Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County | |
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Court membership | |
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Case opinion | |
Majority | Warren, joined by unanimous |
Laws applied | |
United States Constitution, Amendment XIV |
Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Docket number: Civ. A. No. 1333;
Background
R.R. Moton High School, an all-black high school in Farmville, Virginia, founded in 1923, suffered from terrible conditions due to underfunding. The school did not have a gymnasium, cafeteria or teachers' restrooms. Teachers and students did not have desks or blackboards, and due to overcrowding, some students had to take classes in an immobilized, decrepit school bus parked outside the main school building. The school's requests for additional funds were denied by the all-white school board.
In response, on April 23, 1951, a 16-year-old student named Barbara Rose Johns, who was the niece of Vernon Johns, the famous black Baptist preacher and civil rights leader, covertly organized a student general strike. She forged notes to teachers telling them to bring their students to the auditorium for a special announcement. When the school's students showed up, Johns took the stage and persuaded the school to strike to protest poor school conditions. Over 450 walked out and marched to the homes of members of the school board, who refused to see them and instead threatened them with expulsions.[1] This led to a two-week protest from students.
Further details about this story can be found in Taylor Branch's Parting The Waters, America In The King Years 1954-63, published by Simon and Schuster in 1988. This book mentions that the headmaster was told over the phone that the police were about to arrest two of his students at the bus station. He failed to recognize this call as a ruse, so he went to town. Only thereafter were notes calling to a special assembly delivered to the classroom. When the headmaster returned, he tried to talk the students out of striking, but they refused.[1][2]
This book also gives a different account of the teaching conditions. It states that some classes were held in "three temporary tar-paper shacks" built to house the overflow at the school. It was so cold during the winter that teachers and students had to keep their coats on. No classes held in a school bus are mentioned, although the school's bus is said to be hand-me-down from the white school, and was driven by the history teacher.[2]
The Trials
On May 23, 1951, two lawyers from the
The students' request was unanimously rejected by a three-judge panel of the
The Aftermath
The ruling was extremely unpopular among white Virginians and a considerable number of them attempted to resist integration through every means possible, during a period known as
In 2008, the case and the protest which led to it were memorialized on the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol in the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial.
See also
- Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County
- List of landmark African-American court cases
- Stanley Plan
Further reading
References
- ^ a b "Civil Rights Movement History & Timeline, 1951-1953". www.crmvet.org. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- ^ OCLC 18383661.
- ^ a b c "Davis v. County School Board - Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- ^ a b "Photographs from the Dorothy Davis Case". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- ^ "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka | Definition, Facts, & Significance". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved September 21, 2020.