Synopses & Reviews
In 1958, facing court-ordered integration, Virginia governor J.Lindsay Almond Jr. closed public schools in three cities, one of the first instancesof the massive resistance embraced by conservative southern politicians in thewake of Brown v. Board of Education. This action provoked not only the NAACP butalso large numbers of white middle-class Virginians who quickly organized to protestthe school closings. Confronted with the dilemma of accepting desegregation or theruination of public education, these white moderates finally coalesced into aformidable political coalition that defeated the massive resistance forces in1959.
September 1998 marks the fortiethanniversary of the public school closings. In The Moderates' Dilemma, Matthew D.Lassiter and Andrew B. Lewis have compiled six essays that explore this contentiousperiod in Virginia history. The moderate revolt against massive resistance helped tosave public schools and reshaped the political balance of power in the state, theeditors argue, but it also delayed substantial school desegregation, as moderateVirginians became reconciled to the end of Jim Crow out of self-interest rather thana deep commitment to the need for equal education opportunity forall.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-230) and index.