Kirjahaku

Two movements make the 1950s in Norfolk, Virginia so remarkable: the voracious local attack upon urban blight, and the ferocious state resistance to desegregation in its public schools.One of the first cities in the United States to initiate large-scale postwar redevelopment efforts, Norfolk was also a chief battleground in Virginia for court-ordered school desegregation. Norfolk native Forrest R. "Hap" White shows how Norfolk, and other Southern cities, used the powers of redevelopment and city planning to not only reshape the aging Southern port city for the twentieth century, but also to resist and delay social progress, and specifically the public school desegregation ordered by the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education. There are heroes, too. Forces for progress, including many private citizens both black and white, the "Norfolk 17," the N.A.A.C.P., the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, the federal courts system, and the U.S. Navy, fought to eventually reverse the Massive Resistance school closings that were Virginia's response to Brown.

Two events make the history of Norfolk in the 1950s remarkable: the voracity of its attack upon urban blight, and the ferocity of its resistance to school desegregation. One of the first cities in the nation to initiate large-scale redevelopment efforts, Norfolk was the chief battleground for court-ordered school desegregation. The author shows how Southern cities used their powers of redevelopment, city planning, and school administration to resist and delay school desegregation. He notes that this occurred in three distinct phases. These findings present a breakthrough in urban studies and school desegregation research. The author establishes that the history of school desegregation began much earlier than commonly thought, with almost a decade of planning, redevelopment, and urban renewal initiatives; and that school boards and administrators were only minor actors in a cast that included mayors, city councils, state legislators, planning commissioners, redevelopment authorities, and other public officials.