Black History

State Marker Memorializes Harrisonburg School Case

A new historical marker in Harrisonburg commemorates the bravery of Black families and Judge John Paul during Virginia’s Massive Resistance era, highlighting school desegregation victories that changed history.

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By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

On May 17, the resilience that a white federal judge and multiple Black families displayed during the 1950s Massive Resistance era came sharply into focus when a new historical marker was unveiled near the federal courthouse in Harrisonburg, a town that is located about an hour from Charlottesville and two hours from Richmond.

The historic marker plus three glaring facts suggest history has simply moved on. Fact No. 1 – the two former students who participated in the recent unveiling ceremony are now senior citizens, not children. Second, one of the desegregated schools originally named after Confederate Army Col. Charles S. Venable was renamed Trailblazer Elementary in honor of the Charlottesville 12 and their parents. This small group of Black students said they sometimes encountered spitballs after they walked through the doors of formerly all-White Venable Elementary and Lane High School in the 1950s.

The third fact that came sharply into focus at the recent unveiling ceremony was the gutsy judge. Federal Judge John Paul issued several historic desegregation court orders in Virginia in 1956 and 1958. He is deceased. However, he is not forgotten and warmly regarded by many.

Thanks to Paul’s historic court rulings in the 1950s, one of the students who participated in the recent unveiling ceremony, Charles “Alex Zan” Alexander, enrolled in first grade in 1959 at the all-white Venable Elementary. The other student, Betty Kilby began the seventh grade at all-white Warren County High School, which is located about an hour and a half from Charlottesville.

According to a press release from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the recent unveiling ceremony was led by retired District Judge John A. Paul, a nephew of the federal judge who issued the first court order in favor of the NAACP’s lawsuit against Charlottesville City Public Schools. Senator Tim Kaine’s wife, former Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton participated in the recent unveiling ceremony, as well as the Rev. Dr. Edward Scott, pastor of Allen Chapel AME in Staunton.

“We were some of the first Black children to attend schools in the all-white schools in the South,” Charles “Alex-Zan” Alexander of the Charlottesville 12, told CBS19 News, last year in a May 8, 2024 interview.

Alexander said, “The governor at that time, Governor (James) Almond would say he would lose his right arm before Black and white students would be in school together.”

“A lot of people behind the scene really sacrificed, made a commitment to make the community and the world just a better place,” Alexander explained.

Judge Paul’s rulings made headlines. They were cited in Edward R. Murrow’s national TV documentary titled “The Lost Class of ‘59” which aimed a spotlight on Norfolk’s situation.

“Paul’s gavel would fall on other cases – and each time he ordered integration,” noted a Cardinal News report on Dec. 27, 2024. “He ordered the integration of schools in Warren County and Grayson County. He was on the three-judge panel that ordered the University of Virginia to integrate its graduate schools. When the Charlottesville case came back before him – because the city still hadn’t complied – Paul made it clear the city would comply.”

In 2011, a historic marker was dedicated in Front Royal, Va. in Warren County by 23 Black students who also were instrumental in school desegregation cases in that area.

Now, cars zip past both of these markers that are mounted on sturdy poles near well-tended roads.

Although Virginia Gov. J. Lindsay Almond closed the schools that were slated to admit the Black student plaintiffs from the two cases, in 1959 the Virginia Supreme Court and a special federal court declared the school closures unconstitutional.

“It is etched in my mind forever,” said Betty Kilby, who recalled the era from her home in Birmingham, Ala.

As the Virginia Supreme Court weighed the legality of those laws, Warren County High School remained closed. After raising enough money, the Kilby children attended high school in Washington, D.C., until the case was settled.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved the manufacture and installation of the Resilience Amid Resistance marker in September 2024, according to a press release. The marker’s sponsor, Rocktown History, covered its manufacturing cost.