1. “Our Struggle for Equality: A Live Review of School Integration in Arlington, Virginia, 25 years ago,” presented by the Drama Club of the Calloway United Methodist Church, Arlington, 1984 Google Scholar . The gathering included reminiscences by most of the major participants in the 1940s and 1950s fight. A videotape may be found n i the Virginia Room, Arlington Public Library, Arlington. Many of the textural details in the narrative of this article come from a broad range of sources and are only cited when they are historically significant. For example, the clothing Leslie Hamm wore on opening day of school was determined by examining photographs appearing in the local newspapers.

2. Sampson, Paul and Feeley, Connie, “Negro Pupils Turned Down in Arlington,” Washington Post, 6 September 1957, Al and A17Google Scholar . The calmer mood of the crowd, in comparison to Little Rock, was probably because the post-World War II exodus of federal government workers from Washington into Arlington had mellowed the racial hostility in the suburb. “Violence was much less a factor in Virginia than in Mississippi or Alabama, and a less stifling climate of intimidation faced black activists as well as white liberals and moderates,” Lassiter, Matthew D. and Lewis, Andrew B.. The Moderates' Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia, ed. Lassiter, Matthew D. and Lewis, Andrew B. (Charlottesville, 1998), 5 Google Scholar.

3. “Negro Pupils Turned Down in Arlington,” Washington Post, 6 September 1957, A17 Google Scholar . The information about the placement of the state's segregation rules comes from remarks made Evelyn Reid Syphax at a panel discussion commemorating school desegregation at H-B Woodlawn School, Arlington, on 15 February 1996. Syphax was, for many years, a teacher in both Negro and integrated Arlington schools. Arlington Educational Television made a videotape of the panel discussion, “Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality,” a copy of which is available at the Arlington Public Library.

4. Washington Post, 6 September 1957, A20 Google Scholar . Almond's comment on Brown is taken from Ely, James W., The Crisis of Conservative Virginia: The Byrd Organization and the Politics of Massive Resistance (Knoxville, Tenn., 1976), 4 Google Scholar.

5. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

6. Roy Wilkins to Bob Robertson, 18 February 1959, NAACP Archives, III, A106. Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. Parenthetical remarks are as in original.

7. Ely, v.

8. Michelotti, Cecelia, “Arlington School Desegregation: A History,” The Arlington Historical Magazine, 8, no. 4 (October 1988): 5–19.Google Scholar

9. Mintz, John and Scannell, Nancy, “Arlington Officials Worked Hard to Achieve Peaceful Desegregation,” Washington Post, 2 February 1984, A13 Google Scholar . All three photographs featured in the article were of white Arlingtonians, and the text did not quote any of the black activists who had worked for desegregation. The only black person quoted in the article was Evelyn Reid Syphax.

10. Since first researching this article, a wonderful collection of articles was collected by Matthew D. Lassiter and Andrew B. Lewis (cited earlier), and it provides new insights into the fight against massive resistance. Several of the articles are cited below, but the focus of this article precludes their mention in the text. In their introduction, they suggest that to understand the demise of massive resistance “requires a broader examination of Virginia's political culture, of disagreements among white southerners over social and educational priorities, and of stories of individuals and local communities.” The Moderates' Dilemma, 2. It is the latter point that this article seeks to accomplish. On the other hand, the publication of this collection on whites of articles focused on whites continues the “invisibility of black actors.”

11. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

12. The use of the word “ramparts” was inspired by a comment made by James J. Kilpatrick, the apologist of massive resistance. He wrote about a feeling that brought southerners together after Brown v. Board. “All of us stand figuratively on the ramparts together, facing a common foe; and for the first time in years, we enjoy that wonderful camaraderie of brothers in arms.” Quoted in Thorndike, Joseph J., “The Sometimes Sordid Level of Race and Segregation: James J. Kilpatrick and the Virginia Campaign Against Brown,” The Moderates' Dilemma, 63 Google Scholar.

13. Wynes, Charles E., Race Relations in Virginia, 1870-1902 (Charlottesville, 1961), 147.Google Scholar

14. Woodward, C. Vann, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, 2d rev. ed. (New York, 1966), 97.Google Scholar

15. Washington Post, 27 February 1963, F1.Google Scholar

16. Ibid.

17. Hessler, William H., “A Southern County Waits for the School Bell,” The Reporter, 4 September 1958, 21.Google Scholar

18. Hessler, , “A Southern County Waits for the School Bell,” 21 Google Scholar . The Washington Post, 31 October 1993 Google Scholar , and issues of the Washington Post and the Washington Star, 1947 Google Scholar.

19. The information about the NAACP's participation in the selection of candidates is found in the Papers of Barbara Marx, Local NAACP Activity Files, Virginia Room, Arlington County Library, Arlington.

20. The chronology of events in the 1940s, as well as other information about the early activities of the NAACP bearing on schools in Arlington, is drawn from a manuscript, “NAACP School Activities,” contained in Barbara Marx's papers. Based on a comparison of the writing with items Marx signed and the fact that she i s mentioned in the short history, it is unlikely she wrote this work. More likely, it s something that she obtainedi when she became an officer in the NAACP. In addition, information about the branch's founding may be found in the membership files of the NAACP Archives, Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.

21. The Arlington School Board, in accordance with state codes, segregated seating at its meetings. Before the law was repealed, many white and black NAACP members purposely violated the seating plans.

22. Hoffman-Boston was a secondary school, meaning that it combined in one facility what would now be a middle school and high school.

23. “NAACP School Activities.”

24. Ibid. See issues of the Washington Afro-American, Pittsburgh Courier, and Arlington Sun in January and February 1947.

25. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

26. Per capita expenses for 1948-49 were $199.52 for a black pupil at Hoffman-Boston and $133.64 for a white pupil in one of the two high schools. Washington Star, 12 September 1957 Google Scholar . NAACP School Activities, 2. The figures are deceiving because the county lost all economies of scale by maintaining a separate, small school system for its black pupils. The Manasas high school was a regional high school for black pupils.

27. Washington Post, 10 September 1949 Google Scholar . Lassister and Lewis make the point that many districts in the South equalized funding as a means to forestall desegregation. This was not the case in Arlington, as the necessity of the lawsuit demonstrates.

28. Northern Virginia Sun, 2 September 1958, 1.Google Scholar

29. Opinion of the Court. Constance Carter v. School Board of Arlington County. Case File 331. General Case Files; United States District Court for Eastern Virginia (Alexandria); Records of the District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives and Records Administration-Mid-Atlantic Region (Philadelphia).

30. Kluger, Richard, Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality (New York, 1975), 473.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., 473. This focus on Virginia continued following 1954. The NAACP filed more school desegregation suits in Virginia than in any other state

32. Opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. 6064. 31 May 1950. National Archives and Records Administration-Mid-Atlantic Region (Philadelphia).

33. The role of women in the civil rights movement is fully explored in Olson, Lynne, Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 (New York, 2001).Google Scholar

34. “Facts Concerning Segregation and Integration,” November 1954 Google Scholar , published by the Arlington School Board Committee to Study Problems of Integration of the Arlington Schools. Campbell Papers.

35. “Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality”

36. Superintendent T. Edward Rutter to Elizabeth Campbell, undated 1955. Elizabeth Campbell Papers, Virginia Room, Arlington County Library, Arlington.

37. Spottswood Robinson to James E. Brown, 18 April 1952, Marx Papers, 18-2-1-1. Robinson was among the NAACP leaders who pushed early for trying to overturn Plessy v Ferguson and seek to have the courts declare segregation unconstitutional. See, for instance, Williams, Juan, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary (New York, 1998), 196 Google Scholar . In addition, Kluger points to the development of social science literature as having played a role in the altered strategy. Kluger, , Simple Justice, 314 Google Scholar.

38. Letter to potential NAACP supporters, undated but sent in 1953. Marx Papers, 18-1-1-13.

39. Kluger, , Simple Justice, 708.Google Scholar

40. “Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality.” In 1996, Hamm said of Broum, , “It's something that we felt should have been done years prior to that, but when that decision came out, it gave us the impetus to move ahead.” Washington Post, 4 February 1996, C5 Google Scholar.

41. Marx to members of Seventh District, 1 June 1954. Marx Papers: Local NAACP Activity Files.

42. Wilkinson, J. Harvie, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945-1966 (Charlottesville, 1968), 120 Google Scholar . In addition, Heinemann, Ronald L., Harry Byrd of Virginia (Charlottesville, 1996)Google Scholar , contains considerable material on the senator's role in crafting the state's policy of massive resistance.

43. Muse, Benjamin, Virginia's Massive Resistance (Bloomington, 1961), 7.Google Scholar

44. Instructions are contained in Campbell papers.

45. Hessler, , “A Southern County Waits for the School Bell,” 21.Google Scholar

46. Marx to branch presidents, 19 October 1954, Marx Papers, Local NAACP Activity Files.

47. Jesse Devore to Henry Lee Moon, 3 February 1959. NAACP: J5. Devore was dispatched to Arlington in 1959 to handle public relations and other matters on behalf of the national office.

48. Henderson to NAACP members, Marx Papers, Local NAACP Activities Files.

49. Marx to Clergymen, November 1954, Marx Papers, Local NAACP Activity Files.

50. Richmond Time-Leader, 15 November 1954, 4 Google Scholar ; “Facts Concerning Segregation and Integration,” November 1954 Google Scholar . Campbell Papers. Davis, who also testified briefly, pointed out that Gray thanked all the witnesses except for those who were black.

51. “Directive to the Branches,” adopted at Regional Emergency Conference, Atlanta, 4 June 1955. Marx Papers, Local NAACP Activities Files.

52. Petition to the School Board of Arlington County, 28 July 1955. Exhibit. Clarissa S. Thompson v. Count} School Board of Arlington County. Case file 1341. General Case Files; United States District Court for Eastern Virginia (Alexandria); Records of the District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives and Records Administration-Mid-Atlantic Region (Philadelphia).

53. Figures are drawn from membership rolls in the NAACP archives and from issues of “The Candle,” Virginia NAACP's newsletter. District Seven, in which Marx was active, had more than thirty dues-paying whites and four whites on the executive board. “The Candle,” May 1957.

54. Hessler, “A Southern County Waits for the School Bell,” 22.

55. When the Gray plan went before the General Assembly, only Armistead Boothe and a select few delegates from northern Virginia opposed it. Arlington Delegate Kathryn Stone, the only woman in the Assembly at the time, opposed not only the Gray plan but segregation. Her voice was a lone one. See Smith, J. Douglas “‘When Reason Collides with Prejudice’: Armistead Lloyd Boothe and the Politics of Moderation,” in Lassister, and Lewis, , The Moderates' Dilemma, 22–50 Google Scholar , for an excellent account of the few dissenters. See Gates, Robbins Ladew, The Making of Massive Resistance: Virginia's Politics of Public School Desegregation, 1954-1956 (Chapel Hill, 1964)Google Scholar , for more information.

56. Lassiter, and Lewis, , The Moderates' Dilemma, 6.Google Scholar

57. See Heinemann, Ronald L., Harry Byrd of Virginia (Charlottesville, 1996 Google Scholar . Heinemann's account of Byrd's role in massive resistance is the most complete yet published.

58. Minutes of the Committee to Study Problems of Integration in the Arlington Public Schools, 1.

59. Cox speaking at Fall Roundup of Arlington Public Schools Advisory Committees, 15 September 1955. Accounts of the speech are contained in Marx papers.

60. Minutes, 2.

61. Minutes, 1.

62. An interviews with an anonymous New York bond counsel appeared in the Washington Star, 15 January 1956, 1 Google Scholar.

63. “Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality.”

64. Trial transcript. Constance Carter v. School Board of Arlington County. Record of Constance Carter v. School Board of Arlington County. Minutes, 2.

65. Hessler, , “A Southern County Waits for the School Bell,” 21.Google Scholar

66. Langston also helped organize Howard University's law school, served in Congress, and was a diplomatic envoy.

67. Minutes, 2.

68. Washington Post, 6 June 1996 Google Scholar, Va. 2. E.B. Henderson was a man of many accomplishments, including writing one of the first books on black Americans in sports. He was a dominant figure in Virginia NAACP history. An anecdote is told about his wit and ability to remain cool. When testifying before a state committee seeking to curtail NAACP activities in the 1950s, Henderson was asked what race he was.

He replied, with a twinkle in his eye: “One of my great-grandfathers was an Indian. My father's father was Portuguese, and my mother's father was one of the highly respected white citizens of Williamsburg, VA. Her mother was this gentleman's slave. Now, which race do you suggest that I subscribe to?

The committee was silent, and he was asked no further questions. ( Washington Post, 6 June 1996, Va.2)Google Scholar

69. Henderson to Robinson, 14 January 1956. NAACP archives, III, A106.

70. Washington Post, 15 January 1956, 1.Google Scholar

71. Richmond Times-Leader, 10 February 1950, 1.Google Scholar

72. Washington Post, 10 February 1956, 30.Google Scholar

73. William Lightsey to General Assembly members, 5 February 1956. Barbara Marx Papers.

74. Wilkinson, , Harry Byrd, 113.Google Scholar

75. Buni, Andrew, The Negro in Virginia Politics, 1902-1965 (Charlottesville, 1967), 165.Google Scholar

76. Wilkinson, , Harry Byrd, 119.Google Scholar

77. Woodward, , The Strange Career of Jim Crow, 167, 160-61, 165.Google Scholar

78. Wilkinson, , Harry Byrd, 120–21.Google Scholar

79. “Our Struggle for Equality”

80. NAACP Archives, III: 75.

81. An account of speech is contained in Marx Papers: Local NAACP Activity Files.

82. Hussey to Mitchell, 11 November 1957. NAACP Archives, III: A106. Hussey referred to this discussion, in a later letter, as “tactical not a moral matter.” Hussey to Mitchell, 1 April 1958.

83. “Our Struggle for Equality.” Identity of Clarissa Thompson's family furnished by Dorothy Hamm, interview with author.

84. Washington Star, 4 June 1956.Google Scholar

85. Ibid. The information about Marx's husband was provided by her daughter Marx, Claire, “Our Struggle for Equality.”Google Scholar

86. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

87. Washington Star, 18 May 1956.Google Scholar

88. Kluger, , Simple justice, 506.Google Scholar

89. Washington Post, 18 May 1956, 3.Google Scholar

90. Order granting an injunction, contained in Civil Action 1341.

91. Letter to members, 11 August 1956. Marx papers, Local NAACP Activities Files.

92. United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 7303. The case was combined with School Board of the City of Charlottesville and Fendal R. Ellis, Division Superintendent of the Schools of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia v. Doris Marie Allen, et al.

93. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

94. Trial Proceedings, Clarissa Thompson, et al v. County School Board of Arlington County, 11 September 1957, 310–12Google Scholar ; Washington Afro-American, 17 September 1957 Google Scholar.

95. Finding of Fact and Conclusions of Law, 14 September 1957. The decision was also reproduced in its entirety in the Washington Afro- American, 17 September 1957.Google Scholar

96. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

97. “The Candle,” December 1957, 2.Google Scholar

98. Washington Star, 18 September 1957.Google Scholar

99. See discussion in Lassiter and Lewis, 3.

100. Advertisement in Northern Virginia Sun, June 2, 1958.Google Scholar

101. Ely, 78; Advertisement in the Northern Virginia Sun, June 2, 1958.Google Scholar

102. See Hershman, James H. Jr “Massive Resistance Meets Its Match: The Emergence of a Pro-Public School Majority,” in Lassister and Lewis, The Moderates' Dilemma, 104–33.Google Scholar

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104. Wilkinson, , Harry Byrd, 127.Google Scholar

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106. Marx to Hill, 12 March 1958, Marx papers, Local NAACP Activities File.

107. Muse, , Virginia's Massive Resistance, 58.Google Scholar

108. Barbara Marx to W. Lester Banks, undated, but during the summer of 1958. Marx Papers.

109. Northern Virginia Sun, 28 September 1958.Google Scholar

110. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

111. Plaintiff exhibit 1. Trial proceedings, Clarissa Thompson et al. v. County School Board of Arlington County. 3 September 1958.Google Scholar

112. Northern Virginia Sun, 9-18 August 1956.Google Scholar

113. Ibid., 3 September 1958, 1. Trial proceedings, Clarissa Thompson et al. v. County School Board of Arlington County. 3 September 1958.Google Scholar

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115. Order, 20 September 1958. Clarissa Thompson et al. v. County School Board of Arlington County.

116. Hamm, interview with author.

117. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

118. Ronald Deskins, “Arlington's Fight for Desegregation.”

119. Section 129 of the Virginia Constitution contained a guarantee of a public school system. The court determined that cutting off funding to schools and creating private school tuition grants violated that guarantee.

120. Muse, , Virginia's Massive Resistance, 123.Google Scholar

121. Ibid., 126.

122. Draft of speech contained in Marx Papers.

123. Marx speech.

124. United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, No. 7776. E. Leslie Hamm, Jr., et al. v. County School Board of Arlington County and County School Board of Arlington Count v. Ronald Deskins et al., 5.

125. Letter to Stratford students, Marx papers, Local NAACP Activities Files.

126. This account of the day's activities is drawn from notes made by Marx at the end of the day on 2 February 1959. Marx Papers, and confirmed in an interview with Dorothy Hamm.

127. Hamm, interview with author.

128. “Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality” and interview with Hamm.

129. “Our Struggle for Equality.”

130. Lewis, Anthony, “Virginia Viewed as Turning Point,” New York Times, 1 February 1959, 1 and 45.Google Scholar

131. Cecelski, David S., Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the Fate of Black Schools in the South (Chapel Hill, 1994), 57.10.5149/uncp/9780807844373CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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133. See, in particular, Murrell, Amy E., “The ‘Impossible’ Prince Edward Case: The Endurance of Resistance in a Southside County, 1959-64,” in Lassister, and Lewis, , The Moderates' Dilemma, 134–67.Google Scholar

134. Halpern, Stephen C., On the Limits of the Law. The Ironic Legacy of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Baltimore, 1995), 12.Google Scholar

135. “Arlington's Fight for Educational Equality.”