Passes in Baltimore: Betty Jean Reed Kea Helped To Desegregate Norfolk Public Schools

New Journal and Guide Staff

There are seven surviving members of the Norfolk 17 among us now.

Betty Jean Reed Kea, one of the Norfolk 17, the first group of Black students to desegregate six previously all-white schools in Norfolk, died May 13 in Baltimore, Md.

Reed Kea died four days before the observance of the Supreme Court’s May 17, 1954 decision that ended segregated schools, paving the way for Reed Kea and 16 other Norfolk youth to desegregate the Norfolk Public Schools on February 2, 1959. This action ushered their names into the history books of pioneers across the nation who changed the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation.

Reed Kea was the lone student to enter into Granby High School when Norfolk public schools were desegregated after a lengthy legal battle was waged by the city and state to avoid enforcing the law of the land. This included closing a number of the all-white schools in Norfolk, a collateral damage move that affected some 10,000 white students.

Sixteen other brave African-American students entered four other all-white schools, all on the same day.

Those schools were Maury High, Norview High, Blair Junior High and Norview Junior High,

After graduating from Granby, Reed Kea attended Virginia State College (now Virginia State University). There, she met her future husband, Henderson Kea, a music major, and they eventually married and settled in Baltimore.

Reed Kea became a teacher in the Baltimore City Public Schools, where she was known for her high expectations and encouraging approach that pushed her students to reach their full potential.

She raised one son, Kevin Kea, who fondly remembers his mother’s firm discipline and commitment to education, values that shaped his upbringing.

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Reed Kea later continued her education, earning a master’s degree and aspiring to become a principal. Her family grew to include her daughter-in-law, Angie, and her grandson, Nathan.

Betty Jean Reed Kea will be funeralized on May 30, 2025 in Maryland.

The seven surviving members of the Norfolk 17: Dr. Delores Johnson Brown (Norview High); Alveraze Frederick Gonsouland (Norview High); Geraldine Talley Hobby (Northside Junior High); Lolita Portis-Jones (Blair Junior High);  Edward Jordan (Norview Junior High); Dr. Patricia Turner (Norview High); Carol Wellington (Norview High).

The ten deceased members of the Norfolk 17: 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); Reginald Young (Blair Junior High).