Norfolk 17 Honored During Norfolk NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner

NORFOLK

The Norfolk NAACP held its 66th Annual Life Membership & Freedom Fund Dinner on Saturday November 8, 2025 at the Doubletree Hotel, with keynote remarks from Rev. Dr. Kirk Houston, Senior Pastor, Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church in Norfolk.

The event paid tribute to the city’s legendary Norfolk 17, the African-American youth who on February 2, 1959 desegregated the Norfolk Public Schools. In so doing, they became history makers, joining young pioneers across the nation who helped change the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation.

There are seven surviving members of the Norfolk 17. Four were in attendance along with representation from the families of several members who are deceased. Present were Dr. Delores Johnson Brown (Norview High); Geraldine Talley Hobby (Northside Junior High); Lolita Portis-Jones (Blair Junior High);  and Dr. Patricia Turner (Norview High). Not present were Alveraze Frederick Gonsouland (Norview High); Edward Jordan (Norview Junior High); and Carol Wellington (Norview High).

The 10 deceased members of the Norfolk 17 were remembered and memorialized: LaVera Forbes Brown (Norview High); Louis Cousins (Maury High); Andrew Heidelberg (Norview High); Olivia Driver Lindsay (Norview High); Betty Jean Reed Kea (Granby High); Johnnie Rouse (Norview High); James “Skip” Turner Jr. (Norview Junior High); Claudia Wellington (Norview High); Patricia Godbolt White (Norview High); and Reginald Young (Blair Junior High).