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The civil rights movement was one phase in the longer black freedom struggle that began
when the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619. [continue]
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Jim Crow, taking its name from a fictional minstrel character, was the name given to America's own system of racial apartheid. [continue]
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Washington became known as an apostle of accommodation and, until his death in 1915, was the undoubted spokesman of black Americans. [continue]
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Du Bois was the first black recipient of a history degree from Harvard University. He argued for "ceaseless agitation and insistent demand for equality." [continue]
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Very few black Virginians received any education at all until public schools were established during Reconstruction. [continue]
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America could not claim to be the defender of freedom and democracy when it practiced segregation and discrimination at home. [continue]
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On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'Separate but equal' has no place." [continue]
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The linchpin of Massive Resistance was a law that cut off state funds and closed any public school that agreed to integrate. [continue]
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By 1964 only 5 percent of black students in Virginia were attending integrated schools. The chief reason for this lack of progress was the Pupil Placement Board. [continue] |
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In May 1959 Prince Edward County chose to close its entire public school system rather than integrate it. [continue]
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By 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court had lost patience with the slow pace of school integration. A lawsuit contended that freedom-of-choice plans made desegregation a sham. [continue]
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In April 1971, Judge Robert Mehrige, Jr. ordered an extensive busing program in Richmond. The result was further white flight
to private schools and to the suburbs. [continue]
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Although integrating the nation's schools was the first priority of the civil rights movement, the denial of equal access to public accommodations affected all blacks. [continue]
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The most violent episode of the civil rights movement in Virginia occurred in Danville during the summer of 1963. [continue]
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In Virginia, the influx of black voters moved the Democratic Party well to the left of where it had been throughout most of the 20th century. [continue]
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As the civil rights movement gained ground, removing the stigma of inferiority not only in schools but throughout society, black pride increased. [continue]
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The civil rights movement did not achieve complete equality, but greater equality. [continue]
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