Black students helped end 'Massive Resistance'

Ten of the 14 surviving members of the Norfolk 17--who went on to integrate the public schools, enduring isolation and their classmates' scorn--attended the service at the First Baptist Church, where they were remembered as fearless civil rights pioneers in the segregated South.

"We're here to celebrate history," the Rev. Robert G. Murray told the packed congregation. "All God's children deserve an education."

The 17 were among thousands of black students denied a place in the classroom during "Massive Resistance," Virginia's state-sponsored answer to the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that declared school segregation unconstitutional.

"There were 17 stories. Each one of us has our own story. My brother died 14 years ago. His story is lost," said Patricia Turner, who along with her late brother James Turner Jr. was among the 17.

Virginia's Massive Resistance cut funds to any school that dared to integrate.

Schools were closed and private academies were created to educate white students who could afford the tuition. The policy primarily affected schools in Charlottesville, Norfolk and Prince Edward County, which continued its own homegrown version of school segregation until 1964.

In Norfolk, three all-white high schools and three junior high schools closed between September 1958 and February 1959 rather than accept black students.

The Norfolk 17 were turned away from those six schools. At First Baptist Church, the 17 said they found loving, attentive and demanding teachers.

In January 1959, state and federal courts declared that the school closings were unconstitutional. The Norfolk schools reopened in Feb. 2, 1959, and the 17 went on to attend the white schools, ending the era of Massive Resistance.