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Grade-A-Year Gradualism
Nationally, the start of the 1960s marked a new era of hope for African Americans struggling for equality in American society. But, as many would soon discover, John F. Kennedy’s presidency did little more for Civil Rights than had his predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower. The true turning point
for black Americans was Kennedy’s assassination in November of 1963.
In Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, black Americans found a leader determined to change federal policy in regard to school segregation.
Before the November 1963 assassination, however, Lynchburg underwent several changes in its
own struggle for desegregation. The Lynchburg School Board submitted
its first plan for desegregation to Judge Thomas Michie [in the U.S. District Court of Western Virginia] on January 9, 1962, as part of Jackson v. City
of Lynchburg. Eventually, in 1962, Michie approved a “grade-a-year” plan, meaning the start of each school year would see another grade integrated. This, of course, would mean that it would take twelve more years for the Lynchburg schools to fully integrate. The uproar of disapproval from the black community was tremendous. Now that E.C. Glass had been desegregated, the African American community wanted district-wide action. M.W. Thornhill, a member of the Lynchburg Interracial Commission and later Lynchburg’s first black mayor, expressed his outrage with the slow pace of desegregation in February of 1962. “In 1954 Negroes would have accepted a grade-a-year plan. Now it is too late; we need integration now.”
The Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP hosted June Shagaloff, education specialist for the NAACP’s New York office, to speak to the local black community on March 3, 1962. In her speech, Shagaloff denounced gradual plans for desegregation and demanded immediate integration of the entire system for the same reasons
BY HENRY FAULKNER HEIL
Thornhill had earlier embraced. Speaking for the national organization, Shagaloff said that the NAACP wants “not token integration, not less than token integration...but meaningful integration.” Understanding the community divide among black citizens, but not excusing it, Shagaloff added
that she is “sure there are people who would like much more gradualism...no doubt, perhaps there are people here tonight who are dragging their feet. Let them drag their feet. We’ve got work
to do.” Although she was speaking to
an audience that seemed to approve of her remarks (the newspaper account mentions applause), it remains ironic that she represented one of Lynchburg’s most conservative black organizations. As if in response to Thornhill and Shagaloff, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond soon rejected Michie’s decision on the “grade-a-year” plan and began a process of negotiation that would last until 1970.
In many southern locales, integration brought about huge demographic and enrollment changes. Both “white flight” and the opening of private schools created problems for those hoping to see true desegregation. In Richmond, for example, white families moved out of the city and enrolled their children
in segregated county schools to avoid having them attend classes with black students. In Farmville, site of the original desegregation case, the closing of the public schools resulted in the private funding and building of an independent school, Prince Edward Academy, where most whites enrolled during the early 1960s. In Lynchburg, however, there
was little change in either demographics or private school enrollments between 1954 and 1970. White students and parents harbored little desire to move and enroll in county schools, where
the quality of education was worse and black populations tended to be higher. Likewise, few private schools in the city offered the quality or kind of education a student received at E.C. Glass.
So, problems that occurred in many southern cities appeared virtually non- existent in Lynchburg.
FROM TOP
Roanoke attorney Reuben
E. Lawson prepares to take depositions from defendants in school desegregation case. November 5, 1961.
School Superintendent M. Lester Carper, left, confers with the members of the State Pupil Placement Board before the opening of the school integration suit, November 14, 1961, in U.S. District Court. The Placement Board members are from left
to right: E. J. Oglesby, chairman; Alfred L. Wingo and Edward T. Justice.
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COURTESY OF THE NEWS & ADVANCE COURTESY OF THE NEWS & ADVANCE