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Barbara Johns, a student at Moton High School, phoned


Hill on April 23, 1951. She had organized a student strike to protest the horrible conditions under which black students were expected to learn—tar shack buildings that lacked reli- able heating, desks, blackboards, gym, and cafeteria. “I said, ‘Well, you know, we just fi led a suit down in


Clarendon County, S.C., and we don’t need but one suit to prove a point.’ But she was so persistent.”13 Hill took Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward


County to the U.S. Supreme Court, successfully arguing that segregation was a violation of the 14th Amendment. However, no one expected the extent of the backlash


or the resolve of the segregationists who championed the Southern Manifesto, a document drafted by southern congressmen urging people to defy the Brown decision. In Virginia, it was led by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd and came to be known as “Massive Resistance.” In 1956, the Byrd-machine-dominated Virginia General Assembly passed a series of laws known as the Stanley plan.


humiliated. A landmark case initiated by Hill’s law fi rm, Charles C. Green et al. v. County School Board of New Kent County, Virginia, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, helped put a stop to the Stanley plan. “We always had to fi ght to keep the movement going


against massive resistance,” Hill said in later years. “[But] there never was a time, right to the present day, when there has been an enthusiastic eff ort to bring about desegregation.”14 Today, in fact, many public schools in Virginia are


mainly all-black or all-white, says Ford, the Norfolk State history professor. “Racial prejudice certainly has decreased since the ’50s and


’60s, especially among children,” Ford says. “T e irony though is that they are increasingly segregated by race and class.” While things aren’t perfect, legalized Jim Crow is history


and Hill’s life provides a lesson that Hill Jr. compares to David versus Goliath, how “a few individuals with a com- mitment and an eye to what is right can make a diff erence.”


“ OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SAYS WE ARE ALL CREATED WITH RIGHTS TO LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. I AGREE WITH THE LIFE AND THE LIBERTY. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS OUGHT TO INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO BE TAUGHT AND TRAINED, TO BE ABLE TO DO SOME- THING CONSTRUCTIVE, TO MOVE TOWARD A CIVILIZED SOCIETY. THAT’S WHAT I BELIEVE IN.” — OLIVER W. HILL SR.


Among its provisions were the prohibition of state funding to any integrated school and the authorization of the governor to close any integrated school. T ese measures were comple- mented by the ambiguous U.S. Supreme Court directive that the decision of Brown v. Board of Education be implemented with “all deliberate speed.” As a result, some public schools like those in Prince Edward County were closed for nearly fi ve years, and black students who went to predominantly white schools were constantly harassed, assaulted, and


* Comments by Oliver Hill, Jr. and Charles Ford were taken from both personal interviews and from the public radio show, With Good Reason, produced by Sara McConnell.


1


Oliver W. Hill, The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education and Beyond, edited by Jonathan K. Stubbs, Winter Park, FL: Four-G Publishers, 2000: vii


2


Oliver W. Hill, The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education and Beyond,


MCCA.COM


Jonesboro, AR: GrantHouse Publishers, 2007: xiii 3 Hill, Op. cit., 2000: 3 4 Ibid: 3


5 6


Julian Bond, “Interview with Oliver W. Hill,” Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2004: < http://www.vqronline.org/ articles/2004/winter/bond-interview- oliver/ > Ibid.


7 Bond, Op. cit. 8 Hill, Op. cit., 2000: 76 9 As for his own legacy, Hill Sr., said this: “Our


Declaration of Independence says we are all created with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I agree with the life and the liberty. T e pursuit of happiness ought to include the right to be taught and trained, to be able to do something constructive, to move toward a civilized society. T at’s what I believe in.”15 D&B


Tom Calarco is a freelance writer based in Altamonte Springs, Fla. Hill, Op. cit., 2000: 186


10 Ibid.: 186-7 11


The 14th Amendment states that: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The 15th Amendment states that:


The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.


12 13


Sarah McConnell, “Massive Resistance in Virginia,” With Good Reason, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Radio, Sept. 20, 2008. Ibid.


14 Bond, Op. cit. 15


Ibid. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®


31


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