A Study in Black and White:
The Desegregation of Norview High School
 
 
On February 2, 1959, Americans anxiously watched seven Black students integrate Norview High School in Norfolk, Virginia. Half a year had passed since Governor Lindsay J. Almond Jr. closed Norview and five other all-White schools in the city to avoid integration. Although Almonds efforts failed, there was a heightened sense of anticipation surrounding integration in Norfolk because the public feared a return to the violence that had plagued Little Rock, Arkansas two years earlier. Local and national news reporters, however, assured the nation that the students at Norview “went through the opening day formalities without incident.” Even President Dwight Eisenhower publicly applauded Norview and the other all-White schools in Norfolk for conducting an “orderly” integration process. However, the media coverage missed the most obvious points: Norfolk’s schools had been shut down for a half a year, racism was intense, and the seven students at Norview had little chance of being accepted. The integration of Norview High School was a halfhearted effort to comply with federal edicts to integrate Norfolk Public Schools. Using a flawed policy that evolved from Virginia’s failed massive resistance efforts, officials in Norfolk initiated a token desegregation policy designed to alienate Black students in an effort to persuade them to voluntarily return to the segregated Booker T. Washington High School.