits county
Dec – U.S. Dept. of Justice joins
NAACP as friend of court in appeal of Prince Edward case
Hampton Institute, Harvard and Yale Universities organize
summer education programs
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1963
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Jan 1 – Centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation
April-May – demonstrations in
Birmingham, Alabama
June 11 – George Wallace makes stand in school door,
University of Alabama
June 12 – Medgar Evers assassinated
in Jackson, Mississippi
Aug 28 – March on Washington
Sept 15 – Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombed in Birmingham,
Alabama
Nov 22 – President John F. Kennedy
assassinated in Dallas, Texas
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1963
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Feb 28 – President Kennedy addresses
Prince Edward crisis in message to Congress
March 19 – Robert Kennedy speech,
"Something must be done about Prince Edward County,"
Louisville, KY
Continuing legal battles in school desegregation and tuition
grant court cases
Summer – Sit-in demonstrations for desegregated public
facilities and reopening of public schools
American Federation of Teachers and students from Queens
college organize summer educational programs
Kennedy Administration organizes the Free Schools
Association for Prince Edward
Sept 16 – Free Schools Association begins
classes; first formal schooling for black students since
1959
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1964
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Jan 23 – 22nd Amendment ends poll tax in Federal elections
Freedom Summer voter registration drive
July 2 – President Lyndon Johnson signs
the Civil Rights Act
Aug 5 – Cheney, Goodman & Schwerner murdered in Philadelphia,
Mississippi
Aug 18 – NAACP files suit challenging
Virginia state tuition vouchers
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1964
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May – Robert F. Kennedy visits Free Schools Association
May 24 – Griffin v. Board of Education
of Prince Edward County Supreme Court case orders the
reopening of Prince Edward County public schools
Aug – Free Schools Association ends eleven month program
Sept – Public schools reopen in Prince
Edward after five years of being closed
Dec – Virginia tuition grants declared
unlawful
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1965
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March 7 –"Bloody Sunday" at Pettus
Bridge in Selma, Alabama
Aug 6 – Johnson signs Voting Rights Act
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1967-
1970
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Continued black protest for adequate public school funding,
black teachers, and black representation on the county school
board
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1968
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April 4 – Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
in Memphis, Tennessee
May 27 – Green v. County School Board of New Kent County,
Virginia Supreme Court case overturns "Freedom Of Choice"
method of slowing public school desegregation. Produces first
large scale public school desegregation in most Virginia localities
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1969
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Tuition grants for segregated private education rulled unconstitutional
by the federal court
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1971
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April 20 – Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education Supreme Court case orders strong measures, such
as busing and school pairing, to accomplish full school desegregation
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1972
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Overcrowding at one county school the same as at Moton High
School at the time of 1951 strike
County forced to increase public education budget by 48 percent
in order to meet new minimum state standards
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1974
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Milliken v. Bradley Supreme Court case limits use of desegregation
methods to single jurisdictions
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1970s-
1980s
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White students gradually return to public schools
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1996
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October – Robert R. Moton High School is placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
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1998
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August – Moton High School is designated a National
Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the
highest level of historical recognition offered by the federal
government
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2001
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Robert R. Moton Museum opens in former Black high school
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