Story of Virginia Teachers Guide

BECOMING EQUAL
I
p
l
An unidentified protester on Richmond’s Broad Street (Courtesy of The Richmond Times-Dispatch)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
BECOMING EQUAL
The two world wars of the 20th century drew attention to the paradox
of fighting for democracy abroad while denying equal rights at home.
World War I gave impetus to the women’s suffrage movement, and World
War II gave rise to the civil rights movement. However, the political oli­
garchy that governed Virginia, and the narrow electorate on which its
power rested, resisted change both in regard to women’s suffrage and
black rights. At the same time, the massive migration of African
Americans to northern cities during and between the world wars forced
racial issues onto the national scene. In Virginia, blacks and women
secured their voting rights and officially sanctioned segregation by race
was abolished. But, the struggle for full social acceptance and economic
opportunity continued.
STANDARDS OF LEARNING
VS.1,VS.9,VS.10, US11.1, US11.3, US11.4, US11.5, US11.6,
US11.7, US11.8, CE.1, CE.3, CE.5, CE.8, VUS.1, VUS.6,
VUS.7, VUS.8, VUS.9, VUS.10, VUS.11, VUS.12, VUS.13,
VUS.14, GOVT.1, GOVT.3, GOVT.6, GOVT.11, GOVT.14
KEY POINTS
• Virginia women gained the vote in 1920 by the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
• The 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which included a Virginia
lawsuit, declared that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’
has no place.” The decision sounded the death knell for the legal framework of second-class
citizenship for African Americans.
• African Americans won isolated victories for equal access to public accommodations in the
1940s, but it was the student lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960s that were a major catalyst
for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.This act gave all citizens equal access to theaters, restau­
rants, hotels, washrooms, and drinking fountains.
• The Twenty-fourth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed poll taxes, lit­
eracy tests, and other devices used to prevent blacks from registering to vote. As a result,
black Virginians won control of city councils, elected the first black congressman from
Virginia since 1890, and gave the nation its first elected black governor.
BECOMING EQUAL • 111
WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE
Women gained the right to vote in 1920 through the
Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Virginia did not ratify the amendment until 1952.
Orra Gray Langhorne of Lynchburg organized a
Virginia Suffrage Association in 1893, but the serious
push for voting rights for women came from the Equal
Suffrage League of Virginia from 1909 to 1920. The
league met heavy opposition. Men feared that politics
would degrade women more than female participa­
tion would elevate politics. Virginia women were
deeply divided over the issue, and politicians were
never convinced that most women wanted to vote.
There were also fears that female suffrage meant
enfranchising black women, thus endangering white
supremacy.
Despite social pressure to stay at home, 42 percent of
Virginia women in 1970 held jobs for low wages.After
1970, the number of working women grew rapidly,
and the gender gap in earning began to slowly close.
This decade marked the beginning of continuous pres­
sure for gender equality.
Equal Suffrage float for a parade
112 • BECOMING EQUAL
In the Classroom
The Nineteenth Amendment
The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution was a federal action. Before the amendment was
ratified, the states listed below had already extended suffrage rights to women. Find them on the
map.What trends do you notice? Compare this with the section on women in Becoming Virginians.
Research the suffrage movement for women in such other countries as England, Denmark, or India.
1869 - Wyoming Territory
1914 - Montana, Nevada
1893 - Colorado
1917 - New York, Nebraska,* North 1896 - Utah, Idaho
Dakota,* Rhode Island,*
1910 - Washington
Arkansas**
1911 - California
1912 - Arizona, Kansas, Oregon
1913 - Alaska Territory, Illinois*
1918 - Michigan, Oklahoma, South
Dakota,Texas**
1919 - Indiana,* Iowa,* Minnesota,*
Missouri,* Ohio,* Tennessee,*
Wisconsin*
1952 - Virginia
* voting in presidential elections only
** voting in primaries only
BECOMING EQUAL • 113
CIVIL RIGHTS
In Plessy v. Ferguson, the doctrine of “separate
but equal” was upheld by the United States
Supreme Court in 1896. This system of seg­
regation requiring separate schools, parks,
hospitals, and transportation led to a host of
state laws known collectively as “Jim Crow.”
The early 1900s saw the emergence of many
organizations formed to push for civil rights.
W. E. B. Du Bois organized int Niagara
Movement in 1905 and was a co-founding
member of the NAACP in 1909. During this
time period of racism and economic distress,
many African Americans left Virginia and the
South to seek jobs in northern cities. The
civil rights movement gained strength after
World War II. Although the movement had
failures along the way, it led to a far more just
and promising society.
Historian Carter G. Woodson was called “The Father of Negro History.” A native
of Buckingham County, Woodson was the second African American to receive a
Ph.D. in history. He edited the Journal of Negro History and wrote numerous
books documenting the black experience in America, including A Century of
Negro Migration.
Black agricultural workers, like these peanut pickers in Isle of Wight County, faced tremendous hardships in post Civil War Virginia.
114 • BECOMING EQUAL
Right: Maggie Lena Walker, of Richmond, was the first
female bank president in the United States. She worked
to secure female suffrage and helped establish the Vir­
ginia Lily-Black Republican Party.The historical themes
of race, class, and gender can be explored through the
life of Maggie Walker. As an African American, she faced
different challenges and adversities from those of white
suffragists. As a woman, she faced business difficulties
not experienced by editor John Mitchell, Jr., or Booker T.
Washington.
Left: In this c. 1899 photograph, John
Mitchell, Jr., is shown among the people
posed at the office of his newspaper The
Planet in Richmond. (Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division, Reproduction
no. LC-USZ62-118032)
Right: Booker T. Washington was born a slave in
Franklin County, and was educated at Hampton
Institute, 1872–75. During the late nineteenth century
he was the principal black spokesman on race and
argued that blacks should focus on assuming a produc­
tive place in society rather than agitating for immediate
social equality. Other African Americans took a more
confrontational approach to race relations.
Critical Thinking
Booker T.Washington
Booker T.Washington has been criticized for emphasizing black education and economic gains
as opposed to social equality. He has also been maligned for working with whites in power
instead of challenging them. Was this the correct decision during his lifetime?
BECOMING EQUAL • 115
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
In 1954, the Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, struck down legal segregation
in public schools.This decision consolidated five lawsuits and included a case from Prince Edward
County,Virginia. Black students at Moton High School engaged in a boycott of their school under
the leadership of a sixteen-year-old girl, Barbara Johns. These students were represented by
Richmond civil rights lawyers Oliver Hill and Spottswood Robinson of the NAACP.
The response of the leadership
of Virginia to the 1954 decision
was called massive resistance.
A 1951 student boycott at the Robert Russa Moton High School led to
Senator Harry Byrd and
one of five lawsuits involved in the 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown v.
Governor Lindsay Almond led a
Board of Education (National Archives, Mid Atlantic Region, Philadelphia)
political movement to close
those schools being forced to
integrate. This took place in
1958–59 and included schools in
Norfolk, Alexandria, and Char­
lottesville. In Prince Edward
County, the local government
took the additional step of cut­
ting taxes to eliminate funding
for public schools. From 1959
to1964 all public schools were
closed in this county. However,
tax money was used to provide
vouchers for white students to attend a new private school while most black students were left
without educational options. Although Virginia’s massive resistance to the court order failed,
housing patterns and white flight to suburbs accomplished some of the same aims.
In the Classroom
Political Cartoons
This editorial cartoon by Fred Seibel appeared in
the Richmond Times-Dispatch on September 2,
1958. Identify the symbols in the cartoon, then
discuss the conflict between federal and state
authority.What is the constitutional basis for fed­
eral action? What is the constitutional basis for
Virginia’s defiance?
(Courtesy of The Richmond Times-Dispatch)
116 • BECOMING EQUAL
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN VIRGINIA & THE CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT IN AMERICA: A PARTIAL TIMELINE, 1951–68
4/23/51
Black student strike to protest inferior facilities at Prince Edward County’s Moton High School.
5/23/51
The NAACP files suit seeking to desegregate Prince Edward County schools.This case, Davis v.
County School Board, works its way through the court system with four other desegregation cases.
The five cases are collectively known by the title of the Kansas suit, Brown v. Board of Education.
5/17/54
The U.S. Supreme Court issues its Brown decree, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.
8/28/54
Virginia governor Thomas B. Stanley appoints the Gray Commission to study the school segrega­
tion issue.
5/31/55
In a second Brown decision, the U.S. Supreme Court orders schools to desegregate “with all deliber­
ate speed.”
8/28/55
Emmett Till murdered in Money, Mississippi.
11/12/55
The Gray Commission recommends the creation of a state pupil placement board to assign students
to schools. It also calls for amending the state constitution to provide tuition grants so students in
integrated schools may attend private schools.The plan, informally called the “local option plan,” is an
attempt to limit integration, but recognizes that some integration will occur.
12/1/55
Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.
The bus boycott begins shortly thereafter.
1/9/56
In a constitutional referendum,Virginians vote two to one to amend the constitution to allow tuition
grants.
2/56
Virginia’s General Assembly adopts a resolution of interposition, proclaiming the right of a state to
prevent the implementation of a Supreme Court decree. Although the resolution has no legal effect,
it signals a shift from an acceptance of limited integration to massive resistance.
7/31/56
Judge Albert Bryan orders the desegregation of Arlington schools to begin in January 1957. His
order is stayed pending appeal.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., offers encouragement to
students in Prince Edward County in 1960. (Courtesy
of Virginia Union University)
BECOMING EQUAL • 117
8/7/56
Judge John Paul orders the desegregation of Charlottesville schools to begin in September 1956. His
order is stayed pending appeal.
8/22/56
The Gray Commission repudiates its own recommendations and endorses massive resistance by a
nineteen to twelve vote.
9/1956
In a special session, the General Assembly enacts massive resistance laws, giving the governor the
authority to close schools under court order to integrate.
11/13/56
The Supreme Court bans segregated seating on Montgomery buses.
2/12/57
Judge Julius Hoffman orders the desegregation of Norfolk schools to begin in September 1957.
8/29/57
Congress passes its first civil rights act since Reconstruction.
9/24/57
President Dwight Eisenhower orders federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the desegre­
gation of Central High School.
8/4/58
Judge Sterling Hutcheson grants Prince Edward seven years to carry out its desegregation order.
9/12/58
Faced with court orders to desegregate, Governor J. Lindsay Almond closes white schools in Warren
County and two schools in Charlottesville.
9/27/58
Governor Almond closes six schools in Norfolk.
1/12/59
Norfolk city council adopts a resolution to close black secondary schools, but the law is never put
into effect.
1/19/59
U.S. Supreme Court and Virginia Supreme Court strike down massive resistance laws.
2/2/59
A handful of black students enter previously all-white schools in Arlington and Norfolk.
6/2/59
The U. S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses Judge Hutcheson and orders the immediate
desegregation of Prince Edward Schools.The school board announces it intention to appropriate no
money for public schools.
9/14/59
A private school for white students, Prince Edward Academy, opens. Public schools in the county
close and stay closed for five years.
2/1/60
Black students stage sit-in at lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
12/5/60
U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation in bus terminals.
5/14/61
Freedom Riders attacked in Alabama.
4/1/62
Civil Rights groups launch voter registration drive.
9/30/62
Riots erupt when James Meredith, a black student, enrolls at the University of Mississippi.
6/11/63
Alabama governor George Wallace stands “in the schoolhouse door” to prevent integration of the
University of Alabama.
6/12/63
Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated in Mississippi.
8/28/63
Before a crowd of 250,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., gives his
“I Have a Dream” speech.
9/15/63
Four black children are killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,
Alabama.
1/23/64
Poll tax outlawed in federal elections.
118 • BECOMING EQUAL
6/20/64
Freedom Summer brings 1,000 civil rights volunteers to Mississippi.
6/21/64
Civil Rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner abducted and slain by
Ku Klux Klan in Neshoba County, Mississippi.
7/2/64
President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964
3/765
State troopers beat back marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
3/25/65
Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery completed.Viola Gregg Liuzzo killed by KKK.
7/9/65
Congress passes Voting Rights Act
10/2/67
Thurgood Marshall sworn in as first black Supreme Court justice.
4/4/68
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,. assassinated in Memphis,Tennessee.
EQUAL ACCESS TO PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS
In 1946, the United States Supreme Court overturned a 1930 Virginia law requiring segregation
on bus travel between states. In 1949 President Harry S Truman desegrated the armed forces by
executive order. It took the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end segregated restaurants, bath­
rooms, water fountains, hotels, and theaters. Student sit-ins at restaurants and lunch counters
helped force this issue to national attention.
A sit-in at a Richmond lunch counter (Courtesy of the Valentine Richmond History Center)
In the Museum
Segregation
Find the lunch counter.What does it symbolize? Write a short paragraph about how you might feel
if you were denied the right to sit in a fast food restaurant.
BECOMING EQUAL • 119
VOTING RIGHTS
In 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the
United States Constitution banned the poll tax in
federal elections. In 1966 the United States
Supreme Court struck down the Virginia poll tax
the since 1902 had been used to disfranchise blacks
and poor whites. The federal Voting Rights Act of
1965 banned literacy tests and provided federal reg­
istrars to enroll black voters in southern states. As
a result black political power grew across the South
and in Virginia. In 1969 L. Douglas Wilder became
the first black state senator of the twentieth centu­ In 1947, in Richmond’s predominantly black Jackson Ward, Calvin
ry. Twenty years later he became the first black Hopkins, Lester Banks, and Puss Owens worked hard to overcome
elected governor in any state. In 1992, Robert C. the poll tax’s discouragement of black voting. (Courtesy of Virginia
Scott became the first Virginian of African descent Union University)
elected to Congress since John Mercer Langston in 1890.
LAWRENCE DOUGLAS WILDER
(B. 1931)
Lawrence Douglas Wilder was born January 17, 1931 in Richmond.The grandson of slaves, he was named after abolitionist ora­
tor Frederick Douglass and poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Wilder attended Richmond’s racially segregated public schools—
George Mason Elementary and Armstrong High School. In 1951 he
graduated from Virginia Union University with a degree in chemistry.While serving in the army during the Korean War, he won the
Bronze Star for heroism in combat. After the war,Wilder returned
to Richmond and worked as a chemist in the state medical exam­
iners office. Using the benefits provided under the G.I. Bill of
Rights, he studied law at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
He received his degree in 1959 and after passing the bar examina­ In 1969, Lawrence Douglas Wilder was elect­
tions in Virginia established his own law firm, Wilder, Gregory, and ed as the first African American senator in
Virginia since Reconstruction.
Associates.
In 1969 Wilder entered politics, running in a special election for the Virginia state senate. He
became the first African American state senator in Virginia since Reconstruction.Wilder spent ten
years in the General Assembly and was recognized as one of its most effective legislators.
In 1985 Wilder was elected lieutenant governor. Four years later he was elected Virginia’s sixtysixth governor. He is still the only elected African American governor in United States history.
During his administration,Wilder was praised for his sound fiscal management and his ability to
balance the state budget during difficult economic times. He sponsored new construction proj­
ects at many of the Virginia colleges and universities, mental health facilities, and state parks.
After leaving the governorship, Wilder returned to private life but remained active in public
affairs. In 2004 L. Douglas Wilder was elected mayor of the city of Richmond.
120 • BECOMING EQUAL
Primary Source
“Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office,” Virginia Constitution of 1902
Sec. 20. After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and four, every male citizen of the United States,
having qualifications of age and residence required in section Eighteen, shall be entitled to register, provided:
First. That he has personally paid to the proper officer all state poll taxes assessed or assessable against him,
under this or the former constitution, for the three years next preceding that in which he offers to register;
or, if he has come of age at such a time that no poll tax shall have been assessable against him for the year
preceding the year in which he offers to register, has paid one dollar and fifty cents, in satisfaction of the
first year's poll tax assessable against him; and
Second. That, unless physically unable, he make application to register in his own hand-writing, without aid,
suggestion, or memorandum, in the presence of the registration officer, stating therein his name, age, date
and place of birth, residence and occupation at the time and for two years next preceding, and whether he
has previously voted, and if so, the state, county, and precinct in which he voted last; and
Third. That he answer on oath any and all questions affecting his qualifications as an elector, submitted to
him by the officers of registration, which questions, and his answers thereto, shall be reduced to writing,
certified by the said officers, and preserved as a part of their official records.
In the Classroom
Under the suffrage provisions of the Virginia Constitution of 1902, the number of black voters
declined by about 90 percent.The constitution created a permanent roll of voters, mostly
Confederate veterans and their sons, and a temporary roll.The requirements for the temporary roll
included both a poll tax and an “understanding clause.” Read the requirements reproduced in the
primary source above. How did they restrict suffrage? How might local registrars apply these
requirements unevenly?
Activities & Questions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Interview women from different generations. Include in your sample women born in the 1930s,
1950s, and 1970s. Ask them about their lives: their attitudes toward family and work outside the
home. How do their answers differ? How are they similar? What do they feel were their most
important contributions to society?
Research the 1890s.Why has the decade been called the nadir of the black experience in
America? Make a timeline of events in African American history from 1880 to 1920.Why was
the 1890s considered a low point?
Research Booker T.Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Compare these two men. How are they
similar? How do they differ?
Trace the legal history of school desegregation from Plessy v. Ferguson through Brown v. Board of
Education. How did the NAACP strategy change from the 1930s through the 1950s?
How did schools in your locality respond to desegregation? Interview teachers and parents
who remember massive resistance.What were their reactions to integration then and today?
Examine voting returns in Virginia.What percentage of eligible voters cast ballots? Compare this
figure with voter turnout in other countries.Why is participation in Virginia and America so
low? What do you suggest to make clear the importance of voting in a democracy?
BECOMING EQUAL • 121
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND BASEBALL
In the mid-1880s, baseball was called “town­
ball” and was played with few rules. During the
Civil War, letters and diaries reveal that base­
ball was played by teams of prisoners or by sol­
diers waiting to be called into battle. As com­
petitive baseball teams were formed, standard
rules slowly evolved. The National Association
of Base Ball Players was organized to regulate
play and schedule competition between teams.
As early as 1867, there were teams of white
Americans and teams of black Americans.
In 1872, “Bud” Fowler, an African American,
played on a white minor league team in
Pennsylvania. In 1884, two brothers, Welday
and Moses Fleetwood Walker, played for
Toledo, Ohio in the American Association and
became the first African Americans to compete
in the major leagues.When Toledo was sched­
uled to play in Richmond, letters were sent to
the Toledo manager threatening violence if
Walker played with the team.The situation was
resolved when Walker was injured and
released from the team before it arrived in
Richmond.
Although several other African Americans
played on white teams, sentiment was growing
against this practice. In 1887, the International
League agreed to “approve no more contracts
of colored men.” Welday and Fleet Walker’s
contracts with Toledo were not renewed in
1889, ending the participation of African
American players in white baseball leagues for
more than fifty years.
In the meantime, African American players
began to form teams of their own. An attempt
to form a league with both African American
and white teams lasted less than full season in
1906. Traveling teams of black players played
both white and black teams. In 1921, the com­
missioner of baseball barred interracial play,
partly to avoid the embarrassment of white
teams being defeated by African American
teams.
122 • BECOMING EQUAL
In 1920, the Negro National League was formed in Kansas City, Missouri.The league was success­
ful, and a second league was organized in 1923. Several “colored World Series” were held dur­
ing the next few years. From 1932 to 1946, Negro League baseball experienced its longest peri­
od of success.A number of outstanding players emerged such as the great pitcher, Satchel Paige,
and Raymond Emmett “Dandy” Dandridge, from Richmond. “Dandy,” called the “best third base­
man never to play in the major leagues,” had a lifetime batting average of .355 and was elected
to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987.
The most popular Negro League events were the all-star games called the East-West Classics.
These events drew both black and white supporters.White baseball executives began to look at
outstanding African American players as a way of attracting new fans and improving finances. In
1944, the new commissioner, A. B. “Happy” Chandler, let it be known that he would not oppose
black players on major league teams. In 1946, Jackie Robinson, a former Negro League star, was
signed by the Brooklyn Dodger organization and played with the team’s Montreal affiliate. In 1947
Robinson joined the Dodgers as the first African American player in the major leagues since
Moses Fleetwood Walker. Other teams soon contracted with such black players as Larry Doby,
who played for the Cleveland Indians. Opposition to the mixing of races remained strong in
Virginia and in the South. During Robinson’s tenure with the Montreal Royals, the team was
scheduled to play an exhibition game in Richmond. The owner of the all-white Richmond Colts
canceled the game rather than have Robinson take the field against white players. Four years later,
Danville became the first Virginia city to have an integrated professional baseball team when it
signed the outfielder Perry Miller. In 1953, two African American players, Garnett Blair and Whit
Graves, broke the color barrier by joining the Richmond Colts, but segregated seating at the base­
ball park in Richmond continued for another decade.
In 1959, the last all-white major league team, the Boston Red Sox, signed a contract with Elijah
Green, and all major league teams were integrated. This brought about the end of the Negro
Leagues. Even though their numbers were small, the former Negro League players won many
honors. Younger men who first integrated the major leagues such as Roy Campanella,Willie Mays,
and Hank Aaron became outstanding players. In recognization of the accomplishments of African
Americans in baseball, Satchel Paige and ten others who played in the Negro League have been
inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame—the highest honor of this sport.
In the Classroom
African Americans in Baseball
Students can often grasp an abstract concept such as “civil rights” more easily if these concepts are
expressed in more concrete terms.When we combine a popular interest, such as baseball, with the
history of segregation and civil rights, learning appears to be easier. A study of the history of African
Americans in baseball can provide a vehicle for developing an understanding of civil rights as well as
an overview of African American contributions to the game of baseball. Have the students review
the history of baseball and then study the following information.The timeline comparing baseball
and civil rights offers the opportunity to research some of the historical terms involving segregation,
discrimination, and racial equality.
BECOMING EQUAL • 123
African Americans in Baseball
Civil Rights Events
1842
Organized teams in baseball begin in New
York City.
1840s The issue of slavery continues to grow.
1867
First Negro teams formed.
Cincinnati Red Stockings refused admis­
sion to the National Assoc. of Base Ball
Players.
1884
Richmonders threaten violence if
Fleetwood Walker plays in a scheduled
game.
Color line established in baseball.
1900
Negro baseball teams continue to devel­
op—playing each other and sometimes
white teams.
1865
Civil War ends. Slavery ends.
1868
Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S.
Constitution ratified.
1875
Civil Rights Act guarantees certain rights
to former slaves.
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the Supreme
Court—“separate but equal” approved.
1900– Jim Crow begins.
1920
Interracial play banned.
1933
Ray Dandridge of Richmond begins his
career in the Negro Leagues.
Montreal Royals game in Richmond can­
celed because of the presence of Jackie
Robinson.
1947
Jackie Robinson begins play for the
Brooklyn Dodgers.
1950
Danville is the first Virginia team to be
integrated.
1953
Richmond Colts integrate.
1960
Negro Leagues close—many players
signed by Major League teams.
124 • BECOMING EQUAL
1941
World War II—many black soldiers serve
in the armed forces.
1945
Soldiers return home to continued segre­
gation.
1954 Brown v. Board of Education—decision
makes segregation in schools illegal.
Virginia leaders choose massive resistance
approach to avoid integration.
1964
Congress passes Civil Rights Bill, ending
many forms of segregation.